Artist Eva Gonzalez may not be as well known as her fellow female impressionist artists but she should be.
Born on April 19, 1849 in Paris, her father Emmanuell Gonzalez was a Spanish novelist and playwright and her mother was a trained musician. With their creativity handed down to her at a very early age she was drawn to painting and sketching.
It wasn’t easy for a woman to find an artist to work under, most of the high profile artists couldn’t be bothered and many of the schools wouldn’t even accept them. With a thirst to learn at 16 she studied under Charles Chaplin who was an official artist under the Second Empire.
A chance meeting through artists Alfred Stevens in February 1869 would put her on the path to being a known artist. Stevens took Eva to the studio of Edouard Manet who at the time was obsessed with anything Spanish and Eve had the look he loved. He immediately wanted to paint her and took her in as his one and only ever student.
Manet was going through a lot at the time. The critics were slamming him for Olympia and Dejeuner sur l’herbe and he was starting to pull himself away from the art world and turn into a shut in. Meeting Eve was just what he needed. His first painting of her premiered at the Salon of 1870, titled Mademoiselle Eve Gonzalez.
Sitting in front of an easel in a fancy white dress and a camelia on the floor. Depicting her as an artist, but she looks rather stiff and more like a model than a painter. Eve would model for many artists all while she studied under Manet who’s influence would be greatly imparted on her.
So much of his style was imparted on her, you would think her paintings were actually a Manet. In 1874, Eve painted Une Loge Aux Italiens, a popular subject with the Impressionists. Women were only allowed to attend if they were with a man and her painting gives more of the presence to the woman in the painting. Using her sister Jeanne Gonzalez as the model that leans over the balcony and looks straight at you. In the background, Henri Guérard, who would be her future husband stands with a distant stance. In the foreground a large bouquet of flowers is a reminder of Manet's Olympia. Critics didn’t love the painting, they thought it was too masculin for a woman to have painted. She would keep the painting in her home until her death. Her son later gave it to the Musée du Louvre, and would later find it’s permanent home in the Musée d’Orsay.
Like her teacher Manet, Emile Zola came to her defense writing pamphlets supporting her art and gaining her more attention. In 1874 she moved to a more softer touch and from Manet’s style and continued to use her sister as her model.
In 1874 she met Henri Guérard a French engraver who was friends with Manet and after a very long three year engagement they were married in 1879. In April 1883 she gave birth to a son, Jean Raimond just days after Manet died.
Eve would sadly follow behind her teacher and died during childbirth on May 6, 1883. She was just 34 years old. After her death exhibitions of her art appeared in Paris and in Monaco where she had a following.
Today her paintings are normally exhibited next to Mary Cassatt and Berthe Morisot and can be found in the Orsay, Petit Palais and the Musée Marmottan Monet.
