Irma (artist's model)

Who she was

Irma was a professional artists' model of the Paris studios and, in the evenings, an actress of the Théâtre des Batignolles (102.0317); the sitter of Marie Bashkirtseff's La Parisienne, portrait d'Irma, modèle à l'Académie Julian (Petit Palais, Paris). She was 23 in November 1883 ("elle en a vingt-trois", 102.0321), so born about 1860. The diary never gives a surname: when Marie wants an invented name for an ordinary Parisienne she writes "Irma Pitauchard" (102.0030), which is a joke and not hers. I did not find her in any other source, so nothing is known of her outside the diary.

Marie's portrait of her in December 1881 is the fullest description: "Irma n'est pas un modèle ordinaire, c'est le type disparu dit-on, de la grisette, elle est drôle et sentimentale avec naïvetés de vice ... Elle pose avec intelligence, on peut en faire ce qu'on veut car elle est avec sa pâleur étonnante aussi bien une candide jeune fille qu'un abîme de dépravations comme toutes ces coureuses" (094.0113). In 1882 she calls her "drôle, rouée, vicieuse, gaie" (096.0355).

Marie and Irma

1880-1881. On 2 September 1880 Marie has rented a garden at 65 rue de Ranelagh in Passy for open-air studies and begins with "Irma, nue, sous un arbre, mi-corps, grandeur nature" (089.0457). In August 1881 she draws or paints "cette coquine d'Irma, avec une cigarette et riant" (093.0034). In November 1881 the fellow pupil Amélie (Beaury-Saurel) "m'a presque filouté Irma à laquelle j'avais écrit avant elle": a rivalry over models that Marie hears as another trick of Amélie's (093.0373). On 19 December she has "Irma" for a pen drawing (094.0098); on 29 December she wants "faire à la fois Dina, Nini et Irma" (094.0113).

The head (1881-1883). The sittings of 1881-82 are for the head of laughing Irma. It is finished on 18 July 1882 (095.0298), the day after which a young caller, apparently Émile Bastien-Lepage, blushes when Marie accuses him of inventing an excuse "pour revoir la belle Irma" (095.0313). Marie counts it among her large pictures in November 1882 ("le tableau du Salon ... Thérèse, Irma, Dina", 097.0154) and, in a bad hour, as the work from which she has slid back: "L'été dernier j'ai fait Irma qui rit et tout le monde a trouvé cela bien quoiqu'un peu sec" (097.0130); "depuis Irma j'ai pataugé dans la pluie" (097.0213). She sends it to the Salon of 1883 as a second envoi; on judging day she fears the small head will be admitted and the large picture refused ("Non mais la tête d'Irma", 098.0573), then learns it is admitted (098.0605). It hangs "sur la cimaise et dans un angle" (099.0177); Marie's own verdict is "agréable et d'une peinture assez franche ... une chose sans prétention" (099.0314) and Saint-Marceaux singles it out for praise (100.0459). See #La_Parisienne.

Studio gossip. Irma tells Marie what goes on among the studios. In July 1882 she says Tony Robert-Fleury has spent three days at Fontainebleau with the other model Reine (095.0305); in October 1882 she gives Marie the news about Robert-Fleury's affairs ("C'est Irma qui me met au courant de ces jolies choses", 096.0355) and says he is "comme un vieillard au moral" (096.0358). In October 1883 she tells Marie that her flirtation with Bojidar went no further since he confessed to having no money (101.0528). In January 1884 she teaches Marie and Bojidar the vulgar verses on Bastien-Lepage which she attributes to Gervex (103.0019).

A new model (November 1883 -- July 1884). On 24 November 1883 Marie, looking for a model for a Nausicaa, thinks of Irma again: "Je ne l'avais pas vue nue depuis longtemps ... je la retrouve admirablement belle ... Et dire que je n'ai jamais fait que sa tête !" (102.0316-0317). On the 26th: "elle est trop femme; il faudrait quinze ans et elle en a vingt-trois" (102.0321); on 28 January 1884 she tries another model for the Nausicaa (103.0157). Irma sits for her sculpture on 26 December 1883 (102.0572). On 3 July 1884, with Rosalie, Irma goes with Marie to the fairground and outer boulevards to find wrestlers for #La_Rue (105.0013) -- the last mention. On 15 December 1883 she and Rosalie try, in vain, to amuse a sulking child sitter with stories (102.0484).

In Marie's art

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Sources