La Joconde (Mona Lisa)
Also known as: la Joconde, La Joconde, Joconde, Mona Lisa, La Gioconda
Overview
Leonardo da Vinci's half-length portrait of (traditionally) Lisa del Giocondo, oil on a white poplar panel, begun about 1503 and perhaps worked on until 1516-17. King Francis I acquired it after Leonardo's death in 1519; it later became state property and has normally hung in the Louvre, Paris, since 1797. (Source: Wikipedia, "Mona Lisa".) In Marie's day it was a celebrated Louvre masterpiece but not yet the global icon it became after its 1911 theft; Marie's references are to its "mystery" and its tonal background.
Marie and this work
- 1881-02-07 (091.0090, Paris): she tells that her favourite, Bastien-Lepage, exhibits the face of the Prince of Wales in "costume Henri VII", with the Thames and the English fleet behind; "le fond rappelle celui de la Joconde comme ton".
- 1882-08-19 (096.0107): planning a portrait of her cousin Dina with "une pointe de mystère, d'inconnu dans ses yeux de chat... je ne sais quoi qui ne ressemble pas à l'air de la Joconde mais qui a son mystère aussi".
- 1882-09-18 (096.0257): describing her new studio: the red-hung landing and antechamber are "ornée[s] de photographies de tableaux de maîtres, déjà sur le palier on voit la Joconde et le portrait du sculpteur de Vélasquez". So a photograph of the painting hung by her studio stairs.
Not the painting
1883-04-24 (099.0191): "Il serait bien temps de lâcher l'ignoble Joconde aux cheveux teints." This is an insult directed at a woman (in context the one involved with the architect's brother; the researcher's earlier note names Stéphanie), not a reference to the painting. The alias "Joconde" will tag it; treat it as a metaphor.