‘Eva Gonzalès Is What Dublin Needs’ takes Édouard Manet’s portrait of Eva Gonzalès (1870) as its focus, presenting a fresh perspective on women artists and their artistic practice in 19th-century Paris and beyond. Though regarded as the father of modernism, Manet only ever had one formal pupil, Eva Gonzalès, who entered his studio in 1869. By the time of her death 14 years later, she had become an established artist and her work was regularly exhibited at the Salon.
In the exhibition, the portrait of Eva Gonzalès becomes a gateway into women’s artistic practice and the representation and self-presentation of women artists. Self-portraits from the 18th to the 20th century are brought together alongside depictions of women artists by men to explore different constructions of gender, status and talent.
The exhibition also provides a window into Manet and Gonzalès’s lifelong artistic dialogue. Alongside works by Manet and Gonzalès, it includes paintings by Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun, Angelica Kauffmann, Alfred Stevens, John Lavery and Sarah Cecilia Harrison, among others.
It also includes ‘Homage to Manet’ (1909) by William Orpen, painted after the acquisition of the portrait of Gonzalès by Hugh Lane. Manet’s painting forms the background to Orpen’s composition, which includes George Moore, who proclaimed that “the portrait of Mademoiselle Gonzales is what Dublin needs”.
The exhibition organised by the Hugh Lane Gallery and the National Gallery is on view at the National Gallery, London, from 21 October, 2022 to 15 January, 2023. See it sooner at the Hugh Lane Gallery until 18 September, 2022.
See details of art talks, art classes and more at the Hugh Lane in tandem with ‘Eva Gonzalès is What Dublin Needs’: Here.