This portrait captures the features of the daughter of the owner of the Père Lathuille restaurant in the Batignolles district of Paris, where Édouard Manet liked to meet his friends. In the same period, the painter illustrated a scene set in the restaurant's interior garden, The Garden of Père Lathuille (1879, Tournai, Museum of Fine Arts), one of the pieces which demonstrates his taste for scenes of modern life. Indeed, cafés were new places to socialise and a popular meeting place for artists, in particular in this newly-developed district of Paris nearby the Saint-Lazare railway station.

The young woman later stated that she had never posed for Manet. It would appear that the artist created basic sketches without her knowing, before working on her portrait in his studio. The simplicity of the composition, which sets the figure before a neutral background, highlights the painter's skill in interpreting the nuances of white in her dress and hat, both made from muslin. There is great freedom in the technique which reveals visible brushstrokes, as well as a lightness of touch and a frugality in the medium. Manet manages to create a transparent effect which hints at volume and substance. There is a somewhat melancholic air in the model's expression, which has been interpreted as a sign of a more modern approach to the female portrait, one which eschews seductive and ornamental elements.