A Boy’s Best Friend is His Mother: Misia, Lucy, and Mom in the Lens of Vuillard

Posted on February 16, 2012 by Liza Strelka

In honor of Valentine’s Day, this is the last in a series of three love stories, featuring artists in the Snapshot exhibition—Pierre Bonnard, Henri Evenepoel, and Edouard Vuillard—and the ladies they loved. We conclude our tribute to the love lives of Snapshot artists with the three women Vuillard featured prominently in his work.

Poor Edouard Vuillard. Never married, Vuillard always seemed to fall for unattainable (read: married) women and lived with his mother until she passed away in his sixties. While it’s safe to assume he had some mother issues, he was by no means Norman Bates from Psycho. Vuillard was quiet and reserved. He preferred to be among close family and friends. His introverted personality informed the small but exquisitely patterned interior and exterior scenes depicted in his paintings and photographs. Vuillard often portrayed those closest to him, and the majority of his works in Snapshot are populated by three women who captured his heart: Misia Natanson, Lucy Hessel, and his mother.

Vuillard’s first romantic inspiration was Misia Natanson. Misia was an “it” girl of 1890s Paris and an accomplished pianist. Married to publisher Thadée Natanson who featured prints by artists including Vuillard and Bonnard in his journal La revue blanche, Misia charmed her way effortlessly through artistic circles. Vuillard became enamored of her around 1895, and soon these feelings dominated his work. She is a main focus of both his paintings and photographs from the 1890s like the ones below.

Edouard Vuillard, (left) Thadée and Misia Natanson in the salon, Rue St. Florentin, 1898. Gelatin silver print; 3 ½ x 3 ½ in. Private collection. (right) In Front of the Tapestry: Misia and Thadée Natanson, Rue St. Florentin, 1899. Oil on board; 19 x 20 in. Private collection.

At the time of his association with the Natansons, Vuillard had only recently begun to experiment with photography, and he found in Misia a willing subject with whom to explore the medium. He loved to pose her in lavish interiors and dramatic compositions, playing with decorative patterns and shadows. He captured her flirtatious nature in outdoor settings as well. Even when her husband is in the picture, Vuillard’s focus is on Misia and her youthful exuberance. She seems to relish the attention, perhaps giving in a bit to Vuillard’s admiration for her. Continue reading →

Henri Evenepoel and Louise de Mey: Star-Crossed Cousins/Lovers

Posted on February 15, 2012 by Liza Strelka

In honor of Valentine’s Day, this is the second in a series of three love stories, featuring artists in the Snapshot exhibition—Pierre Bonnard, Henri Evenepoel, and Edouard Vuillard—and the ladies they loved. Today’s story is that of Belgian artist Henri Evenepoel and his lady love Louise de Mey.

“ . . . I felt a mission, a duty, a usefulness, a reason to be: together we struggle, suffer, oh yes! horribly, but I have no regrets because I have found a soul to fortify mine.”

– Henri Evenepoel, 1897

Henri Evenepoel, Louise at Wépion, summer 1897. Modern gelatin silver print, 2011, from original negative, 1 1/2 x 2 in. © Archives of Contemporary Art in Belgium–Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels.

Henri Evenepoel’s life could be the basis of a fantastically dramatic HBO or BBC miniseries. His short life was punctuated by love, sickness, and brilliant artistic talent. His love story, almost Shakespearean in its tragedy, began—where else?— in Paris.

Evenepoel arrived in Paris in 1892 at the age of twenty. He quickly fell in love with his new city and with his cousin, Louise de Mey. Yes, his cousin. To add more drama to an already uncomfortable situation, Louise was married with two small girls, Henriette and Sophie. But that didn’t stop Evenepoel and Louise from falling in love and producing a son, Charles, in 1894. Continue reading →

What’s your name again?: The Love Story of Pierre and “Marthe” Bonnard

Posted on February 14, 2012 by Liza Strelka

Walking through the Phillips’s new Snapshot exhibition, a viewer encounters hundreds of personal photographs by seven artists. In some cases, these photos are exploratory studies for future paintings and prints. Most of the time, however, they simply document the artist’s everyday life. What’s striking about the photographs on display is not only how much they extol the artists’ aesthetic sensibilities, but how much they reveal about their private lives. These artists photographed their true loves, whether the streets of Amsterdam, nieces and nephews playing in the backyard of a country manor, or, in many cases, the women in their lives.

In honor of Valentine’s Day, this is the first in a series of three love stories, featuring artists in the exhibition—Pierre Bonnard, Henri Evenepoel, and Edouard Vuillard—and the ladies they loved.

Bonnard, Marthe in Montval, standing by a chair, 1900-01. Modern print from original negative; 1 1/2 x 2 1/8 in. Musée d’Orsay, Paris, Gift of the children of Charles Terrasse, 1992.

Legend has it that a 26-year-old Pierre Bonnard met 16-year-old Marthe de Méligny when he helped her cross a Paris street in 1893. Marthe had just moved to Paris after leaving her hometown of Saint-Amand-Montrond, a small town south of Bourges, and was working in a shop making artificial flowers for funerals. As the story goes, they fell in love and dedicated their lives to one another until her death in 1942. Happily ever after, right? Continue reading →