Petit Palais to Host First Major French Retrospective of Eva Gonzalès in 2026

The Petit Palais in Paris will present "Eva Gonzalès. Parcours d’une artiste libre" from September 15, 2026 to January 24, 2027, the first major exhibition in France dedicated to the painter Eva Gonzalès (1847-1883). Organized in partnership with the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam and with support from the Musée d'Orsay, the show brings together around one hundred paintings, pastels, and prints. Gonzalès, the only student of Édouard Manet, has long been overshadowed by contemporaries Mary Cassatt and Berthe Morisot. The exhibition traces her career from her bourgeois upbringing—her father was a journalist and writer, her mother a musician who hosted a literary salon—through her training with academic painter Charles Chaplin, to her independent submissions to the Salon from 1870 to 1883. Works such as "La Psyché" (c. 1869-1870), "L'Indolence" (c. 1871-1872), "L'Enfant de troupe" (1870), and "Une loge aux Italiens" (1874) highlight her intimate, atmospheric style. The exhibition also places her in dialogue with Cassatt, Morisot, and Marie Bracquemond, contextualizing the challenges faced by women artists. Gonzalès died at age 34 in 1883, days after giving birth. A posthumous retrospective was held in 1885 at La Vie moderne in Paris, but her name faded from art history. The Petit Palais aims to restore her legacy.