Laure was an art model in France known for her work with artist Édouard Manet. She is best known for posing as the black maid offering the white nude figure a bouquet of flowers in Manet's 1863 painting ''Olympia''.

Biography

Little is known about Laure. She has been described as African or Caribbean, her last name is unknown. Art historian Griselda Pollock suggested that she met the artist Édouard Manet while working as a nursemaid in the Tuileries Garden in Paris. Another theory suggests that Jeanne Duval, who was in a relationship with Manet's friend

Charles Baudelaire Charles Pierre Baudelaire (, ; ; 9 April 1821 – 31 August 1867) was a French poetry, French poet who also produced notable work as an essayist and art critic. His poems exhibit mastery in the handling of rhyme and rhythm, contain an exoticis ...

, introduced Manet and Laure. This theory was discussed by Pollock, as well as by Manet archivist Achille Tabarant.Murrell, D. M. (2014). ''Seeing laure: Race and modernity from manet's "olympia" to matisse, bearden and beyond'' (Order No. 3607666). Available from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global. (1493902185). Manet's notebook, included in the 2019 exhibition '' Le Modèle noir, de Géricault à Matisse'' at the musee d'Orsay in Paris, recorded her address at 11, rue de Vintimille in Paris. This was less than a ten-minute walk from Manet's apartment, in a neighborhood inhabited by avant-garde artists and writers, as well as a "small but highly visible" black population. This residence was close to Duval, who Baudelaire wrote to at 17 rue Sauffroy.

Art modeling

Laure also appeared in Manet's painting ''Children in the Tuileries Garden (1861-62)''. In both ''Olympia'' and ''Children in the Tuileries Garden'' paintings she is wearing the same outfit of a pink dress with a high white collar and a

madras Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

headtie A head tie also known as a headwrap is a women's cloth head scarf that is commonly worn in many parts of West Africa and Southern Africa. The head tie is used as an ornamental head covering or fashion accessory, or for functionality in diffe ...

. It is not known whether she was ever painted by other artists during that period. In 1862-63, Manet painted a portrait of Laure, ''La Négresse'', which is also known as ''Portrait of Laure''. this painting's subtitle is "une très belle négresse."

Discussion in Art History

Laure has not been widely studied in art history. With a few exceptions, she is presented as "ancillary" or as a part of a larger colonial theme within the painting.

Legacy

Manet's depictions of Laure are referenced in later works. Artists including

Frédéric Bazille Jean Frédéric Bazille (December 6, 1841 – November 28, 1870) was a French Impressionist painter. Many of Bazille's major works are examples of figure painting in which he placed the subject figure within a landscape painted ''en plein air''. ...

, Henri Matisse, and Romare Bearden quoted and referenced the Laure figure. Some artists reference Laure specifically, while others merge Laure and Olympia into one character. Laure is a figure portrayed by many black artists who bring her to the forefront as "a subject in her own right, deserving of subjectivity."

Contemporary depictions

Renee Cox frequently references Laure in her works, combining or switching her and Olympia. Her works that reference Laure and Olympia include the 2001 ''Olympia's Boyz'', which combines the characters, and the 2008 ''Missy at Home'', which art historian Tracey Walters views as a reversal of the Olympia and Laure roles. Maud Sulter has depicted Laure in many of her works, including her 1989 ''Phalia (Portrait of Alice Walker)'' and her 2002 ''Portrait d’une négresse (Bonny Greer)'' and ''Jeanne Duval: A Melodrama.'' In ''Jeanne Duval: A Melodrama'', Sulter overlay Laure in ''Olympia'' with an 1850s

Nadar Gaspard-Félix Tournachon (5 April 1820 – 20 March 1910), known by the pseudonym Nadar, was a French photographer, caricaturist, journalist, novelist, balloon (aircraft), balloonist, and proponent of Aircraft#Heavier-than-air – aerodynes, h ...

photograph of an unknown black model, who Sulter suggested might be Duval. Mickalene Thomas frequently references Laure in her work. Her 2012 series ''Une très belle négresse,'' which takes its name from the ''Portrait of Laure'' subtitle. Elizabeth Colomba's 2018 painting ''Laure (Portrait of a Negresse)'' depicts Laure on her way to Manet's studio. Colomba's painting was included in the exhibition ''Posing Modernity: The Black Model from Manet and Matisse to Today'', alongside Manet's paintings of Laure, at the Wallach Art Gallery, Columbia University. This exhibit, curated by Denisse Murrell, placed Laure in the spotlight, which redefined and named black women in art.

Gallery

File:'Children in the Tuileries Garden' by Édouard Manet, c. 1861-2.JPG, ''Children in the Tuileries Garden'' (1862) by Édouard Manet File:Edouard Manet - Olympia - Google Art Project 3.jpg, ''Olympia'' (1863) by Édouard Manet File:Le baiser enfantin, Jacques-Eugènes Feyan (5).jpg, ''Le baiser enfantin'' (1865) by Jacques-Eugène Feyen File:Frédéric Bazille, Young Woman with Peonies, 1870, NGA 61356.jpg, ''Young Woman with Peonies'' (1870) by Frédéric Bazille

References

French artists' models Édouard Manet 19th-century French women African diaspora in France {{France-bio-stub