ONE MODEL, TWO VIEWS

Courtesy Musée Fabre

Courtesy Musée Fabre

“In La Toilette (1869–70), Bazille depicts the same black model very differently: beautifully painted as an exotic, bare-breasted servant to a white odalisque, or prostitute. This was a very accepted way for black women to be portrayed in 19th-century art—and in fact, Bazille submitted this piece for inclusion in the Paris Salon of 1870.”

“The model has her back to the viewer and is kneeling in service; it’s a marked contrast to her central position and direct gaze in Young Woman with Peonies, which was inspired by the artist Édouard Manet’s exhortation to be a painter of modern life.”

GALLERY TALK

Courtesy National Gallery of Art

Bazille’s Young Woman with Peonies (1870) is a striking work for its time that also marks a point of departure for the artist, who was moving from traditional compositions such as La Toilette (above) to a more modern, realist approach to his subject—in this case, an unidentified but well-paid black model. (Bazille wrote to his father requesting more money to keep her on so that he could continue his work.) Murrell offers a few additional points of context:

“Bazille’s depiction of the same model in La Toilette shows her as a figure on the edge of the canvas. Here, she is a free, black Parisian, just as the model was in real life, in the period following the final French abolition of territorial enslavement in 1848. I read her to be a flower vendor, based on the fact that there are photos from the period of French Caribbean women selling flowers and foodstuffs in Paris.”

“In more traditional scenes, the black woman’s gaze does not meet ours; instead she is usually looking at her employer. Here, Bazille depicts her alone, with no mistresses to marginalize her, and gives her a direct but enigmatic expression that retains a sense of independence and privacy. I like that she’s serious, that she’s not playing to the viewer. She is modest, even unremarkable, just a part of everyday life.”

“This painting was not created to be shown publicly; it was a gift for Bazille’s sister. That possibly gave him more freedom to follow Édouard Manet’s modernist lead—in fact, this painting has been read as Bazille’s tribute to Manet, who loved peonies and grew them in his garden at Gennevilliers.”