Olympia' Look

Olympia’s Look was an intriguing story that gave me insight into Édouard Manet’s life and the women involved with him. Suzanne Manet, Edouard’s wife who was the protagonist in this story, was an interesting woman. She seemed talented, devoted, angry, jealous and strong. She was very good at playing the piano and extremely devoted to her husband. However, she was jealous of the models he painted and blamed them for his syphilis. Suzanne Manet was a strong person even if she did not stand up for herself very much.

There were many passages throughout the story that showed Suzanne Manet’s personality, but there were two that especially I liked and I thought really revealed her character. The first is about three-fourths of the way down page 73. This passage shows that she was jealous of the models and the attention that Édouard Manet paid them and she was angry that he was writing letters to Isabelle Lemonnier. It also demonstrates that she was very jealous of Victorine Meurent in Olympia’s Look because she has character traits that Suzanne Manet does not. For example, in this passage, Suzanne Manet tries to be commanding to get the letter from Hélène. She mentions that Victorine Meurent looks very commanding which is something that she is envious of.

Another interesting passage was on the top of page 80. This shows Suzanne Manet’s anger towards Édouard Manet’s models whom she blames for his syphilis. This means that she blames them for his death. It is interesting that she is angrier at the models than at her husband. I would guess that this is because she really loved Édouard Manet and did not want to be mad at him especially since he had just died.
I think that Suzanne Manet exerts free will in this story even though she is going through tough times. She can choose how she reacts to what happens to her and in this horrible event of her husband’s death, she is choosing to improve herself. I get the feeling that Suzanne Manet will start to stand up for herself in the future and live her life for herself rather than for her husband.

Some of the names in Olympia’s Look confused me because Susan Vreeland did not explain who they were. I wanted to know who Edgar Degas was because it sounds like he did not appreciate Édouard Manet and could have given him a hard time with his art. I also did not know who the other painters that Vreeland mentioned on pages 78 to 79 were. I wonder how they influenced him and his art. Additionally, I did not know who Claude was and how he related to the Manets. Édouard Manet really seemed to not like him. Was he another artist or maybe a brother? I wonder what he did to make Édouard Manet dislike him so much. Overall, besides these confusions, this short story was very interesting and helped me learn about Édouard Manet’s art and life and his wife Suzanne.

Alice Neel Annotated Bibliography

http://www.uam.ucsb.edu/Pages/last.html


The Art of Alice Neel. 6 September 2008. Traditional Fine Arts Organization, Inc. 3 February 2009.

This website talks about an exhibition of Alice Neel’s work that was shown at the Whitney Museum of American Art from June to September of 2000. It explains the exhibition, gives some background on Alice Neel’s life, and gives a few details about some of her portraits. This source seems very reliable and also rather current. This website told me a little about Last Sickness. It turns out that this portrait is of Alice Neel’s mother during the last few months of her life. It was more helpful in terms of giving information about Alice Neel’s life and style. I learned that she had a very hard life. She was born in 1900 in a town outside of Philadelphia and got married in 1925. Her first daughter died and soon after she gave birth to another daughter. She then got divorced, separated from her daughter, had a nervous breakdown, tried to commit suicide, and had her paintings destroyed by a lover. She then moved to Spanish Harlem and raised two sons.

Kinships: Alice Neel Looks at the Family. The University Art Museum. 3 February 2009.

This website covers an exhibition that was on display at the Tacoma Art Museum in 1997. This display is called “Kinships: Alice Neel Looks at the Family” and focuses on paintings that have to do with family. Last Sickness was included in this display and the website gives some information about the artist and about the painting. This is a reliable website because it was made by the University Art Museum of the University of California at Santa Barbara and universities are generally reliable sources. I learned that Alice Neel’s mother came to live with her in 1953 and died the next year. The portrait was painted in 1953. This website also brings up something that Mrs. Neel said to Alice when she was a child, “I don't know what you expect to do in the world. You're only a girl.” It then goes on to say that Mrs. Neel felt very frustrated at not being able to do something with herself.

Lane, Jim. Alice Neel. CyberPathway’s Art World. 3 February 2009.

Jim Lane addresses Alice Neel’s life and work on this website. He talks again about Neel’s hard life and then analyzes a few of her paintings including Last Sickness and Andy Warhol. I trust this website because the facts it presents matches with facts from other websites. The author knows a lot about art and taught elementary, high school, and college art for 26 years. He has also “run a portrait business out of his home.” The author mentions Alice Neel’s honesty especially in Last Sickness. He says that it portrays frailty and beauty and is “intimate without being sentimental.” This website did not have very much new information about Alice Neel or Last Sickness but was a good overview of her life and a few of her works.