AN IMPRESSIONIST masterpiece is now on show in Southampton’s city art gallery.

Edouard Manet’s Portrait of Mademoiselle Claus will be on display at the gallery until July 22.

The work is an item of significant importance in both impressionism and 19th century art as a whole, and has been lent to the city collection by Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum.

The work, which remains unfinished, has only been publicly exhibited once in the past 100 years and is one of a mere handful of Manet works to have gone on show in the UK.

City council leisure boss Matt Tucker said: “On behalf of the Council I would like to thank the Ashmolean Museum for this unique opportunity.

“The Portrait of Mademoiselle Claus is a remarkable masterpiece and one rarely seen.”