Eva Gonzalès was French artist Édouard Manet’s only formal pupil as well as a successful artist and a regular exhibitor at the Salon herself. This portrait was started in the summer of 1869, finished in March 1870, and shown at the Salon the same year.
Manet had painted other artists, but this portrait is unusual in that it shows Gonzalès painting at her easel. That work on the easel, already finished and framed, is a copy after an etching by the Franco-Flemish flower painter Jean-Baptiste Monnoyer.
A half-rolled print carrying Manet’s signature lies on the floor, a reminder of his role as her teacher. Near it, on the floor, lies a white peony at the hem of the dress. Her pose, along with the white dress and the fluidity of the brushstrokes, recall 18th-century self portraits by women: showing themselves at their easels, dressed in beautiful, often white gowns.
Here, her flowing white dress fills the composition, its brightness heightened by the dark background so that it becomes a source of illumination in its own right. Of white cotton, it is actually a bodice and skirt, the former composed of a white corsage that finishes low on the back, overlaid with a transparent muslin formed into a square, low‐cut neck, trimmed with a ruffle of pleated fabric, and short puffed sleeves. The skirt is bordered with a fashionable flounce. At her waist is tied a black, possibly velvet, sash with fringed ends. White muslin dresses, with contrasting belts and transparent sleeves, were very fashionable in the 1860s.
Her hairstyle is similarly fashionable, with some hair piled up on top of her head, some tresses left flowing, and a couple of curls framing her forehead: a “coiffure à l’imperatrice,” popularized by Empress Eugénie.
Gonzalès sits on a faux bamboo chair with a rattan seat atop a floral‐patterned pale blue carpet. Resting against her chair is a portfolio on its side, its handles in cream paint. In her left hand, she holds her palette, three brushes and a mahlstick.
Eva Gonzalès by Édouard Manet (French) - Oil on canvas / 1870 - The National Gallery (London, UK) #WomenInArt #Art #ArtText #PortraitofaWoman #OilPainting #ÉdouardManet #EdouardManet #Manet #EvaGonzalès #EvaGonzales #TheNationalGallery #NationalGalleryofArt #artwork #womensart #FrenchArtist #painter
