Discover Manet & Eva Gonzalès
Issued August 2022
Sunley Room
21 October 2022 – 15 January 2023
Admission free
Discover Manet & Eva Gonzalès at the National Gallery this autumn is the first UK exhibition devised around the portrait of Eva Gonzalès (1870) by Édouard Manet. The painting, acquired by Hugh Lane, was by the early 20th century considered to be the most famous modern French painting in the UK and Ireland.
This is the first in a new series of ‘Discover’ exhibitions to be staged in the National Gallery’s Sunley Room to explore well-known paintings in the collection through a contemporary lens. The exhibition takes Manet’s portrait of Eva Gonzalès (1849–1883) as its focus, with the aim of presenting fresh perspectives on women artists and their artistic practice in 19th-century Paris and more broadly.
The exhibition is organised with the Hugh Lane Gallery in Dublin, where it is currently on show (1 June – 18 September 2022). 'Discover Manet & Eva Gonzalès' celebrates the friendship and renewed spirit of cooperation between the two institutions following the new partnership agreed in 2021 regarding the 39 works in the Sir Hugh Lane Bequest*.
Though regarded as the father of modernism and a figurehead for the Impressionist generation, Manet only had one formal pupil, Eva Gonzalès. The daughter of a prominent writer, she entered Manet’s studio in 1869, at the age of 22. By the time of her death 14 years later, following childbirth, she had become an established artist in her own right, and her work was frequently exhibited often to positive reviews. Manet’s Eva Gonzalès, an ambitious full-length work, was painted the year they met and exhibited at the Salon of 1870, where it garnered the usual blend of harsh criticism and praise.
The introductory section of the exhibition examines the opportunities and challenges faced by women artists in Second Empire France as well as delving into Manet and Gonzalès’s lifelong artistic dialogue and the complexities of their friendship and mentorship. Gonzalès was an accomplished pastellist and at one point seemed to have influenced Manet in this genre, subverting the relationship between master and pupil.
A central strand of the exhibition unpacks the portrait itself and explores the unusual way Manet depicted Gonzalès: clothed in an improbably fine white dress more suitable for evening wear than for painting, she is seating at her easel completing a flower still life. In these elements, Manet seems to gesture to the Rococo era, something recognized by critics at the time. In particular, he drew on a self portrait tradition championed by 18th-century women artists such as Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun, and Adélaïde Labille-Guiard.
These women saw the portrait genre as a means of self-promotion at a period when they themselves were growing in status as artists. In referencing these grand precedents in his portrait of Eva Gonzalès, Manet paid homage to his pupil. The exhibition makes this point clear by including self portraits by Vigée-Lebrun and others.
Manet’s depiction of Eva Gonzalès is then set in broader context with female self portraits from the 18th to early 20th centuries, alongside portraits of women artists by male friends, husbands, and teachers. This dynamic dialogue provides insight into the creative process and representations of gender from within and without. The findings of a new campaign of technical examination of the painting are also shown. This sheds light on Manet’s creative process, revealing the artist’s hand in the scraping back and revisions of the image that have been disguised with spontaneous gesture and bravura handling.
The free exhibition includes works by Eva Gonzalès, Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun, Edouard Manet, Berthe Morisot, Alfred Stevens and Laura Knight.
'Discover Manet & Eva Gonzalès' is curated by Sarah Herring, Associate Curator of post-1800 Paintings, and Emma Capron, Associate Curator (Renaissance Painting), at the National Gallery, assisted by Chiara Di Stefano the Gallery’s Harry M Weinrebe Curatorial Fellow.
Dr Gabriele Finaldi, Director of the National Gallery, London, says: ‘This exhibition provides an opportunity to explore the artistic relationships between Manet and his pupil, Eva Gonzalès, to get to know her work and to understand how women artists in the 19th century were able to produce radical works in spite of the limitations imposed on them.’
The Sunley Room exhibition programme is supported by the Bernard Sunley Foundation.
Exhibition organised by the National Gallery and the Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin.
Notes to editors
Image
Edouard Manet (1832 – 1883)
'Eva Gonzalès',1870
Oil on canvas
191.1 x 133.4 cm
Sir Hugh Lane Bequest, 1917, the National Gallery, London. In partnership with Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin.
*The Sir Hugh Lane Bequest
In 2021, a new partnership was agreed between the National Gallery, London and the Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin regarding the 39 paintings in the Sir Hugh Lane Bequest, which allows the public in both the UK and Ireland to continue enjoying these works on a regular basis.
In moving on from previous agreements made during the past 50 years, the two galleries are now committed to working in partnership regarding the care and display of these paintings in a spirit of collegiality. As part of the new 10-year partnership, the sharing and rotating of paintings will continue – however, there will now be 10 paintings rotating in two groups of five, for five years in each location. Two works will remain in London. In the spirit of partnership, the works will now all be labelled ‘Sir Hugh Lane Bequest, 1917, The National Gallery, London. In partnership with the Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin.’https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/about-us/press-and-media/press-releases/new-partnership-agreed-between-the-national-gallery-and-hugh-lane-gallery
The National Gallery
The National Gallery is one of the greatest art galleries in the world. Founded by Parliament in 1824, the Gallery houses the nation’s collection of paintings in the Western European tradition from the late 13th to the early 20th century. The collection includes works by Bellini, Cézanne, Degas, Leonardo, Monet, Raphael, Rembrandt, Renoir, Rubens, Titian, Turner, Van Dyck, Van Gogh and Velázquez. The Gallery’s key objectives are to enhance the collection, care for the collection and provide the best possible access to visitors. Admission free.
The Bernard Sunley Foundation
The Sunley Room was established at the National Gallery in 1984 and the Foundation has supported the exhibition programme in the Sunley Room every year since 1990. The Bernard Sunley Foundation is a family grant-making foundation which supports charities in England and Wales that deliver a real community focus and provide greater opportunities for the young, the elderly, the disabled and the disadvantaged.
Also available to see at the National Gallery at the same time as 'Discover Manet & Eva Gonzalès': The Credit Suisse Exhibition – Lucian Freud: New Perspectives (1 October 2022 – 22 January 2023); Winslow Homer: Force of Nature (10 September 2022 – 8 January 2023); Turner on Tour (3 November 2022 –19 February 2023).
Across the UK: 'Nalini Malani: My Reality is Different - National Gallery Contemporary Fellowship with Art Fund', Holburne Museum, Bath (7 October 2022 – 8 January 2023).
Publicity images can be obtained from https://press.nationalgallery.org.uk/
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