The Van Gogh Museum Presents the First Eva Gonzalès Retrospective

From 12 February to 20 June 2027, the Van Gogh Museum presents the first retrospective of the work of Eva Gonzalès (1847–1883). The exhibition is organised in collaboration with the Petit Palais in Paris. Featuring loans from international museums and private collections, this is the first time that so many of her paintings and pastels will be brought together.

As a contemporary of Vincent van Gogh, Gonzalès was among the innovative artists working in Paris in the late nineteenth century.

The exhibition Eva Gonzalès. A New Perspective follows her artistic development, and tells the story of an ambitious artist who enjoyed exceptional success in the Parisian art world. Following her early death, however, she virtually disappeared from art history.

Bringing her oeuvre together

Comprehensive research into the life and work of Eva Gonzalès has been carried out over the past few years within the framework of this exhibition. Researchers searched through museums, private collections, archives and libraries to track down and collate artworks, letters, photographs and other historical documents. These shed new light on her ambitions, artistic development, and the widespread acclaim she received in her own lifetime.

The exhibition presents Gonzalès’ most important and ambitious works and explores her art within the artistic and social context of her time.

Fleur Roos Rosa de Carvalho, Curator at the Van Gogh Museum, on her research:

‘It was exciting and inspiring to discover the life and work of an artist who was exceptionally successful in her own time, but who has hardly been studied since. It was wonderful to recover her personal story and artistic development from collections all over the world, slowly but surely progressing from a footnote to the full picture. I got to know Eva Gonzalès as a genuine and serious artist who had keenly absorbed the developments of her time, and who always remained true to herself.’

An individual artistic path

Eva Gonzalès grew up in a wealthy and cultured environment in Paris. She was determined to have a career as an artist from an early age. She made an explicit choice to embrace modernity by studying with Edouard Manet, and was the only formal student he ever accepted.

Gonzalès moved both in avant-garde circles and the established art world, where she exhibited at the Salon. She forged an identity as an independent artist, working along the boundary between tradition and innovation.

Gonzalès offered her own perspective on contemporary life in Paris. She worked closely with her sister Jeanne, who was her most frequent model, and depicted figures from close by, paying detailed attention to fashion and modern life. She developed a free and direct style, especially in her later pastels, in which her artistic signature emerged ever more clearly.

Acclaimed in her lifetime

Gonzalès was a successful and highly-regarded artist during her short career. Her work was purchased by the French state and by prominent collectors. She appeared frequently in the press, which demonstrates her renown. She is much less well known today.

Gonzalès died young following the birth of her son, and over the years she gradually disappeared from view. Now, her work as an artist is mainly perceived either in relation to Edouard Manet or as one of the ‘female Impressionists’. This exhibition focuses on the entirety of her art, and aims to revive interest in her life and work.

The exhibition is created in collaboration with the Petit Palais in Paris, where Eva Gonzales: The Journey of a Free-Spirited Artist will be showing from 15 September 2026 until 24 January 2027. The Van Gogh Museum will be presenting Eva Gonzalès. A New Perspective from 12 February to 20 June 2027.