Rediscovering Eva Gonzalès
Edouard Manet - Eva Gonzales
From June 1 to September 18, 2022, the Hugh Lane Gallery in Dublin presents an exhibition focusing on the figure of Eva Gonzalès, one of the great women painters of Impressionism.
Source: National Gallery, London / Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin · Image: Édouard Manet, 'Eva Gonzalès', 1870, oil on canvas. National Gallery of Art, London.
When discussing the sometimes underappreciated role that women painters played in the development of Impressionism, it is common to focus on the three women that the critic and historian Gustave Geffroy called "les trois grande dames" of Impressionism: Berthe Morisot, Mary Cassatt, and Marie Bracquemond. This excludes Eva Gonzalès (1849-1883), who is left out of a group already somewhat undervalued historically. And, although Eva Gonzalès never exhibited with the Impressionists (nor did her teacher, Édouard Manet), her figure deserves a critical re-evaluation that highlights her place of importance within the Impressionist era, being the only disciple of Édouard Manet, and the painter of works such as the excellent "Nounou avec enfant" at the National Gallery of Washington (1878-79).
Organized by the National Gallery of Art in London, the exhibition now on view in Dublin proposes to rediscover the figure of the painter through the famous portrait painted by Manet. According to the National Gallery, "the 'Portrait of Eva Gonzalès' becomes a gateway into women’s artistic practice and the representation and self-presentation of women artists in 19th-century Paris and more broadly. Self-portraits from the 18th to the 20th century will be brought together with depictions of women artists by men to explore different constructions of gender, status and talent. The exhibition will also provide a window into Manet and Gonzalès’s lifelong artistic dialogue, delving into the complex mixture of mentorship, admiration, and emulation that underpinned their friendship."
The exhibition also shows the results of a technical analysis by X-radiography conducted on the painting, which discovered how Manet made numerous changes throughout the process of painting the work, changes that "confirm the account that fellow artist Berthe Morisot gave of the portrait’s progress in a riveting series of letters to her sister."
In addition to works by Eva Gonzalès, the exhibition also includes paintings by Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun (1755-1842), Angelica Kauffmann (1741-1807), Berthe Morisot (1841-1895), Alfred Stevens (1823-1906), and Laura Knight (1877-1970), among others.

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