Manet’s Muse…

Édouard Manet - Olympia - 1863 - Oil on canvas, 130.5 x 190 cm (51 3/8 x 74 3/4 in) Musee d'Orsay, Paris (click photo for larger image)A Work by Victorine Louise Meurent (click photo for larger image)Édouard Manet (1832-1883) Victorine Louise Meurent (February 18, 1844 – March 17, 1927) was a French painter and a famous model for painters. Although she is best known as the favorite model of Édouard Manet, she was also an artist in her own right who regularly exhibited at the prestigious Paris Salon. In 1876 her paintings were selected for inclusion at the Salon's juried exhibition, when Manet's work was not. Manet continued to use Meurent as a model until the early 1870s, when she began taking art classes. They became estranged when she was drawn to the more academic style of painting that Manet vehemently opposed. Below is the only remaining example of her work—untitled and undated—and a photograph of Victorine.