Eva Gonzalès

Jean-Raymond Guérard, Paris
André Watteau, Paris
E.J. van Wisselingh & Co., Amsterdam
Private Collection, Winnipeg, Canada
E.V. Thaw & Co., Inc., New York
Galerie Hopkins-Thomas, Paris
Eastlake Galleries, Inc., New York
Acquired from the above

Paris, Galerie Marcel Bernheim, Eva Gonzalès, 1932, no. 31
Monaco, Eva Gonzalès, 1952, no. 24
Paris, Galerie Daber, Eva Gonzalès, no. 27

François Mathey, Six femmes-peintres, Paris, 1951, no. 25, illustrated p. 8
Marie-Caroline Sainsaulieu, Eva Gonzalès, 1849-1883, Étude critique et catalogue raisonné, Paris, 1990, no. 122, illustrated in color p. 263

This work is in excellent condition. Canvas is unlined. The colors are fresh and bright. There is some smudging to the medium, particularly at lower left quadrant which may be original to the composition.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
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Eva Gonzalès first received critical attention at the Paris Salon of 1870, when she exhibited three pictures and was herself the subject of a fourth: Portrait d'Eva Gonzalès by Édouard Manet (National Gallery, London). The sole pupil of Manet, Gonzalès achieved considerable success within Parisian art circles during her lifetime and was awarded a large-scale posthumous retrospective at the Salons de la Vie Moderne just two years after her death. Gonzalès was championed by the likes of Émile Zola, who referred to her as the "naturalist artist of our times" (published in "Lettres Parisiennes," La Cloche, May 12, 1872, p. 2, translated from the French), and the critic Jules Clarétie, who wrote of Gonzalès as "an artist of rare talent, who takes the brush after having handled pastel like Rosalba" (Jules Clarétie, Peintres et Sculpteurs Contemporains, Paris, 1874, p. 263, translated from the French).

The relative obscurity of Eva Gonzalès is attributable to both her untimely death and to a discordant reception history. Unwilling to exhibit with the Impressionists, Gonzalès stayed the course in the Salons with her maître and achieved significant critical acclaim despite her lack of popularity in the eyes of the public. Her death at the age of thirty-four left no time for a wide-sweeping survey of her life's work, which for historians and collectors today provides the breathtaking, if stilted, unveiling of an oeuvre of indeterminate size and scope.

Dated 1882-83, L’Espagnole was executed during the last year of the artist’s life. The shimmering and weightless pastels on this canvas are profoundly vivacious, offering evidence of a young and energetic artist in her prime. The continued rediscovery of Gonzalès's skillful hand seats her in the pantheon of female Impressionists Berthe Morisot and Mary Cassatt, while her life's narrative inextricably links her to both the female and male masters of the era.