Gossip is good for you – and that’s official! Studies in Blue Zones, those areas of the world where there are a higher percentage of centenarians than elsewhere, show that one of the most important factors for longevity is ‘social intercourse,’ that is chatting with family, neighbours, shopkeepers, the postman – in fact, all and sundry.
So, in the interests of your health and long life I thought I’d share a little healthy gossip with you today. And if you are an artistic bent, who better to gossip about than the Impressionists, whose lives, according to the dailyartmagazine online, had all the makings of a soap opera.
Zuzanna StaÅ„ska, art historian and founder of the magazine, writes: “ I know, it is a bit rude to discuss private lives of people. But when it comes to the Impressionists, knowing their relationships, connections, sudden twists of fate, and often difficult characters makes the whole story about them much more interesting. And we can see them as real humans, not superheroes from the artistic pedestal. They all knew each other, liked each other, loved each other. They were friends.â€
Zusanna gives us five pieces of intriguing Impressionist gossip that are like the plot of a soap opera, but she says: “Disclaimer: all these stories are true, nothing was made up!â€
We haven’t the space here to tell all the stories (click here to read the whole article), but here are a couple of snippets that caught my eye.
First, Berthe Morisot and Édouard Manet’s possible romance, and Manet’s younger brother. Zuzanna writes: “Around 1869 Berthe Morisot, then still an art student, met Édouard Manet. They became close and there is a suspicion that the two were in love with each other. He painted her many times. A contemporary observed: ‘When [Manet] paints Victorine [Manet’s often used model], he paints her as a beautiful object; when he paints Berthe, he paints her with love and tenderness.â€
That’s Berthe above, painted by Édouard, and if there was ever a painting by a man in love, it is this one.
But he was married, and she was careful, says Zuzanna, and: “In 1874, at the age of 33 – late for a woman of that period – she married the 41-year-old Manet’s younger brother Eugène, who was also a painter. Eugène then set aside his own career to support hers. After this wedding, Édouard never painted Berthe again. I wonder how their Christmas parties looked like? Novelist George Moore, Manet’s friend who found Morisot charming, remembered Manet’s outrageous statement that: “My sister-in-law would not have existed without me.â€
I must say that chauvinistic statement makes me like Manet a little less.
There is more fin de siècle gossip starring Claude Monet, Alice Hoschedé, their children (two of whom married) Edgar Dégas, Marie Bracquemont and Van Gogh’s doctor Paul Gachet, but I was particularly interested in Gustave Caillebotte, who Zusanna calls ‘the mysterious loner’ among the Impressionists. We have a print of his fantastic painting The Floor Scrapers hanging on the wall of the Uccello bedroom and the artist has always intrigued me.
Zusanna writes: “Wealthy, a superhero himself, acting like a sponsor to some of his friends, and also a collector. Caillebotte was largely self-taught and made his debut very late, in the second Impressionist exhibition in 1876, showing eight paintings including now legendary The Floor Scrapers, his earliest masterpiece.
“In 1881 Caillebotte was tired of the constant conflicts with the other members of the group and withdrew. He acquired a property at Petit-Gennevilliers on the banks of the Seine near Argenteuil, and moved there permanently with his brother Martial in 1888. His career slowed dramatically in the early 1890s when he stopped making large canvases. At the age of 34 he devoted himself to gardening and to building and racing yachts, and spent much time with Martial and his friend Auguste Renoir. He died at age 45 and for years he was forgotten as an artist and art history remembered him mostly as a collector and wealthy supporter of the Impressionists.â€
Well, there you are, a little bit of celebrity gossip (albeit a little out of date) to brighten your day and prolong your life. And our sincere thanks once again to dailyartonline and Zusanna for giving us all the goss