From Manet's Muse to Salon Artist: A Painting by Victorine Meurent at Auction
The model for Manet's famous Olympia was also a painter herself. Now one of her works goes to auction in France.
![Victorine Meurent, Orientalist scene with hookah smoker, Oil on canvas, 25 x 16.5 cm, Signed and dated '[18]76' lower left. Image © Aguttes (detail))](https://images.prismic.io/barnebys/5b7c8d97-de27-436a-821e-56d5dbac1ca5_Article+Hero+Image+FR.png?w=1200&h=600&fit=crop&crop=faces&auto=format%2Ccompress&cs=tinysrgb "Victorine Meurent, Orientalist scene with hookah smoker, Oil on canvas, 25 x 16.5 cm, Signed and dated '[18]76' lower left. Image © Aguttes (detail))")
A work by Manet's muse, who posed for Olympia and Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe, will be presented at auction at Aguttes in November, titled Orientalist scene with hookah smoker.
Related: The Tales Behind Art History's Most Important Muses
Victorine Meurent met Manet in the early 1860s, when she was not even 20 years old. She began to pose for him for numerous of his paintings, as well as those of Alfred Stevens, a friend of Manet, who then lent him his studio. She posed for Manet from 1862 to 1873.
But Victorine was also an artist herself, and in 1875, she enrolled at the Académie Julian in the studio of the painter Etienne Leroy. Her first works met with some success and were even received several times at the Salon. However, her work caused friction with Manet because her style was close to the academicism that he vigorously rejected. A certain rivalry could even have arisen between them when, in 1876, she presented Self-portrait at the Salon, while Manet was refused. In 1879, however, she was exhibited in the same room as Manet with her Bourgeoise de Nuremberg au XVIe siècle.
Related: Art History's 8 Most Unforgettable Faces
In 1907, Victorine Meurent left Paris to settle in the nearby suburb Colombes with her partner, the same year that Olympia entered the Louvre (the painting can now be found at the Musée d'Orsay). She continued to paint for a long time to come, probably until her death in 1927, at the age of 83.
Three of her paintings are kept at the municipal museum of Colombes: Le jour des Palmeaux, Le Briquet and Le portrait du chien Jup. Her Self-Portrait from 1876 is kept at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, after being rediscovered by the Edouard Ambroselli Gallery.
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Meurent's body of work is very small, but having specialized in commissioned animal portraits, it is certainly still possible to find some of her paintings. However, they remain quite discreet for the moment.
![Victorine Meurent, Orientalist scene with hookah smoker, oil on canvas, 25 x 16,5 cm, signed and dated '[18]76. Image © Aguttes](https://images.prismic.io/barnebys/a8b3826a-b3f2-42aa-8fd4-bf374f9e7d51_Untitled+design-2.png?w=800&auto=format%2Ccompress&cs=tinysrgb)
The rediscovery of Orientalist scene with hookah smoker is therefore very interesting given that few of her works are known to the public today. This painting is unique for two reasons: it is dated 1876, the year in which it was exhibited at the Salon for the first time, and Orientalism was certainly a rare theme for Victorine Meurent. Her biography has not yet been fully revealed, but it is likely that she never went to the Middle East or North Africa and that she composed her painting based on the engravings of Alexandre-Gabriel Decamps and Prosper Marilhat which were circulating at the time.
Orientalist scene with hookah smoker is a street scene, presenting a stall filled with exotic objects and three men chatting and smoking. This painting offers a study of colors and light previously unseen by Victorine Meurent. The sale will take place on November 15 at 4 p.m. in Neuilly-sur-Seine.
