Victorine’s Point of View
There is no doubt, reading books written by a variety of authors is an assest to a writer. I needed a book to read on the plane and wrote the word library as one of the entries on my to-do list for our trip to France for our son’s wedding.
I made the stop the day before we left. In a rush, I scanned the shelves of historical fiction, authors with names starting with the letter G. My eyes stopped on the title Paris Red by Maureen Gibbons. Fitting, I thought, a setting in France, perfect. The cover looked familiar, but I was not paying attention. Then I later realized it was the face of Olympia painted by Edouard Manet.
Although it was not the face of Olympia, it was the face of his model, Victorine Merurent. Gibbons wrote her novel in first-person from Victorine’s point of view.
Gibbon’s Paris Red is a historical fiction describing life in 19th Century Paris and the sensual relationship between artist and model. Most importantly, the story is how the model thought, observed, and experienced as she emerged as a professional model and an artist. With a painter's eye, Victorine understands the meaning of lines, shadows, and colors when she observes Manet's sketches and paintings.
What I loved was Victorine’s connection to colors. For example, she goes to a vendor’s pastel shop “just to see colors” of sticks mounted on the wall. In her mind, she relates colors to the things she knows of. I enjoyed reading Gibbon’s description of Victorine’s thoughts when she sees tints and shades lined up next to each other, which she responds emotionally to. For example, Victorine’s explanation of colors was of paving stones, midnight, delphiniums, green boots, red cherries, coffee, coffee with milk, and his blackberry vest. “How bits of sky that could fit in my hand.” (p. 242)
When Victorine modeled for Manet for hours in stillness, her thoughts entertained her while posing. She thought about soup sellers in the market, her seamstress mother’s collection of fabric scraps, when she worked as a burnisher in a silver shop, and her friend, Nise.
Her presence in Manet’s studio influenced him with her conversation, what she saw in his work, how she looked at him, and it begs the question…Could his painting of Olympia have been painted without her?
However, it is hard for us to imagine the response of the critiques during an artist lifetime, especially when we marvel and respect their artwork in museums, especially the timeless expressions, colors, and textures on the canvas. However, when Manet exhibited Olympia it was not received well.
After reading this book, I discovered who Victorine was in real life, her thoughts and desires, and how she successfully became a woman artist. Historically, Victorine (1844-1927) was Manet’s favorite model and a professional model for other painters. In wanting to know more about her, I discovered another book entitled Victorine by Dema Drudge.
I plan to read that next.
Paris Red was published by WW. Norton and Co. 2015
