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| Le Réveil (The Awakening) 1877 Kunsthalle, Bremen |
Eva Gonzalès's painting of a young woman awakening evokes an intimate, sensual atmosphere- not voyeuristic. It is one of her many portraits of her younger sister Jeanne. In recent times, Eva Gonzalès has been too much in the shadow of Manet, her mentor. This exhibition puts her in the spotlight; it is the fullest show of Gonzales's works since the retrospective of 1885, two years after her death aged only 36.
One of the star works in the exhibition is the scene at the theatre where a young woman is focusing on the stage in front of her, while the man's gaze is elsewhere:
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| Une loge aux Italiens (A box at the Italiens) ca 1878 Musée d'Orsay |
The above picture, portraying her sister Jeanne and Eva's future husband Henri Guérard, was refused at the 1874 Salon, because it was judged to be too much by the hand of Manet. Five years later it was accepted. Sadly Eva's career as an artist was short, since she died soon after giving birth to a son, who was raised by her sister and Henri. Jeanne and Henri married five years later but had no children. The little boy was brought up with a reverence for his mother's painting. Ironically, Eva had produced two fine pastels showing her sister wearing Eva's own wedding dress:
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| Une Mariée (A bride) 1879 pastel on canvas Prince of Monaco's Collection |
Eva Gonzalès's pastels are one of the revelations of this exhibition. She developed her own personal , very bold style:
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| La Femme en rose (Woman in pink) 1879 pastel on canvas Diane B. Wilsey Collection |
As for the son who lost his mother at two weeks old, there is a pastel portrait of him by a fellow artist, Norbert Goeneutte. He remained a close friend of Eva's husband after the death of his wife. Goeneutte himself died of tuberculosis aged only 40 and is buried in the same cemetery as Vincent Van Gogh. Eva's son has a serious expression:
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| Norbert Goeneutte: Portrait of Jean-Raimond Guérard ca 1886 pastel on paper Private Collection |
Jean-Raimond Guerard became a painter and theatre decorator, following in the footsteps of his parents.
To go back to the early career of Eva Gonzalès- she joined the studio of society portrait painter Charles Chaplin in 1866 (attended also by Mary Cassatt). Her first teacher was an aficionado of graceful 18th century portraits. The influence of such masters as Chardin and Watteau is apparent in her early work:
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| Les Deux Soeurs ou La Toilette (Two young sisters or La Toilette) ca 1866-8 Cathy Lasry Collection |
The setting is refined, with its 18th century furniture. Gonzalès was already a master of light and colour. The image echoes perhaps the closeness of Eva and her sister Jeanne. It was customary for women artists to paint elegant portraits and floral studies. Eva broke away after a year and followed her own star, becoming a pupil of Edouard Manet. They were introduced by Belgian painter Alfred Stevens. He painted a portrait of Eva at her piano:
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| Alfred Stevens (1823-1906): Eva Gonzalès at the piano 1879 Florida State University |
Eva's mother, who was a musician, obliged her to practise for three hours every day. Eva, despite her timidity, played for family and friends at their soirées. The harpist in the following painting is probably her mother:
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| Joueuse de harpe (Harp player) 1873-4 Prince of Monaco's Collection |
Céline Ragut, Eva's mother, held a literary and musical salon much sought after by the Parisian elite. Eva did the following pastel portrait of her mother dressed for a ball:
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| Portrait of Céline Ragut, artist's mother 1866-8 pastel FAMM (Femmes Artistes du Musée de Mougins) |
Eva and Jeanne's father Emmanuel Gonzalès, originally from Monaco, was a well-known literary figure, novel-writer and founder member of the Société des Gens de Lettres. Poet and friend Théodore de Banville wrote a poem praising Eva's beauty as well as her determination and talent. Manet was quite fascinated by the young painter, causing some jealousy on the part of Berthe Morisot. Berthe joked about the fact that he struggled with Eva's portrait, having to repaint the head twenty times:
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| Edouard Manet: Portrait of Eva Gonzalès 1870 London, National Gallery |
This portrait was shown at the 1870 Salon and received some insulting remarks by the critics. Recent analyses show that Manet repainted the face forty times!
Despite the insults, Manet persisted in submitting his works to the Salon and decided not to exhibit with the Independents including Degas, Monet and Renoir in 1874. Eva Gonzalès followed Manet's lead, whereas Berthe Morisot showed her independence by exhibiting with them. There is a portrait by Morisot in this exhibition which is normally to be found at the Musée Marmottan in Paris:
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| Berthe Morisot: Au Bal (At the Ball) 1875 Musée Marmottan |
So Morisot defied Manet, but Gonzalès followed his example. The exhibition includes a couple of works by Manet, which serve to show the similarity of Gonzalès' style:
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| Edouard Manet: Jeune garçon pelant une poire (Young boy peeling a pear) 1867-8 Stockholm, Nationalmuseum |
Eva Gonzalès's Lady with cherries is reminiscent of a well-known painting of a cherry seller by Manet and the style is quite similar:
Her portrait of a soldier boy similarly echoes Manet's famous Fife player:
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| L'Enfant de troupe ou Le Clairon (Soldier boy or the Bugler) 1869 Villeneuve-sur-Lot |
This was one of the works with which Gonzalès made her Salon debut in 1870 (whereas Manet's Fifer, now in the Musée d'Orsay, had been rejected in 1866).
Eva Gonzalès, like Berthe Morisot, was lucky to have a husband who cared about her work and helped her. He was Degas' engraver and a painter himself. This is a self portrait:
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| Henri Guérard (1846-97) L'Auteur au travail (The author at work) no date engraving Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris |
Guérard reproduced a work by his wife inspired by Manet- a portrait of Laure- the model for the black servant in Manet's Olympia:
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| Henri Guérard, reproduction of Gonzalès' portrait of Laure before 1888 Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris |
The exhibition contains an array of Guérard's designs for fans, made popular with the influence of Japanese art:
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| Henri Guérard: Fans ca 1879-85 gouache and watercolour Lucy and John Buchanan Collection |
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| Marie Bracquemond: Le Goûter (Afternoon tea) ca 1880 Petit Palais, Paris |
Unlike Morisot and Gonzalès, Bracquemond did not have an understanding husband, but rather a jealous one, who, it is believed, pressured her to give up her art, so she did not outshine his own engraving skills.
American painter Mary Cassatt solved the problem by staying single. She is represented here with a pastel of a little girl and dog, normally on show in the Petit Palais:
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| Mary Cassatt: Portrait of Sara and her dog ca 1901 pastel Petit Palais, Paris |
The tragedy of Eva Gonzalès' career was that it ended in untimely fashion, only a week after Manet's death. She left only around 120 works in all. Perhaps this exhibition will serve to bring some unknown works out of the cupboards and attics....
The broad range of Gonzalès' skill is shown here at the Petit Palais, from still lifes to portraits and landscapes:
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| Roses dans un verre (Roses in a glass) ca 1875 Cathy Lasry Collection |
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| Grandcamp, marée basse (Grandcamp, Low Tide) no date oil on panel Private Collection |
Gonzales was proud of her pastels. Out of a total of 22, she exhibited 14 at the Salon. This retrospective contains some major examples:
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| Le Moineau (The sparrow) between 1865 and 1870 pastel on paper Private Collection |
The Petit Palais exhibition highlights Gonzalès's independent artistic journey and demonstrates her determination and modernity.
Exhibition at Petit Palais, avenue Winston Churchill, Paris 8e
15th September 2026 to 24th January 2027
Tuesday to Sunday from 10am to 6pm.
Late opening on Fridays and Saturdays until 8pm.
Metro: Champ-Elysées-Clémenceau.
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