She wears a low-cut and impractical white dress, pinning her as the object of beauty - not a painter of beautiful objects. WhileManet depicts Gonzalès in the act of painting, it also reads as a conventional feminine portrait. E.G.” That same year, Gonzalès exhibited “ L’Enfant de Troupe” (1870) at the Salon, a work reminiscent of Manet’s “The Fife.” Her life-size portrait took a year (he couldn’t get her face quite right), and was eventually exhibited at the 1870 Paris Salon as “Portrait of Mlle. She then regularly went to Manet’s studio for the dual purpose of modeling and receiving instruction for her own work. However, he only ever depicted Eva Gonzalès, his sole formal student, with the tools of their shared trade. Gonzalès was a burgeoning artist when she first met Manet at age 20, at the home of Belgian painter Alfred Stevens. Édouard Manet, “Eva Gonzalès” (1870), oil on canvas, 191.1 x 133.4 cm (the National Gallery, London) Eva Gonzalès (1849–1883)Īs an active member of Parisian creative circles, Manet knew and painted portraits of contemporary female artists. (The two had met, in fact, at the Louvre when they were both copying paintings.) There are theories about a romantic infatuation between the two, but ultimately Morisot married Manet’s younger brother, Eugène, after which point Édouard never painted her again. Morisot was an accomplished professional artist who exhibited multiple times in the Paris Salon and in seven of the eight Impressionist exhibitions. The latter is considered one of Manet’s masterpieces, showcasing his fearless use of black (which was then being avoided by the Impressionists), even using black for the irises of the green-eyed Morisot. Instead, he painted her voyeuristically on a balcony (with Fanny Claus), reclining on bourgeois sofas, and intently gazing back as she does in “Berthe Morisot with a Bouquet of Violets” (1872). Manet painted Impressionist Berthe Morisot 11 times between 18 - more than his wife, or cherished model Victorine Meurent - but never as an artist. Édouard Manet, “Berthe Morisot with a Bouquet of Violets” (1872), oil on canvas, 55.5 x 40.5 cm ( via Wikimedia, Musée d’Orsay, Paris) Berthe Morisot (1841–1895) She would exhibit at the Salon three more times, including 1879, when her work hung in the same room as a Manet. By 1875 she was taking evening classes at a private art school, the Académie Julian, and the following year her self-portrait was accepted for exhibition at the illustrious Paris Salon. This salacious reputation has dominated Meurent’s legacy, who was an artist in her own right and exhibited multiple times in the Paris Salon.īorn to a working class family, Meurent modeled for artists such as Edgar Degas and Henri Toulouse-Lautrec to support herself in Paris. When “Luncheon on the Grass” was first exhibited at the 1863 Salon des Refusés, Meurent became scandalously known by name, which was unusual for models at the time. More famously, though, she was a woman who picnicked in the nude and a prostitute in the two works that permanently secured Manet’s notoriety in art history textbooks: “Luncheon on the Grass” (1862-63) and “Olympia” (1863). In the eight works that Manet painted of Victorine Meurent - his favorite model between 18 - she was a cherry-eater, a red-headed matador, a guitarist, and a nanny. ![]() Édouard Manet, “Le déjeuner sur l’herbe (Luncheon on the Grass)” (1863), oil on canvas, 207 x 265 cm ( via Wikimedia, Musée d’Orsay, Paris) Victorine Meurent (1844–1927) ![]() While Suzanne was arguably his most convenient model, Édouard only painted five of portraits of her, and frequently turned his brush on some of the other women in his life. The two had a discrete relationship for over a decade before Édouard finally married Suzanne in 1863, after the death of his father. Shortly after, Suzanne gave birth to a son who was raised as her younger brother (in order to avoid explaining the identity of his father), but is generally considered to be Édouard Manet’s son, although he never publicly acknowledged his paternity. The pair met in the early 1850s when the Manet family hired her, a Dutch pianist, as a music tutor. “In her slightest words, one felt the deep love she had for her charming enfant terrible of a husband.” “There was something very special about Mme Manet: the gift of kindness, simplicity, candor of spirit an unruffled serenity,” recalled Giuseppe de Nittis, an Italian Impressionist painter, of his friend’s wife. ![]() 1865-1873), oil on canvas, 61 x 73 cm ( via Wikimedia, Musée d’Orsay, Paris) Suzanne Leenhoff Manet (1830–1906)
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