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Ann Arbor, Ml481C3 Copyright 1986 by Seibert, Margaret Mary Armbrust All Rights Reserved PLEASE NOTE: In ail cases this material has been filmed In the best possible way from the available copy. Problems encountered with this document have been identified here with a check mark V 1. Glossy photographs or pag es. 2. Colored illustrations, paper or print ______ 3. Photographs with dark background ^ 4. Illustrations are poor copy / 5. Pages with black marks, not original copy. 6. Print shows through as there is text on both sides of page. 7. Indistinct, broken or small print on several pages ________ a Print exceeds margin requirements ______ 9. Tightly bound copy with print lost in spine _______ 10. Computer printout pages with indistinct print. 11. Page(s)___________ lacking when material received, and not available from school or author. 12. Page(s)___________ seem to be missing in numbering only as text follows. 13. Two pages num bered . Text follows. 14. Curling and wrinkled pages 15. Dissertation contains pages with print at a slant, filmed as received _ 16. Other _____________________ _____________________________ University Microfilms International A BIOGRAPHY OF VIClORINB-ljCUISB MEURENT AND HER ROLE IN IHE ART OF E130UARD MANETT \mJMF. I DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Riiloeophy in the Graduate Sdiool of the Ohio State University By Ehrgaret Mary Ambrust Seibert, B.S*. M.A. Ihe Ohio State University 1986 Dissertation Conmitteet ,^roved by Mathew Herban I I I , Hi.D. Mark F u lle rto n , Ri.D. » ... A dviser Peter Gano, Hi.D. Dqartmcnt of History of Art Gopyriÿit by bbrgaret Mary Ambnist Seibert 1986 Ob Jacfk S e ib ert ftithew Hextan III Jfery R. Mealy emd in memory o f John Jost Ambrust i i MCNOWTEDGMENTS With sinœze appreciation^ iry thanks go to the following: Clara Goldslager, Interlibrary I o e u i , Œ ü o State University Linda Lucas, Secretary-typist Jean Coudeme, Musœ d'O rsay Brigitte laine. Archives of % ris M B. Line, Betty Shiith, and Richard Stein, Ihe British Library Isabelle du I^tsquier, Musœ t^tional de la Legion d 'Honneur Susan Wyngaard, ttirge Murfin, Robert lynch and Duke Morgan, Ohio State University libraries T. Davis Sydnor, John S. Oondit, Mary Millican, Julie Karovics and Barbara Hager, Ohio State University N. T. Loon i l l VITA Octcber 12, 1944 .................................. Bom - Cincinnati, Ohio 1967 ......................................................B.S., university of Cincinnati 1972 ...................................................... M.A., Chio State University 1972 - pr e s e n t .................................. Biplpyment: Columbus Collage of Art and Design, Divisions of Illustration, Fine Arts and General Studies PAPERS AND PUBLICATiœS Marcîi, 1980 ............................. "The Central Group in Gustave Courbet's "Atelier of the Painter": What tihe Allegory Really Is," Seventh Annual Mid-Americsui Art History Society. 1980 ......................................... American BoUc Art from Ctv^ Collections, Chlo Exposition Cbinnissionr June, 1983 ............................... "A BolitdLcal and a Pictorial Traditdcai in Gustave Courbet's Reêd A llegory, A rt B ulletdn. IV TABLE OP CJCNISNrS VOLUME I DEDICmCM.............................................................................................. Ü JOMOWtEDGMarrS.....................................................................................................iü VTTA.......................................................................................................... iv .................................................................................................................... 1 CHAPTER PAGE I . MAMET TO 1862 ........................................................................... 5 Ebotnotes............................................................................ 29 I I . VICrORINE MEURENT............................................................................. 44 PDOtnotes............................................................................ 69 I I I . PAINTINGS 1861-1862 ............................................................... 81 Footnotes.................................................... 107 IV. THE DEJEUNER SURL'HERBE ....................................................... 121 F o o tn o te s ........................................................................... 144 V. OLYMPIA...................................................................................... 159 F o o tn o te s ........................................................................... 184 VI. 1864-1871 .................................. 204 Footnotes .................................................................... 226 INTEOCUCnCN Victorine Meurent (1844-1908) is of interest to scholars because Bcbviarcl Ifenet chose to paint her in two of his masterpieces now in the louvre: Le Dejeuner sur l'Herbe (1863) and Olynpia (1863). Without him, Victorine as a specific historic person most likely would be of no greater consequence than any of the other vonen \ho frequented the public balls of nineteenth-century Airis, vonen whose names and ei^loits captured the public's iiraginaticai fbr a brief period only to be eclipsed and forgotten, sometimes within a single season. Mfenet employed Victorine at irregular intervals for more than a decade, and the majority of the paintings in which she appears have beei noted by scholars for their simultaneous blend of modernity, social content and symbolic significance as masterpieces of Realism in art. Nevertheless, in ^ ite of Beatrice Rirwell's astute suggestion that Victorine herself functioned as a part of the contait in Manet's paintings,^ the works in vhich Victorine appears have not been systematically viewed serially or ej^licated biograjiiically. Ihis dissertation constitutes an attempt to provide a biography for Victorine and to examine ïfenet's paintings of her as well as other artists' depictions, both visual and literary, for their treatments were Inspired either by Victorine herself, or are so sim ilar as to evoke her. Known Victorines and Louises, as Louise was her middle name, w ill be identified and their lives examined in the search for vhat may be Victorine Meurent's more complete identity and biograjhy. Although Manet seems to have fixed certain key moments in Victorine's life on canvas, he predeceased his model, whose artistic chronicle appears to have been continued after 1883 by Norbert Goeneutte and Henri de Itoulouse-Lautrec. Their pedntings of her, when taken sequentially, appear to continue a narrative, one which records the rise and fall of a Ehrisian woman generally, and of Victorine, perhaps, specifically. Such a narrative offers certain parallels to contemporary naturalistic novels which join biography with fiction, and such coincidences w ill be noted. However, unlike the novelists, who wrote à clef, most realist and some impressionist painters seem to have opted fbr identifiable specificity in their choice of models. In ^bnet's case, it is difficult to ascertain whether he chose Victorine because she was already a known personality, or whether through his works she became one. In an^ case, Victorine modeled for others, returned at later dates to be depicted in btmet's eirt again, and appears to have modeled fbr two of his admirers after tfenct's death. Even today, her presence diallenges us with a distinct personality. Like all researdi, this dissertation depends and builds vpon the findings of earlier writers and scholars, vhose views on the pertinent paintings and literature w