Eva Gonzalès, the journey of a free spirit.

She was the only student of Édouard Manet. Eva Gonzalès is finally receiving her first major retrospective, nearly 140 years after her death. Paintings, drawings, prints, and archives illuminate their artistic relationship, without her ever imitating the master. Manet painted her at his easel in 1870, in a famous portrait. Fate would link their names. Six days after the death of Manet, in May 1883, she died at the age of 36 from complications following childbirth. Her close circle nourished her work, centered around her sister Jeanne, a painter, and her husband Henri Guérard, an engraver.

The exhibition retraces a delicate and audacious body of work, resistant to classification. Her masterpiece, A Box at the Théâtre des Italiens (1874), housed at the Musée d’Orsay, reveals her talent. Works by Berthe Morisot, Mary Cassatt, and Marie Bracquemond place her within the context of 19th-century female artists. The gentleness of the faces and the clarity of the blues leave us dreaming.

PETIT PALAIS
From September 15, 2026 to January 24, 2027
Avenue Winston Churchill, 75008 Paris
Metro: Champs-Élysées - Clemenceau (Lines 1 and 13)
Tue. to Sun. 10am-6pm, Fri. and Sat. until 8pm
Closed on Mon.
Price: €14 - Reduced price: €12 - Free for under 18s