Modèle en rougeJulie Manet

The work was executed in the apartment on rue de Villejust on the 4th floor where, since the death of Berthe, Julie Manet, her cousin Jeannie Gobillard, lived together, under the authority of their elder, Paule Gobillard. They painstakingly recreated the mantelpiece as Berthe Morisot had arranged and painted it in her first-floor studio-living room: “The fireplace, in a Saxon vase, are a few chrysanthemums surrounded by bronze candelabra on white marble bases; what a lovely still life on this mantelpiece marbled in every color.” (Julie Manet, Journal, 1896). Like Morisot, the cousins painted in the living room and then hid the canvases away in cupboards. Their collaborative practice likely explains the inscriptions on the back indicating that a canvas painted by Paule had been adhered to one painted by Julie. On the reverse of the canvas at the top, handwritten inscription in chalk: "Gobillard 2". On the middle horizontal bar of the stretcher, there is a handwritten inscription in chalk reading 'Manet' (upside down), and another in pencil reading 'below / canvas of Julie model in red / the two canvases have stuck together.' There is also a stamp from a canvas and paint merchant, but it is illegible.