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Edouard Manet, 'Eva Gonzalès', 1870
About the work
Overview
Eva Gonzalès (1847–1883), Manet’s only formal pupil, was a successful artist and a regular exhibitor at the Salon. This portrait was probably started in the summer of 1869 and involved numerous sittings. It was finally finished in March 1870 and shown at the Salon the same year.
Manet had painted other artists (both men and women), but this portrait is unusual in that it shows Gonzalès painting at her easel. The work on the easel, already finished and framed, is a copy after an etching by the flower painter Jean-Baptiste Monnoyer (1636–1699). A half-rolled print carrying Manet’s signature lies on the floor, a reminder of his role as her teacher. Her pose, along with the white dress and the fluidity of the brushstrokes with which it is painted, recall eighteenth-century self portraits by women. In these they show themselves at their easels, dressed in beautiful, often white gowns, which attest to their success. 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.
Audio description
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Listen to an audio description of Edouard Manet's 'Eva Gonzalès'
Transcript
This is a description of a portrait of 'Eva Gonzales' by Eduard Manet, painted in 1870. It is oil on canvas and is almost 2 metres tall by 1.3 metres wide. It is in an ornate gold frame.
The portrait is set in an interior. The twenty-three year old artist Eva Gonzales is on the right, seated on a delicate brown wooden chair facing to the left. She is working on a painting in front of her, on a dark wooden easel, which fills most of the top left of the composition. She wears a sumptuous, floor-length, white muslin gown, with short sleeves, which stands out vividly against the dark wall behind her.
Her head is turned towards us, her large dark eyes, under delicately arched brows, look down, rather than engaging with us or her painting. Her thick black hair is piled on top of her head with locks falling a little way down her back and over her right shoulder. Two dark curls fall on either side of her pale forehead, echoing the black sash round her waist.
The skirt of her gown fills most of the bottom half of the composition, creating a strong diagonal. It appears white, but additional long and short brush-strokes of grey and pale blues, as well as grey-pinks convey the translucent layers of material. The short sleeves are semi-transparent, like the frill at the scooped neckline. White highlights at the bottom of the dress indicate a gauzy hem, where the tips of her shoes rest on a small, tapestry footstool.
Eva holds a slender paintbrush in her right hand, her arm extended almost horizontally, as she holds it to the painting. In her left hand she has a circular wooden palette, along with three further brushes and a long mahl stick, that she might use to support her painting hand. The painting in front of her is already mounted in a gold frame. It depicts pink and white flowers in a dark blue vase. A bright blue gauzy scarf is draped over the painting’s top right corner and billows over the frame to the left.
The carpet under her chair is a soft blue pattern in greens and golds. The shapes suggest that it is floral but Manet has brushed them in broadly, almost as an abstract pattern. Leaning against the back of the chair to the right, is a large brown Portfolio. White smudges suggest protruding drawings. Cut off by the bottom right edge of the composition is a small, partially rolled canvas that has Manet’s signature, and the date. A little to the left of that, is a single large white flower with fluffy petals and green leaves. It lies on the carpet by the hem of Eva’s dress.
The colour scheme is typical of Manet’s painting of this period with muted tones of rich browns, blacks, greys and whites. These make the blues of the carpet, scarf and painted vase sing out. His technique was regarded as strident by conservative critics with its textured brush marks, bold outlines and strong contrasts of dark and light.
Eva Gonzales was Manet’s only formal pupil and the setting is his Parisian home. To modern eyes it might seem that Manet is presenting her as a beautiful amateur, dabbing at an already framed painting she is not even looking at. She is surrounded by floral imagery often associated with femininity. But more recent commentators have pointed out that professional women artists of the time, painted themselves in their finery to indicate their hard won success and status. The painting on the easel has been identified as a print of an 18th Century work, not her own painting at all, but which would imply her familiarity with the art from that period.
Key facts
Details
- Full title
- Eva Gonzalès
- Artist
- Edouard Manet
- Artist dates
- 1832 - 1883
- Date made
- 1870
- Medium and support
- oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 191.1 × 133.4 cm
- Inscription summary
- Signed; Dated
- Acquisition credit
- Sir Hugh Lane Bequest, 1917, The National Gallery, London. In partnership with Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin.
- Inventory number
- NG3259
- Location
- Central Hall
- Collection
- Main Collection
- Subjects
- Frame
- 19th-century English Frame
Provenance
Given to Eva Gonzalès by Edouard Manet; after her death in 1883 the painting passed to her husband Henri Guérard; in Guérard’s Inventaire après décès of 5 April 1897, par Anne Charles Champetier de Ribes, notaire à Paris: the portrait is listed in the salon next to the atelier on the second floor, ‘Portrait of Eva Gonzalès’ by Manet; after his death in 1897 the painting passed to his widow, Jeanne Guérard‐Gonzalès (1852–1924), Gonzalès’s sister, whom Guérard had married after her death; with Gaston‐Alexandre Camentron (1862–1919), from whom bought by Paul Durand‐Ruel in 1899; acquired from Durand‐Ruel by Hugh Lane in 1906: according to Thomas Bodkin, Lane was short of money at this time and exchanged the pictures by Manet for others by Nicolas Lancret and Thomas Gainsborough; Sir Hugh Lane Bequest, 1917; at the Tate Gallery, 1919, from where transferred, 1950.
Additional information
Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in ‘National Gallery Catalogues: Online Entries’, London 2024; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.
Exhibition history
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2012Manet: Portraying LifeToledo Museum of Art4 October 2012 - 1 January 2013Royal Academy of Arts26 January 2013 - 14 April 2013
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2012Long Loan to The Hugh Lane (2012 - 2019) (Group A)Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane31 December 2012 - 20 October 2019
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2014Inventing Impressionism: Paul Durand-Ruel and the Modern Art MarketMusée du Luxembourg9 October 2014 - 8 February 2015The National Gallery (London)4 March 2015 - 31 May 2015Philadelphia Museum of Art24 June 2015 - 13 September 2015
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2022Discover Manet and Eva GonzalèsThe National Gallery (London)21 October 2022 - 15 January 2023
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2022Discover Manet & Eva GonzalèsDublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane1 June 2022 - 18 September 2022
Bibliography
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1870J. Castagnary, 'Salon de 1870', Le Siècle, 1870
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1870M. Chaumelin, 'Les horreurs de monsieur Manet', La Presse, 1870
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1870G. Lafenestre, 'Salon de 1870', Le Moniteur universel, 1870
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1870L. Pichat, 'Salon de 1870', Le Réveil, 1870
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1870A. Wolff, 'Salon de 1870', Le Figaro, 1870
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1870T. Duret, 'Salon de 1870', L'Electeur libre, 1870
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1884E. Bazire, Manet, Paris 1884
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1884E. Zola et al., Edouard Manet (exh. cat. Ecole nationale des Beaux-Arts, January 1884), Paris 1884
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1897A. Proust, 'Edouard Manet inédit', Revue blanche, 1897
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1902T. Duret, Histoire de Edouard Manet et de son oeuvre, Paris 1902
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1902H. von Tschudi, Manet, Berlin 1902
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1906G. Moore, Reminiscences of the Impressionists Painters, Dublin 1906
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1910E. Haencke, 'Manet als Porträtmaler', Kunst und Künstler, VIII, 1910, pp. 239-49
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1912J. Meier-Graefe, Edouard Manet, Munich 1912
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1913A. Proust, Edouard Manet: Souvenirs, Paris 1913
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1917L.H. Cust, 'Manet at the National Gallery', The Burlington Magazine, XXX/168, 1917, pp. 110-5
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1917C.J. Holmes, 'New Exhibits at the National Gallery', The Burlington Magazine, XXX/167, 1917, pp. 80-1
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1917C. Phillips, 'National Gallery, II: Sir Hugh Lane's Pictures', Daily Telegraph, 1917
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1926E. Moreau-Nélaton, Manet raconté par lui-même, 2 vols, Paris 1926
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1926C. Bell, 'Les tableaux français modernes à la Galerie Tate et à la Galerie Nationale de Londres', L'Amour de l'art, 1926
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1926Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale: Moreau-Nélaton catalogue manuscrits, 1926
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1928J. Meier-Graefe, 'Julius: Die Franzosen in der Tate Gallery', Cicerone, 12, 1928, pp. 389-97
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1929R. Huyghe, 'L'art français moderne et les musées anglais', Beaux-arts, XV, 1929
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1931A. Tabarant, Manet: Histoire catalographique, Paris 1931
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1932T. Bodkin, Hugh Lane and his Pictures, Dublin 1932
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1932P. Colin, Edouard Manet, Paris 1932
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1932P. Jamot, G. Wildenstein and M.-L. Bataille, Manet, Paris 1932
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1932P. Bayle, 'Eva Gonzalès', La Renaissance de l'art français et des industries de luxe, 1932, pp. 110-5
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1932P. Jamot, 'La Poésie de Manet', L'Amour de l'Art, XIII/5, 1932, pp. 149-51
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1939L. Venturi, Les archives de l'impressionnisme, Paris 1939
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1940F.A. Sweet, 'Girl with Cherries by Eva Gonzalès', Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago, 1940, pp. 74-5
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1941G. Jedlicka, Edouard Manet, Zürich 1941
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1947M. Florisoone, Manet, Monaco 1947
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1947A. Tabarant, Manet et ses oeuvres, Paris 1947
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1950C. Roger-Marx, Eva Gonzalès, Paris 1950
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1950D. Rouart, Correspondence de Berthe Morisot, Paris 1950
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1954N.G. Sandblad, Manet: Three Studies in Artistic Conception, Lund 1954
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1954G.H. Hamilton, Manet and His Critics, New Haven 1954
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1956J. Plesters, 'Cross-Sections and Chemical Analysis of Paint Samples', Studies in Conservation, II/3, 1956, pp. 110-57
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1957Martin Davies, National Gallery Catalogues: French School, 2nd edn (revised), London 1957
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1959J.W.H. Hemmings and R.J. Niess, E. Zola: Salons, Paris 1959
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1970Davies, Martin, and Cecil Gould, National Gallery Catalogues: French School: Early 19th Century, Impressionists, Post-Impressionists etc., London 1970
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1970S. Orienti and P. Pool, The Complete Paintings of Manet, London 1970
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1972G. Bazin, Edouard Manet, Milan 1972
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1975D. Rouart and D. Wildenstein, Edouard Manet: Catalogue raisonné, Lausanne 1975
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1981B. Arnold, Orpen: Mirror to an Age, London 1981
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1982J. Richardson, Manet, Oxford 1982
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1983M. Wilson, Manet at Work: An Exhibition to Mark the Centenary of the Death of Edouard Manet, 1832-1883 (exh. cat. The National Gallery, London, 10 August - 9 October 1983), London 1983
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1986K. Adler, Manet, Oxford 1986
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1986K. Adler and T. Garb, The Correspondence of Berthe Morisot, London 1986
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1987K. Adler and T. Garb, Berthe Morisot, Oxford 1987
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1988G. Sello, Malerinnen aus fünf Jahrhunderten, Hamburg 1988
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1989H. Keller, Edouard Manet, Munich 1989
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1990F. Cachin, Manet, Paris 1990
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1990M.-C. Sainsaulieu and J. de Mons, Eva Gonzalès 1849-1883: Étude critique et catalogue raisonné, Paris 1990
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1993M. Delafond and M.-C. Sainsaulieu, Les femmes impressionistes: Mary Cassatt, Eva Gonzalès, Berthe Morisot, (exh. cat. Musée Marmottan, 13 October - 31 December 1993), Paris 1993
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1994J. House, Impressionisim for England: Samuel Courtauld as Patron and Collector, London 1994
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1994G. Tinterow and H. Loyrette, Origins of Impressionism, (exh. cat. Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1994), New York 1994
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1995K. McConkey and B. Dawson, Impressionism in Britain and Ireland, (exh. cat. Barbican Art Gallery, 19 January - 7 May 1995), London 1995
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1999R. Bothe et al., Aufstieg und Fall der Moderne, Ostfildern 1999
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2000G.L. Mauner and H. Loyrette (eds), Manet: Les natures mortes (exh. cat. Musée d'Orsay, 9 October 2000 - 7 January 2001; Walters Art Gallery, 30 January - 22 April 2001), Paris 2000
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2001
C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
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2001T. Garb, 'Framing Femininity in Manet's Portrait of Mlle E.G.', in A. D'Souza (ed.), Self and History: A Tribute to Linda Nochlin, London 2001, pp. 76-90
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2006C. Riopelle, Manet to Picasso, London 2006
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2007T. Garb, The Painted Face: Portraits of Women in France, 1814-1914, New Haven 2007
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2007S. Waller, 'Realist Quandaries: Posing Professional and Proprietary Models in the 1860s', Art Bulletin, LXXXIX/2, 2007, pp. 239-65
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2024The National Gallery, National Gallery Catalogues: Online Entries for Individual Paintings, London 2024
Frame
This is a nineteenth-century English frame made in the Rococo style. The frame is crafted from carved pinewood and oil-gilded. On the back edge is an acanthus-leaf pattern, and where the swept outlines of the frame reveal this back edge there is also a carved decoration.
On the swept outer edge of the frame are bundled reeds. An acanthus-leaf pattern follows the curves of the frame and leads towards a sanded flat and raked gadroons at the sight edge. Corners feature wing motifs and flowers; flowers are also at the centres of the frames with lambrequins.
Manet’s Eva Gonzalès arrived at the Gallery in this frame. It has undergone alterations and regilding. The frame is shown with Manet’s Eva Gonzalès in William Orpen’s 1909 painting Homage to Manet (Manchester Art Gallery), and may have been chosen to complement the floral elements within the painting. A photograph of 1884, taken at the Exposition des oeuvres d’Edouard Manet (Ecole Nationale des Beaux‐Arts, Paris), shows the painting in a French gallery frame, with spandrels.
About this record
If you know more about this work or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.
Images
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