Lost Photos of Manet's Model Victorine Meurent Discovered in Grenoble

Two photographs of Victorine Meurent, the model for Édouard Manet's scandalous paintings "Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe" and "Olympia," have been discovered by chance at the Musée de Grenoble. The prints, attributed to Gaudenzio Marconi, were found by photography historian Laure Boyer while researching a different topic. The images show Meurent in poses directly corresponding to the 1863 paintings, with the face of one photo matching "Olympia" and the other "Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe." Boyer's analysis confirms the model's identity through anatomical measurements. The photographs entered the museum in 1926 as part of the Henri Fantin-Latour collection. Boyer hypothesizes that Manet either gave them to Fantin-Latour as a gift for his painting "Un atelier aux Batignolles" (1870) or that Fantin-Latour took them from Manet's studio after his death to avoid further scandal. The discovery sheds new light on Manet's working method, as he used photographs to continue painting outside of live sessions. Meurent, also a painter, is now recognized as a significant influence on Manet. Boyer published her findings in The Burlington Magazine and plans a book.