Hidden in the Shadow of the Master: The Model-Wives of Cézanne, Monet, and Rodin

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Paul Cézanne, Claude Monet, and Auguste Rodin. The names of these brilliant nineteenth-century artists are known throughout the world. But what is remembered of their wives? What were these unknown women like? What roles did they play in the lives and the art of their famous husbands? In this remarkable book of discovery, art historian Ruth Butler coaxes three shadowy women out of obscurity and introduces them for the first time as individuals. Through unprecedented research, Butler has been able to create portraits of Hortense Fiquet, Camille Doncieux, and Rose Beuret—the models, and later the wives, respectively, of Cézanne, Monet, and Rodin, three of the most famous French artists of their generation. The book tells the stories of three ordinary women who faced issues of a dramatically changing society as well as the challenges of life with a striving genius. Butler illuminates the ways in which these model-wives figured in their husbands’ achievements and provides new analyses of familiar works of art. Filled with captivating detail, the book recovers the lives of Hortense, Camille, and Rose, and recognizes with new insight how their unique relationships enriched the quality of their husbands’ artistic endeavors. Contents Preface Introduction: Recognizing the Model and Her Work Part I. Hortense Fiquet 1. Hortense Fiquet and Paul Cézanne 2. Single Mother 3. Sixty Francs for Hortense 4. Hortense at Thirty: In the Salon, in the Garden, in Bed 5. A Dark Blue Wedding Dress? 6. Fifteen Hectares of Fallow Land 7. For or Against Hortense? 8. After October 1906 Part II. Camille Doncieux 9. Camille Doncieux and Claude Monet 10. Camille—Or—The Green Dress 11. A Garden Full of Dresses 12. Without a Sou 13. Why Did He Marry Her? 14. The Second Empire Disappears 15. The “Impressionist” Couple 16. Money and La Japonaise 17. A Patron 18. Death in a Village by the River 19. Epilogue Part III. Rose Beuret 20. Rose Beuret and Auguste Rodin 21. From Vecqueville to the Banks of the Bièvre 22. A Woman’s Body 23. Montmartre and the Commune 24. Ixelles 25. The Return Home 26. The Commission That Changed Everything 27. A House in Meudon 28. The Dark Side of Being the Old Mistress of a Genius 29. The War and the Wedding Afterword. “The Humble Son of a Genius” Appendix Acknowledgments Notes Works Consulted Index