Art Insights — Morning Awakening by Eva Gonzales

Born in 1849, Eva Gonzales grew up during the time when the Impressionist movement was gaining its popularity in France. Learning from the famous painter Edouard Manet in the early days of her artistic career, Gonzales soon earned fame herself, working on portraits, still-lives, and occasional landscape paintings.

The favorite model of Gonzales was her younger sister Jeanne. She also tried herself in painting, but the modeling was something that brought more fame. Since the eldest Gonzales sister never did a self-portrait in her life, Jeanne was featured in many artworks.

Jeanne was kind of a mirror-reflection of Eva. She depicted her sister the way she wanted to imagine herself. It may sound strange, but there was some symbolism in this. In the later years, when Eva married French artist Henry Guerard, she did a portrait of Jeanne featuring her own wedding dress. Furthermore, after Eva died in childbirth in 1883 at the age of 35, Jeanne married Guerard and became the step-mother of her sister’s child.

Morning Awakening (1877). Oil on canvas, 81 cm x 100 cm.

Morning Awakening is one of the many paintings done by Gonzales that depicts her sister in everyday situations. However, the French artist did not follow the advice of Manet, who suggested that the model should pose naked for this painting. Gonzales did not agree with such a vision, and she always tried to portray her sister as a pure being. It would be hard to imagine Gonzales creating artwork with a nude model, seeing how she depicted women in her other works. She did not want to feature any elements of eroticism.

Overall, it was one of the key distinctions between Gonzales and the male counterparts of the Impressionism movement. She always tried to captivate the viewer’s eye with pure femininity, without adding any nudity or vulgarity, like many Impressionist painters loved to do. Gonzales works never featured naked ladies besides dressed men, and her works never screamed for attention. Morning Awakening is a great example of her philosophy.

Example of a landscape painting done by Eva Gonzales — Bateau à marée basse (1877/78). Oil on canvas, 19 cm x 26 cm.

This painting depicts a young woman in the morning, shortly after she has awakened. She looks a bit dreamy, distant, and not yet fully awake. The painter focused on the skin and black hair of the model. Those elements strongly stand out against the white-in-white of the bed, bedclothes, and table with flowers that have shades of blue, beige, and light pinkish shadows.

There was also a companion-piece sketch done by Gonzales in addition to this portrait. The sketch is owned by a private collector. It features Eva’s sister in an identical pose, laying on the bed with her eyes closed in sleep, while the color tones are chosen slightly differently, compared to the Morning Awakening.

Unfortunately, Gonzales lived a short life, and during her career, she was mostly associated with and overshadowed by Manet and his works. Manet featured his student in the painting Portrait of Mademoiselle Gonzalès — it earned great attention in the Paris Salon’s exhibitions. The 19th-century was not the worst for female artists, but it was far from good. Gonzales was one of the many female painters who did not get enough appreciation because of her gender.

Morning Awakening remains one of the key works, done by Gonzales. Largely, thanks to its sensuality and the effect which allows the viewer has the sense of being included in the scene. It might be one of the everyday scenes, but it carries a light and atmospheric mood. Gonzales might have lacked the proper respect amongst her contemporaries, but she deserves to be mentioned in the same sentence, as her teacher Manet and other Impressionist masters — Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Alfred Sisley, and Frederic Bazille.

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