Edouard Manet and Eva Gonzalès

This winter sees the launch of a new series of exhibitions at the National Gallery, each of which will focus on just one of their paintings. The first of these, as the title of the talk suggests, is Edouard Manet's portrait of his one and only student, Eva Gonzalès. As well as looking at the painting in depth, including the results of technical analyses which can tell us a lot about the evolution of the portrait, the exhibition will also explore the relationship between the two artists. It will introduce Gonzalès to a British audience as an artist as well as a model, given that so few of her paintings are held in public collections here, and investigate the problems faced by women painting in late 19th Century Paris. This will be contextualised by the inclusion of self portraits by women from earlier and later generations, including Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun, Angelica Kauffmann, Berthe Morisot, and Laura Knight, among others. As with many of my other talks, this will be a 'virtual tour' of the exhibition, drawing out the most interesting themes to increase our understanding of one of the most popular periods in the history of art.