Do you see the resemblance that I see? Or am I just in love? How about this: Each age has its own muse—or maybe she keeps coming back. What do you think? All I know for certain is that I love these two women, and am moved by their images and their lives.
This is the kind of corset Victorine might have worn in 1862. The image comes from the Metropolitan Museum costume collection. It also appears to be the style of corset depicted in Manet’s 1878 pastel drawing “Woman Fastening Her Garter.” Or maybe the drawing shows something more like this corset: Victorine Meurent wouldn’t have had money for an […]
I look down and fiddle with the metal clip and the band. I keep my head lowered and when I get tired of pushing at my stocking, I let my fingers relax and just keep them there, the tips tucked under the band above my knee. It is not like the nude poses for Moulin. […]
A snapshot from my old room in Paris, on Boulevard Auguste-Blanqui. Every morning when I got up, I looked out from the terrace to see the Suze sign. I just loved seeing it. That’s what gave me the idea for the details of this scene from Paris Red, where Victorine looks out the window of her new room: “There’s […]
The postcard probably dates from around 1910, but I include it anyway. I refer to the idea of “the language of hair” in Paris Red, though in a different format. Redheads are cunning coquettes, while brunettes are discreet and faithful. Hmm.
It’s just a label from a box of candles, I know. But for me it turned into an artifact of Victorine Meurent’s life. I imagined it in her room, at her bedside. It was another detail that brought me into her days and nights. Victorine was Manet’s favorite, his “modèle de predilection.” And she was brilliant […]
“That day I am seventeen and I am wearing the green boots of a whore.” ~ Victorine Meurent in Paris Red
Olympia, cette fille de nos jours, que vous rencontrez sur les trottoirs et qui serre ses maigres épaules dans un mince châle de laine déteinte.
~ Émile Zola
Victorine Meurent was born on February 18, 1844, not far from Canal Saint-Martin. She started posing for Manet when she was a teenager, and was his “modèle de predilection” for thirteen years. She became an artist and exhibited at 1876 Salon of the Académie des Beaux-Arts. She’s the first-person narrator and star of my novel, […]
Paris Red: A Novel by Maureen Gibbon 