Manet and His Model — Stephanie Storey

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Maybe we can’t travel to museums right now, but we CAN read books about our favorite artists and “visit” them in our minds… So, since I am personally obsessed with the modern artists of late 19th century Paris — the Impressionists and their peers — I connected with art historical novelist Drēma Drudge about her gorgeous debut, Victorine, a novel about Manet’s most famous model, Victorine Meurent, so I—and you—can escape to 19th century Paris…

Stephanie Storey: I’ve titled this interview Manet & His Model. How badly would it have frustrated Victorine to know that she’s best known as Manet’s model today?

Drēma Drudge: On the one hand, I think she would be proud to be remembered as his model, because I believe there was mutual respect and admiration between them. They worked together for about a decade on many paintings. On the other, I think she would have writhed with frustration, knowing she herself had produced work that was accepted by the Paris Salon on six occasions! She might have titled your interview, “The Artist/Model Who Made Manet,” because that’s the sort of spirited, confident woman she was.

SS: That’s brilliant title for this blog, and now that’s how I’ll always think of it! So, when you started researching this novel, did you already know a lot about Victorine or did you embark on this project as a way to answer questions you had about her? (or both?)

Olympia by Edouard Manet, 1863, Musee D’Orsay in Paris

DD: I was literally introduced to her by seeing a slide of her as Olympia in a literature class called The Painted Word, and I was struck by the painting, sure the model had something she wanted to say to me. Less than a year later, I was standing before the actual painting, telling her I was ready to listen.

Unfortunately, even when I began researching her, there wasn’t a whole lot to know. Well, it was also fortunate, because it made me determined to keep digging until I found more, and it kept me excited the whole time I was writing. I had constant brain fire while I wrote this!

SS: What was the life of a painter’s model like in 1860s/70s Paris?

DD: Long hours, low wages, esteemed lowly, especially female models. While I do believe those who worked more frequently with an artist (as Victorine did with both Manet and Alfred Stevens) did necessarily build real relationships, there were plenty of models, perhaps to be compared with aspiring fashion models today, and they were more or less considered disposable. Flocks of them waited outside of studios, hoping to be chosen for a day’s work. Male models, however, were paid more than the female models were.

SS: Although Victorine is most famously known as Manet’s model today, she was desperate to build a painting career for herself. How difficult was it for a women to be an artist in 1870s Paris? She exhibited in the renowned Paris Salon during her career? How rare was this for a woman?

DD: To start with, Victorine Meurent was from a poor family. Being a woman didn’t help her cause.

Women were not welcomed into traditional art classes in Paris. Until 1897, women were not even admitted to the official art school, École des Beaux-Arts. Instead, they had to turn to private instructors or the studios of other artists who didn’t teach them nearly as much and often charged them much more than males were charged. And yet, some women were desperate enough to accept these terms in order to paint. When women were finally accepted into the École des Beaux-Arts, they were excluded from both life study and painting classes initially. They weren’t allowed to take classes with their male counterparts and their studios were often inferior.

Women would be corrupted, it was feared, by beholding the naked form in classes, which, alas, was considered to be crucial to doing the most esteemed (and best-paying) category of paintings: historic scenes which featured partially clothed or nude bodies. So women painted in the other, less esteemed genres. “Acceptable” subject matter for women to paint was anything domestic, such as home scenes and those of the commonplace: washing day, reading, children, pets, portraits, and still life.

Although the Salon was technically opened to women, men were given preferential selection and placement, so much so that in 1881 the Union des Femmes Peintres et Sculpteurs decided to form a separate salon for women, with the first exhibition taking place in 1882.

SS: In preparation for this interview, I did a cursory search for some of Victorine’s paintings online. I didn’t find much. What do we know about Victorine’s paintings today and where could readers visit them?

DD: That’s what made researching this novel so fascinating. At the time that Eunice Lipton wrote her memoir/biography on Victorine, none of Victorine’s paintings were thought to survive. However, in 2004, one was recovered. And when the book was almost ready for printing, me having written scenes of Victorine creating the paintings that we at least know the titles of by Paris Salon, I learned of other paintings of her that had come to be known. Well, I stumbled upon a mention, that led my husband down a rabbit trail…at any rate, between us we discovered three more, for a total of four paintings. Much of the world still is not aware of their existence.

The Museum in Colombes, the now suburb of Paris that was the place Victorine lived the latter and final years of her life, has three of those currently known to have survived. The fourth, the most exciting to me, is of her self-portrait. It’s in a private collection, and its owner has graciously allowed me to publish it on the back of my book. We believe it’s the first time the painting has been published. It’s so important to me that after having men define and paint her all of these years, we now have once again how Victorine saw herself.

Le Déjeuner sur L'herbe, Manet, Musée d'Orsay in Paris

SS: For me, when I think of Victorine, I immediately think of Olympia and Le Déjeuner sur L'herbe—but aside from these two famous masterpieces what are your favorite Manet paintings of Victorine?

DD: There’s a gorgeous Manet painting at Hill-Stead Museum in Connecticut, The Guitar Player. In it, Victorine looks relaxed, natural, and innocent. I adore that painting. And the cover of my book uses Mademoiselle V… in the Costume of an Espada. I love the strength given her in this painting, and that she is dressed in pants! That sums her up for me.

SS: Victorine wasn’t only a model for Manet of course, but for other famous names of the day—Degas and Alfred Stevens to name but two… which are your other favorite paintings of Victorine and where can we visit them?

The Parisian Sphinx by Alfred Stevens. San Diego Museum of Art — *The Parisian Sphinx* by Alfred Stevens. San Diego Museum of Art

DD: Alas, these paintings of her aren’t as well-known as those of Manet. One of Stevens’ paintings of her, The Parisian Sphinx, is on display at the San Diego Museum of Art. He did at least one, possibly two more of her of the same theme. A Study of Victorine Meurent is a tender portrait of her by Stevens. It’s also quite different for him. In it she’s cradling her naked breast as if it’s a child. She never had children, so it moves me. It’s in the Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten in Antwerp, Belgium, and I’d love to see it in person someday.

SS: Do you know if there’s ever been an exhibition of Victorine—her works and/or the portraits of her?

DD: The closest that I know of an exhibition of Victorine was a Manet exhibit in Toledo a few years ago. In it four of his paintings for her were shown, but none of hers! I was still thrilled to see that many of his paintings of her all together. I think it would be amazing to have a display of her paintings as well as those of her.

SS: Where are your favorite museums to visit Manet paintings and soak in the feeling of his era and art?

DD: Ah, Musée d’Orsay in Paris is an absolute must! It’s the home of Olympia, of Luncheon on the Grass (Le Déjeuner sur L'herbe), and one that scholars’ opinions vary as to whether or not Victorine was one of the models for, The Fifer. It’s a nest of his paintings of Victorine. I can’t wait to return to it next year.

SS: You say in your bio that you wrote this novel while traveling the world with your husband. Where in your travels did you most feel the spirit of Victorine and/or Manet?

DD: This may sound like an obvious answer, but Paris. We saw art, glorious art, walked by the Seine, toured Notre Dame. Every night we’d ramble for hours, imagining what it must have been like for someone who lived in the mid-19th century. Standing in front of Victorine as Olympia, I felt her voice the strongest. She asked me to tell her story, so I did.

SS: After writing a novel about his most famous model, do you like Manet? Do you respect him and his art more or less after writing this novel?

DD: I respect his art more. I respect him more. I think I understand his work more. And while I wish he had pushed his social/political commentary a bit harder, he did attempt to bring forth the hypocrisy of the people of his time. Well, that and I believe he liked to shock the public. And shock them he did!

SS: What nonfiction books about Victorine would you recommend?

So far there’s only one, which made researching her difficult: Alias, Olympia by Eunice Lipton, which highlights Lipton’s frustration in trying to learn anything about Victorine. But I loved the book.

Instead, I had to explore the Paris art world all around Victorine, and particularly Manet. I’d also recommend Edouard Manet: Rebel in a Frock Coat by Beth Archer Brombert and Manet, Manette by Carol Armstrong. Those are both wonderful books.

Drēma Drudge suffers from Stendhal's Syndrome, the condition in which one becomes overwhelmed in the presence of great art. She attended Spalding University's MFA in Creative Writing Program where she learned to transform that intensity into fiction. She and her husband, musician and writer Barry Drudge, live in Indiana where they record their biweekly podcast, Writing All the Things, when not traveling. Her first novel, Victorine, was literally written in five countries while she and her husband wandered the globe. The pair has two grown children. For more about her writing, art, and travels, please visit her website, www.dremadrudge.com, and sign up for her newsletter. She's always happy to connect with readers in her Facebook group, The Painted Word Salon, or on Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn.