A few months ago, while working on the Souliers rose, we discovered the work of Eva Gonzalès.
Les Chaussons roses (1880) vs Les Souliers Dulion (2026)
Little did we know that this autumn, the Petit Palais in Paris would devote the first major retrospective to the French painter, bringing together a hundred paintings, pastels and prints.
Self-portrait (1879)
Born in Paris in 1847, Gonzalès belonged to the generation of women painting alongside Berthe Morisot, Mary Cassatt and Marie Bracquemond — although she followed a path very much her own. She became Édouard Manet’s only formal pupil, and for many years her name remained attached to his. The new exhibition is an opportunity to look at her without him standing quite so close behind.
A Box at the Théatre des Italiens (1874), oil on canvas, 98 x 130 cm, Musée d’Orsay, Paris.
Gonzalès knew the fashionable Paris of the 1870s intimately. She painted the theatre and the bourgeois interior, but also Normandy beaches and gardens. Her sister Jeanne appears repeatedly in her work. Clothes recur too: not as fashion plates, but as records of how women actually occupied their garments.
Here are a few favorites.
The Maid (c 1865-70), oil on canvas, 39 x 27.5 cm, Private collection.
The Window (c 1865-70), oil on canvas, 55.6 x 46.2 cm, Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO.
Girl with Cherries (1870), oil, 56.2 x 47.4 cm, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL.
Morning Awakening (1876), oil on canvas, 81 x 100 cm, Kunsthalle Bremen, Bremen, Germany.
A sweet encounter during the exhibition: Henri Guérard, her husband, interpreted Eva's pink slippers in his Japanese-inspired and humorous way.
And this little plaque is particularly enjoyable.
As you now know, Eva executed several paintings in which women shoes were set apart in close-up.
Souliers blancs (1880), oil, 23 x 32 cm, Private collection.
We thank her for allowing us to announce new Dulion models not once (the rose), not twice (the chausson), but soon a third time. This new colorway is hiding in one of the above paintings...
Eva died in 1883, aged only thirty-six, shortly after the birth of her son. Her career was brief, but remarkably productive. We didn't mean to spoil you and promise there is many more to see at the Petit Palais.
Eva Gonzalès — Parcours d’une artiste libre
Petit Palais, Paris
15 September 2026 — 24 January 2027
