La Parisienne, portrait d'Irma

Overview

La Parisienne, portrait d'Irma, modèle à l'Académie Julian (1882, oil on canvas, 55,5 × 46 cm) is Marie Bashkirtseff's portrait of Irma, a professional model at the Académie Julian. It was shown at the Salon of 1883 simply as Parisienne, alongside Jean et Jacques and the pastel portrait of Dina -- the year Marie received her mention honorable. It is signed and dated at the upper left, "Bashkirtseff 1882".

The picture is in the Petit Palais, Musée des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris, inv. PPP129, given by the artist's mother, Maria Stepanovna Bashkirtseva née Babanina, in 1902, at the museum's opening. It is not currently on display, but Paris Musées has released a museum-grade photograph of it into the public domain, which makes it one of the best-reproduced of all her works.

Description

A round-faced young woman, seen close and half-length against a plain ground, in a simple straw hat trimmed with a garland of flowers. It is a small canvas and an unpretentious one -- Marie's own verdict at the Salon was that it was "une chose sans prétention" -- and its interest is that it is a portrait of a working model treated as a portrait of a Parisian woman: the title generalises the sitter into a type without prettifying her.

Marie had described Irma in December 1881 as the vanished "type de la grisette", drôle and sentimental with naïvetés of vice, and had noted exactly the quality that makes this painting possible: "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" (094.0028).

Making of the Work

Irma was sitting for her from December 1881, and the head was finished on 18 July 1882: "Fin de la tête d'Irma" (095.0277). Tony Robert-Fleury and Rodolphe Julian arrived at seven that evening with great compliments -- "c'est gras, c'est souple, c'est d'un ton fin... Enfin vous êtes sortie des sécheresses. C'est reposé" (095.0278). The praise mattered: dryness was the standing charge against her painting, and this small head was the first work that answered it. She dated her subsequent decline from it: "depuis Irma j'ai pataugé dans la pluie avec le père Charles" (097.0207).

Marie sent it to the Salon of 1883 as a second envoi that nobody knew about, and on jury day her terror was that the little head would be admitted and the big picture refused: "Non mais la tête d'irma." (098.0571–0573). Both were taken -- "il ne pouvait y avoir de doute pour Irma" (098.0603) -- and Irma got the better hanging: "La tète d'irma est sur la cimaise et dans un angle, par conséquent place d'honneur" (099.0177), while Jean et Jacques went above the line. Her own Salon verdict on it was cool and accurate: "la tête d'irma est agréable et d'une peinture assez franche. Mais c'est une chose sans prétention" (099.0311). A year later, arguing with herself about the reception of Un meeting, she used it as the measure of how far she had come: "j'y étais l'année dernière avec une étude d'irma ? Un tableau entier, six personnages et dont chacun vaut trois fois la tête d'irma ?" (103.0622).

A note on the title. Marie never calls this picture La Parisienne in the diary. From the studio to the Salon it is "la tête d'Irma", occasionally "une étude d'irma"; the generalising title belongs to the Salon livret and to the 1885 catalogue (no. 64, Parisienne, 0,54 × 0,45 m, with a separate study listed at no. 66 as Irma). Readers looking for the painting in the diary should look for the sitter's name.

References in Diary

- 1881-11-15 (093.0136) -- an oblique first trace: "cette affaire d'Irma", a quarrel with Amélie over the model
- First substantial mention: 1881-12-29 (094.0028) -- the character sketch of Irma, and of what makes her a subject
- 1882-07-01 (095.0216) -- "Depuis le matin je travaille avec Irma"
- 1882-07-18 (095.0277–0278) -- "Fin de la tête d'Irma"; Tony's and Julian's compliments
- 1882-11-27 (097.0148) -- the two-year inventory of her work, Irma among "les grands tableaux"
- 1882-12-07 (097.0207) -- "depuis Irma j'ai pataugé dans la pluie avec le père Charles"
- 1883-03-25 (098.0571–0573) -- jury day; the secret second envoi and her fear that only Irma would be taken
- 1883-03-27 (098.0588, 098.0603) -- "il ne pouvait y avoir de doute pour Irma"
- 1883-04-22 (099.0177) -- hung on the cimaise, in a corner: the place of honour
- 1883-05-01 (099.0311) -- her own verdict: agreeable, frankly painted, unpretentious
- 1883-05-04 (099.0339) -- shown to the critic Fourcaud
- 1884-03-30 (103.0622) -- used as the yardstick for Un meeting

Irma also recurs throughout the diary as a person and a working model, notably at 101.0524, 102.0057, 102.0076, 102.0087, 103.0002, 103.0138 and 105.0014 -- including as a model for the Douleur de Nausicaa and as a companion on the wrestler-hunting expeditions of July 1884.

Related Entries

- #Irma -- the sitter
- #Academie_Julian -- where she modelled
- #Art_practice -- Marie's work as an artist
- #Salon -- the Salon of 1883, and the mention honorable
- #Tony_Robert_Fleury -- her teacher
- #Rodolphe_Julian
- #Un_meeting -- the picture she later measured against it

Sources

- Petit Palais, Parisienne, portrait d'Irma and the Paris Musées collections record (inv. PPP129; 55,5 × 46 cm; gift of the artist's mother, 1902)
- Catalogue des œuvres de Mlle Bashkirtseff, Union des Femmes Peintres & Sculpteurs, Paris: Ludovic Baschet, 9 February 1885, no. 64 (Parisienne, 0,54 × 0,45 m) and no. 66 (Irma, étude) -- Gallica ark:/12148/bpt6k131932r
- Image: Wikimedia Commons, PPP129, Paris Musées, CC0
- All diary quotations from the French originals in `/content/_original/`