Lot 9: Jeanne Guérard-Gonzalès (1852-1924)

Portrait de Eva Gonzalès (à Dieppe)
signed indinstinctly 'Gonzalès (lower right)
oil on canvas
18 1/8 x 15 in. (46 x 38 cm.)
Painted circa 1880

Wichita, Kansas, Wichita Art Museum, A Personal Gathering: Paintings and Sculpture from the Collection of William I. Koch, February- May 1996, p. 22, no. 5 (illlustrated).

M. Delafond, Les femmes impressionistes, Mary Cassat, Eva Gonzalès, Berthe Morisot, Paris, 1993, p. 135, no. 24 (illustrated). M.-C. Sainsaulieu and J. De Mons, Eva Gonzalès, 1849-1883, Etude critique et catalogue raisonné, Paris, 1990, p. 32 (illustrated).

William I. Koch, Palm Beach and New York. Spring Creek Art Foundation, Inc. (acquired from the above).

Born to an artistic and literary family, Jeanne Guard-Gonzalès was the daughter of Emmanuel Gonzalès, a well-known writer of the day, and her mother was a musician. Eva Gonzal, Jeanne's older sister, was also involved with the arts as both a model to and pupil of Edouard Manet and she became a painter in her own right. It is thought that Jeanne Guard-Gonzaes often chaperoned her sister to Manet's studio where Eva went for painting lessons, and these sessions may have served as an important influence in her choice to become a painter.

In the present work, Jeanne captures Eva in an idle moment during tea-time. This intimate domestic scene was a popular motif during the day and one often employed by other well known artists of the period such as Edouard Vuillard and even Berthe Morisot. This painting was likely executed prior to 1882, but the exact location is unknown. Marie-Caroline Sainsaulieu and Jacques de Mons site Di©ppe as the locale and other historians believe it was done in Honfleur where, Eva and Henri Guérard spent their summers.