Studies of ciociara models, Rosa and Stella (Rome, 1876)

Overview

In Rome in early 1876, still before her serious training, Marie paints heads from professional models in peasant dress. On 31 January 1876 she has "un nouveau modèle ... une femme et elle se nomme Rosa. Pas jolie mais drôle" (053.0254), and notes that she paints for "trois quarts d'heure deux fois par semaine" (053.0253, a marginal note). On 14 February she writes: "La peinture me retient ici ! J'ai ébauché une troisième étude, encore une femme en costume de ciocara, une magnifique figure de trente-sept ans. Elle est malheureusement engagée de sorte que je reprendrai encore Rosa dont la binette n'est pas encore finie, et celle-là, la belle qui a pour nom Stella, ne pourra poser qu'aux premiers jours de mars. J'aurai donc le temps d'en prendre encore une nouvelle entre Rosa et Stella. Mais ce n'est pas intéressant." (054.0100). Ciociara is the costume of the peasant women of the Ciociaria region south of Rome, a fashionable subject for painters; the project footnote says as much. Three studies are mentioned (Rosa; a 37-year-old woman who is already booked; Stella, to sit in early March); none survives in any known record, no image.

Marie and this work

This is her first documented painting from the live model, a few months before she begins to take lessons in Paris. Her own comment ("Mais ce n'est pas intéressant") shows she is cool about it; the earlier RSR note calls it a pastime at this stage. The identification of the models stops at their first names, Rosa and Stella; the unnamed 37-year-old woman might or might not be Stella (Marie writes that the beautiful Stella can sit only in March, so apparently a different woman).

References in Diary

Related Entries

Sources