1849 -1883 · Parisian modernity, portrait, pastel and dialogue with Manet

Theater dressing rooms, silent interiors, portraits of women and clear light place Eva Gonzalès among the most personal voices of Parisian modernity.

Eva Gonzalès was born in Paris in 1849 into a cultured family: her father was the writer Emmanuel Gonzalès and her mother, a musician. As women did not have access to the School of Fine Arts, she trained from 1866 in Charles Chaplin's women's studio, where she learned portraiture, pastel and a clear palette. In 1869, she became the only officially recognized student of Édouard Manet. He painted his famous portrait in front of the easel, but their relationship quickly evolved towards an artistic dialogue. In 1869, she became Édouard Manet's only officially recognized student. He painted his famous portrait in front of the easel, but their relationship quickly evolved towards an artistic dialogue. In 1869, she became Édouard Manet's only officially recognized student. He painted his famous portrait in front of the easel, but their relationship quickly evolved towards an artistic dialogue. Gonzalès shared with Manet a direct touch, frank contrasts and interest in contemporary life, while developing a more intimate universe. She exhibited at the Salon in 1870 and, unlike the impressionists to whom she is close, she does not participate in their group exhibitions. Her sister Jeanne frequently serves as a model and allows her to explore reading, washing, rest, music and female sociability without reducing figures to simple types. A dressing room for Italians, begun around 1874 and successfully exhibited in 1879, transposes the modern spectacle into a space where public view and the couple's intimacy confront each other. Gonzalès also masters pastel, whose light passages and fresh colors suit her scenes of diffused light. Married to the engraver Henri Guérard, she died in 1883 of an embolism after the birth of their son, a few days later Manet. His brief career leaves a refined work on spaces accessible to 19th century bourgeois women. The "Eva Gonzalès" selection notably compares Une loge auxItaliens and Le Réveil. His reading favors drawing.

Gonzalès makes intimacy a modern subject: an awakening, a tea or a dressing room reveal both the social outlook and the singular presence of the model.