Victorine Meurent 1862

Edouard Manet painted this portrait of Victorine Meurent, his frequent model, with oil on canvas. In nineteenth-century Paris, where social roles were rigidly defined, the relationship between artist and model was fraught with implications of class and gender. Victorine, however, was not simply Manet’s subject; she was a presence, an active participant in the artistic process. Her gaze meets ours directly, challenging the traditional dynamic where the female model is objectified and rendered passive. It’s easy to imagine the conversations they had about art, life, and the rapidly changing world around them. "I only paint what I see," Manet famously said, but what he chose to see, and how he chose to paint it, was deeply influenced by his interactions with figures like Victorine. Consider the act of truly seeing another person, beyond societal roles, and the radical potential it holds.