Eva Gonzalès Biography | Oil Painting Reproductions

Eva Gonzalès (the artist) began her artistic training in 1865 at a time when there were few women artists and took drawing lessons from the society portraitist Charles Chaplin. Eva Gonzalès was introduced by Alfred Stevens to Edouard Manet in 1869, she entered his studio and met another student, Berthe Morisot who became very jealous of her warm friendship with Édouard Manet and posing for Manet's paintings. This was because although neither one was model material, Eva had a warmer personality.

She was admitted to the Salon of 1870 where she showed L'Enfant De Troupe, where the influence of the Young Flautist of Édouard Manet is felt and received the praises of Émile Zola and Jules-Antoine Castagnary. At the same time in the same place, Manet exhibited the Portrait of Eva Gonzalès, which he has recently finished, in which she is shown sitting, painting a still life. Since he painted in his studio, the painting she is doing is not hers she is not painting at all, it was added as a generic still life in the painting and there exists no such painting.

Like her instructor Édouard Manet, she never exhibited with the Impressionist painters in their controversial exhibitions in Paris, but she is considered part of the group because of her painting style. She was Manet's only formal student and modeled frequently for other members of the Impressionist school.

While studying under Manet, Eva Gonzalès self-portraits suggest she was exploring her individuality and identity as an artist by presenting inconspicuous corrections to Manet's version of her. Until 1872, she was influenced by Manet but later branched out with her own style.

She married the graphic artist Henri Guérard in 1879, Eva Gonzales sometimes used her husband, her mother, and her younger sister as subjects for several paintings. Six days after the death of her teacher Manet, Eva Gonzalès died in childbirth at the age of thirty-four.

Art Movement: Impressionism.
Influences: Charles Chaplin, Édouard Manet.
Artist's Biography compiled by Albert L. Mansour at The World's Artist, with text adapted from Wikipedia.