Rosita Isabel Lunarda Mauri was a celebrated ballet dancer who worked primarily at the Paris Opera. She was painted by Manet in 1879, and in 1888 her patron and intimate friend Antonin Proust commissioned a portrait from Zorn. Zorn first executed his image of Mauri captured in the doorway of her dressing room in watercolour, and then translated it to etching, exhibiting the latter at the Salon of the French graphic arts