Exkursus

The years 1883 - 1885
Édouard Manet / Eva Gonzalès

In the years after 1882, the painters became dissatisfied with their own work: Renoir, Monet, Pissarro and even Degas realised that their work and development had come to a standstill. So they experimented, but without tangible success. In addition, the sale of paintings was still very slow and prices were very low.
Even though Durand-Ruel tried very hard, he had a strong competitor in George Petit and his gallery. Over time, Monet worked a lot with Petit, among others. This also resulted from the lack of small payments that Durand-Ruel made to the painters. The art dealer was facing ruin at the time and was no longer in a position to support the artists. However, an exhibition in the United States (including New York), which he prepared and organised in 1886, heralded a financial turnaround for the gallery owner.

The Impressionist artists were now scattered far and wide outside of Paris, and contacts continued to dwindle as a result.
Attempts were still made to organise a monthly meeting in Paris, but for some, such as Cézanne and Pissarro, the journey was too far. The meetings were no longer particularly attractive for Degas either and he wrote to a friend: "... one closes oneself off like a door, and not only to one's friends..." He also complained of difficulties in his work. (Degas in a letter to the painter Henri Lerolle on 14 August 1884) The painters travelled a lot, as far as they could afford it, and slowly found their way back to themselves and their painting, only Pissarro was still undecided as to how he should continue.

Paul Gauguin gave up his job in a bank completely during this time. Paris quickly became too expensive for the family with five children. So they first moved to Rouen. It was disappointing for Gauguin that Monet, Pissarro and Renoir had decided not to organise a joint exhibition in 1884. As money became increasingly scarce, Mrs Gauguin left Rouen with three of her children and moved to Denmark to live with her parents. Gauguin himself followed a few months later. However, Denmark was not a good place for his still Impressionist painting, as this art was still hardly known there, as it was in the rest of Europe.

Paul Signac and Odilon Redon met at an exhibition organised by a new independent group. Signac, in turn, had tried very hard to make the acquaintance of his great role model Monet, but the Impressionist was not interested. Signac then became friends with Armand Guillaumin. At the group exhibition of the "New Independents", Redon and Signac saw a painting, "Les Baigneurs" by Georges Seurat, whom they also met there. Seurat had studied the Impressionists very closely and, as he said, was looking for a "basis for optical painting!" and reduced his palette to four primary colours and a few intermediate tones. Signac and Seurat subsequently developed an intense friendship and discussed the new colour theories. They took part in the exhibition of the newly founded "Société des Artistes Indépendants", in which Guillaumin and Redon also participated. At the instigation of Camille Pissarro, they all took part in the eighth and final exhibition in 1886, even though Odilon Redon had a rather divided relationship with Impressionism.

Odilon Redon

* 22. 4, 1840 in Bordeaux; † 6. 6. 1916 in Paris

Self-portrait ca. 1880, black chalk

Redon - Esprit gardien des eaux
1878 - 46,6 × 37,6 cm - Charcoal with black and traces of white chalk, on cream-coloured wove paper
Art Institute Chicago >

Redon - l’Araignée qui pleure
1881 - 49,5 x 37,5 cm - Pastel chalk on tinted paper
Private collection

Redon - Le Port de Morgat
1882 - 27 x 30 cm - Oil on canvas
Dallas Museum of Art >

Redon - Le Printemps
1883 - 53 x 37 cm - Charcoal, chalk and pastel on paper
Private collection

Paul Signac

* 11. 11. 1863 in Paris; † 15. 8. 1935 in Paris

Paul Signac - Photo from the year 1883

Signac - Le moulin de la Galette à Montmartre (Rue Caukaincort)
ca. 1885 - 34 x 25 cm - Oil on canvas
Le Musée Carnavalet, Paris >

Signac - Port-en-Bessin, la plage
1884 - 46 x 64 cm - Oil on canvas
Thyssen-Bornemisza Museuo National, Madrid >

Signac - Stilleben mit Buch und Orangen
1885 - 32 x 46 cm - Oil on canvas
Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlin >

Signac - Notre-Dame, l’Ile Saint-Louis, vue du Quai de la Tournelle, Soleil
1885 - 50 x 79 cm - Oil on canvas
Von der Heydt Museum, Wuppertal >

Georges Seurat

* 2. 12. 1859 in Paris; † 29. 3. 1891 in Paris



Georges Seurat ca. 1888

Seurat - Vue de la Seine
1882/83 - 15,9 x 24,8 cm - Oil on wood
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York >

Seurat - Figure Massive
ca. 1882 - 15,5 x 24,8 cm - Oil on wood
Wallraf-Richartz-Museum & Fondation Corboud, Köln >

Seurat - Le Jardinier
1882/83 - 15,9 x 24,8 cm - Oil on wood
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York >

Seurat - La forêt de Pontaubert
1881 - 79 x 62 cm - Oil on canvas
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York >

Seurat - Studie für "Une baignade à Asnières"
1883 - 16,5 x 24,8 cm - Oil on wood
The Art Institute Chicago >

Seurat - Une baignade à Asnières
1884 (bearb. 1887) - 201 x 300 cm - Oil on canvas
National Gallery, London >

The next year, 1885, the exhibition of independent artists was cancelled due to a lack of money and Seurat was therefore unable to show his large painting "Grande Jatte", which he had been working on for a long time. In the same year, Signac also met Pissarro in Guillaumin's studio. In many subsequent conversations, Pissarro discovered new artistic possibilities for himself. As he was now dissatisfied with his own painting, he was very receptive to the new theories. He adopted the technique of individually placed dots of colour, which was later referred to as pointillism. In a letter dated 6 November 1886, he explained to the dealer Durand-Ruel, who was very surprised by his new painting technique: "A modern synthesis of scientific knowledge, namely the colour theory developed by Chevreul, Maxwell's experiments and O.H. Rood's measurements." Optical mixing had to take the place of mixing colours.

Édouard Manet

* 23. 1. 1832 in Paris; † 30. 4. 1883 in Paris

Foto ca 1881/82

In 1882, Manet was made a Knight of the Legion of Honour. He had waited a long time for this and was therefore of the opinion that this honour came a good 20 years too late, as he wrote in a letter to the critic Chesneau. After the highly acclaimed work "Un Bar aux Folies-Bergère" from 1881/82, he still had some plans, but in the meantime he lacked the strength to tackle larger works. He painted some smaller pictures, portraits, flowers and garden pieces near Paris in Rueil.

Bouquet de lilas
1882 - 54 x 42 cm - Oil on canvas
Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Nationalgalerie, Berlin >

Villa de Manet à Rueil
1882 - 71 x 93 cm - Oil on canvas
Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Nationalgalerie, Berlin >

La viennoise - Portrait Irma Brunner
1880 - 54 x 46 cm - Pastel on canvas
Musée d'Orsay, Paris >

When he returned to Paris at the beginning of 1883, his state of health was worrying. Soon he was no longer able to leave his bed, his left leg became gangrenous and he was advised to have it amputated. The operation had to be performed on 20 April 1883, but it was too late. Édouard Manet died on 30 April 1883 at the age of 51.
The funeral on 3 May was attended by painters and friends: Monet travelled from Giverny, Pissarro came, Cézanne too. Berthe Morisot had lost her brother-in-law. Emile Zola, Antonin Proust, Fantin-Latour and many others also attended.
Eva Gonzales, Manet's only pupil, is in hospital weaving a funeral wreath. A few days later, she dies of an embolism.

In 1884, paintings from Manet's collection were shown in an exhibition. A subsequent auction specified in Manet's will realised over 100,000 francs.

A few examples from the auction:

Lola de Valence
1862 - 123 x 92 cm - Oil on canvas
Musée d'Orsay, Paris >

La chanteuse de rue
1862/63 - 174 x 118 - Oil on canvas
Museum of Fine Arts Boston >

Portrait Victorine Meurent
1862 - 43 x 44 cm - Oil on canvas
Museum of Fine Arts Boston >

Manet had seen the portrayed Victorine by chance at the Palais de Jusitz and was very impressed by her very unique appearance: reddish-blonde hair, very white skin and a very distinctive face. He spontaneously asked her to allow him to paint her portrait. After this portrait, Manet depicted her in several famous paintings until around 1875: "Mlle Victorine en costume d'espada", or "Chanteuese de rues", she can also be seen in "Dejeuner sur l'herbe", as well as "Olympia", and in several other paintings.

Mlle Victorine en costume d'espada
1862 - 165 x 128 cm - Oil on canvas
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York >

Le torero mort
1864 - 76 x 153 cm - Oil on canvas
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. >

Le fumeur
1866 - 100 x 81 cm - Oil on canvas
Minneapolis Institute of Art >

L'exécution de Maximilien
1869 - 252 x 305 cm - Oil on canvas
Kunsthalle Mannheim >
Manet wanted to exhibit this painting at the Salon, but was turned away for political reasons. He never showed the painting again.

Portrait Eva Gonzales
1870 - 191 x 133 cm - Oil on canvas
National Gallery, London >

La partie de croquet
1873 - 73 x 106 cm - Oil on canvas
Städel Museum, Frankfurt >

Bal masqué à l'opéra
1873 - 59 x 73 cm - Oil on canvas
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. >

La serveuse de bocks
1878/79 - 77 x 65 cm - Oil on canvas
Musée d'Orsay, Paris >

Chez le père Lathuille
1879 - 92 x 112 cm - Oil on canvas
Musée de Beaux-Arts, Tournai, Belgien >

Lecture de l'illustré
1879 - 61 x 50 cm - Oil on canvas
Art Institute of Chicago >

Au conservatoire
1879 - 150 x 115 cm - Oil on canvas
Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Nationalgalerie, Berlin >
(This picture was shown at the official Salon de Paris in 1879).

Jeune femme dans le fleurs
1879 - 66 x 81 cm - Oil on canvas
Private collection

Au café
1879 - 47 x 39 cm - Oil on canvas
Walters Art Museum, Baltimore >

Édouard Manet painted only a few self-portraits. One from the year 1879:

Autoportrait à la palette
1879 - 83 x 67 cm - Oil on canvas
Private collection

La promenade (Mme Gamby)
1880 - 92 x 70 cm - Oil on canvas
Tokyo Fuji Art Museum >

Le printemps
1881 - 74 x 51 cm - Oil on canvas
J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles >

Un bar aux Folies-Bergère
1881/82 - 96 x 130 cm - Oil on canvas
Courtauld Institute of Art, London >

Eva Gonzalès

* 19. 4. 1847 in Paris; † 5. 5. 1883 in Paris

When it comes to women in French Impressionism, Eva Gonzalès is often mentioned alongside Berthe Morisot, Mary Cassatt and Marie Bracquemond, who all took part in Impressionist exhibitions between 1874 and 1886, even though she was not involved in any of these exhibitions. She was the only pupil of Édouard Manet, which was also reflected in her painting. Like Manet, she exhibited her paintings successfully at the Paris Salon

At the age of 16, she began training in the studio of the painter Charles Chaplin, who held courses for women as the state art academies were closed to women. In 1869, she met Édouard Manet, who asked her to model for him. She soon became his pupil and the painter's influence can be clearly seen. She favoured subjects of everyday life and thus partly approached the Impressionists.

She married the engraver and graphic artist Henri Guérard in 1879. Eva Gonzalès died very young at the age of 34 on 5 May 1883 from an embolism after the birth of her son.

Le moineau
1865/70 - 60 x 45 cm - Oil on canvas
Private collection

Portrait de Jeanne Gonzalès
1870 - 56 x 46 cm - Pastel
Private collection

Les pivoines et le hanneton
1871/72 - 26 x 35 cm - Oil on canvas
Private collection

Vue de la plage de Dieppe, prise du château
1871/72 - 28 x 69 cm - Oil on canvas
Dieppe, Château-Musée

L’indolence
1871/72 - 99 x 81 cm - Oil on canvas
Private collection

Dans les blés (Dieppe)
1874/75 - 46 x 54 cm - Oil on canvas
Private collection

Une loge aux Italiens
1874 - 98 x 130 cm - Oil on canvas
Musée d'Orsay >

En bateau
1875/76 - 46 x 55 cm - Oil on canvas
Private collection

Le sommeil
1876 - 81 x 100 cm - Oil on canvas
Artison Museum, Tokyo >

Nounou avec enfant
1877 - 65 x 81 cm - Oil on canvas
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. >

Sur la Terrasse (Pontoise)
1877/78 - 25 x 36 cm - Oil on canvas
Private collection

L'alcôve
1878 - 46 x 38 cm - Oil on canvas
Private collection

La femme en rose
1879 - 46 x 37 cm - Pastel on linen
Private collection

Autoportrait
1879 - 40 x 26 cm - Oil on canvas
Private collection

Sous le berceau (Honfleur)
1879/80 - 48 x 36 cm - Pastel
Private collection

La promenade à âne
1880 - 100 x 81 cm - Oil on canvas (unfinished)
Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery >

Roses dans un verre
1880/82 - 42 x 42 cm - Oil on canvas
Private collection

La lecture au jardin (Femme au chapeau rouge)
1880/82 - 38,3 x 55,2 cm - Pastel and charcoal on canvas
Privatbesitz

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Eva Gonzales ca. 1882

Two years after her death, a sales exhibition of Eva Gonzalès' paintings was organised.