Do you know Victorine Meurent? Rue Victorine is not just another street. It whispers tales of artists and their muses. Today, we are standing on Rue Victorine. It offers a glimpse into the life of a remarkable woman.
Rue Victorine possibly echoes with the footsteps of Victorine Meurent herself. She was not only a model but also a talented artist. Her story is intertwined with the evolution of Parisian art and culture. Let’s dive into the world that Victorine Meurent inhabited.
Victorine Meurent was born in Paris in 1844. She came from a family of artisans. Her mother was a milliner. Her father was a bronze patinator. At sixteen, she began modeling. She entered the studio of Thomas Couture. Perhaps she even studied art at his atelier for women.
She is best known as the muse of Édouard Manet. Manet painted her over and over. Without the photos of Charles Marville, imagining Victorine’s world would be difficult. Marville documented the streets of Paris before Haussmannization. He photographed streets that would disappear. Because of his photos, one can see the exact street where Victorine lived. One can see it as she saw it in 1862.
Manet’s notebooks recorded Victorine’s address. For a time, she lived at 17 rue Maître Albert. Rue Maître Albert is interesting because it has a bend in it. It has a dogleg. Victorine lived right at the spot where the street angled. Just around the corner from rue Maître Albert was tiny rue Jacinthe. It was destroyed by Haussmann. It was a street so narrow it looked more like an alleyway.
Victorine first modeled for Manet in 1862. This was for his painting The Street Singer. She was noticeable for her petite stature. People nicknamed her La Crevette meaning The Shrimp. Also for her red hair, which is depicted as very bright in Manet’s watercolor copy of Olympia.
Meurent played the violin and the guitar. She gave lessons in the two instruments. She also sang. She reportedly performed at café-concerts. These were musical establishments associated with the Belle Époque in France. Initially, they were held outdoors.
Meurent’s name is associated with Manet’s masterpieces of 1863. Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe and Olympia feature nude portrayals of her. At that time, she also modeled for Edgar Degas. She modeled for Belgian painter Alfred Stevens too. Both were close friends of Manet. Her relationship with Stevens is said to have been particularly close.
Victorine was a professional cancan dancer. She traveled to New York from Paris in 1868. She was part of a troupe of forty-eight artistes. They performed in Jacques Offenbach operettas including Geneviève de Brabant. It was at the French Theater on Fifth Avenue. She was considered one of the most audacious can-can dancers of the troupe.
Manet continued to use Meurent as a model until the early 1870s. She began taking art classes then. She was drawn to a more academic style of painting. Manet opposed this. Meurent and Manet became estranged. The last Manet painting in which Meurent appears is The Railway 1873. The painting is an example of Manet’s use of contemporary subject matter.
In 1875, Meurent began studying with portraitist Étienne Leroy. The following year, Meurent first submitted her own work to the Salon. It was accepted. Manet’s own submissions were rejected by the jury that year.
Meurent’s entry at the Académie des Beaux-Arts in 1879 was Bourgeoise de Nuremberg au XVIe siècle. It was hung in the same room as Manet’s entry. Work by Meurent was included in the 1885 and 1904 exhibitions as well. In all, Meurent exhibited in the Salon four times. She supported herself by modeling through the 1880s. She modeled for Norbert Goeneutte. He was an artist best known for his etchings and for Toulouse-Lautrec.
In 1903, Meurent was inducted into the Société des Artistes Français. She had the support of Charles Hermann-Leon and Tony Robert-Fleury. By 1906, at the age of 62, Meurent had left Paris for Colombes. She lived there for the remainder of her life. She owned a house jointly with Marie Dufour. Meurent continued to refer to herself as an artist into her seventies.
At the age of 83, Meurent died on March 17, 1927.
As you walk along Rue Victorine, remember the woman who challenged conventions. She was a model and a painter. She left her mark on the Parisian art scene. Her spirit lingers in every corner.