A search for a model and my own desire

As background for newcomers to FemCentral, I am currently conducting research for a biography on the American suffragist, Lucy Burns.

I discovered the book, Alias Olympia: A Woman’s Search for Manet’s Notorious Model and Her Own Desire while casting about for examples of biographies that went beyond the usual, “Jane was born on July 5…and died peacefully at 86 among her friends and family.” Eunice Lipton was a professor of art history when she went on a search for the woman behind Manet’s famous 1863, Olympia (pictured here).  Coincidentally, (synchronistically), Lipton first became enamored of the subject while celebrating the 50^th anniversary of the passage of the 19^th amendment, giving US women the right to vote.

Lipton spent months doing research in Paris but found very little about Victorine Meurent (alias Olympia), the model for the portrait. But, while researching Meurent/Olympia, Lipton began to see similarities with her own life, which she incorporated into the text.

Alias Olympia was published in 1992, well before the advent of blogs. While Lipton’s academic writing is excellent, her self-reflective writing is a bit rudimentary. Most bloggers that I know write better. But what Lipton did was create a new form for a biography – a form that I hope to emulate. In addition to incorporating her personal narrative, in situations where Lipton wonders what Meurent may have been thinking, she interjects personal conjecture, “Come now, Eduouard, you don’t really want me in that pose, do you? You with all your ridiculing of academic art and empty-headed Venuses? And, Edouard, when will you pose for me?… Well, all right, but I’m going to do it my way.”

Lipton does discover one handwritten letter from Meurent, to Manet’s widow, stating that Manet had promised to give her money before he died. (Manet’s widow never responded.) In a desperate attempt to find out more about Meurent’s personality, Lipton submits this letter for handwriting analysis. She admits her skepticism but also allows the possibility that the interpretation is valid. I will say that I’ve already cast the astrological charts for the main suffragists that I am researching. At the moment, I don’t plan to include them in the biography, but who knows? I may. They certainly help me to understand the people involved.

The thing that surprised me most, when I discovered this book, was that Lipton was a university professor. I have a good bit of experience in the “ivory tower” myself, and know that it is not usually receptive to work that is revolutionary or risky. But, at the end of Alias Olympia, Lipton explains that she quit her academic job before finishing her book. She had grown beyond the limitations of academia.

I told my friends I was searching for a literary model. I found a book, an author with many parallels to me, and a literal model! Manifestation strikes again.

Public Opinion

In preparing this post, I visited online bookstores to find summaries of the book. I was fascinated by the reviews left by readers, some of which I’ve included here. As you’ll see, many did not appreciate Lipton’s creative approach. While I have not done exhaustive research on the critical reception of Alias Olympia, it is held up as exemplary “creative non-fiction” in Lee Gutkind’s Keep It Real: Everything You Need to Know about Researching and Writing Creative Nonfiction.

Publisher Comments: Eunice Lipton was a fledging art historian when she first became intrigued by Victorine Meurent, the nineteenth-century model who appeared in Edouard Manet’s most famous paintings, only to vanish from history in a haze of degrading hearsay. But had this bold and spirited beauty really descended into prostitution, drunkenness, and early death — or did her life, hidden from history, take a different course altogether? Eunice Lipton’s search for the answer combines the suspense of a detective story with the revelatory power of art, peeling off layers of lies to reveal startling truths about Victorine Meurent — and about Lipton herself.

Haunted by the steadfast gaze of the nude peering from the canvas of Manet’s controversial “Olympia,” art historian Lipton (Looking into Degas: Uneasy Images of Women and Modern Life , Univ. of California Pr., 1986) documents her relentless effort to unravel the model’s life. Lipton’s scant archival findings indicate that, in marked contrast to the lowly, depraved, alcoholic figure depicted by writers and artists, model Victorine Meurent was a recognized painter and a member of a distinguished society of artists. In the course of her research, Lipton imagines the thoughts of Meurent in some beautifully moving passages, and her own life begins to take on new meaning. She raises disturbing questions about the validity of much art historical scholarship concerning the role of women. A mesmerizing narrative recommended for women’s studies, art history, and general collections. – Joan Levin, MLS, Chicago

Reader comments (copied directly, with no edits)

As an art historian, Eunice Lipton traces the life of Victorine Meurent, the model for some of Manet’s paintings, including his famous Olympia. Along the way, she intertwines her own life with fictional passages from Victorine. The sections Lipton imagines from Victorine’s perspective annoyed me since there was no indication they were based on her research and rang hollow. I didn’t want an imagined story of the woman but to follow the historical mystery as it unfolded. But the last quarter of the book made me sit up and read eagerly to the end when Lipton finally ran into more luck in her quest for Victorine’s story. Her account of her hunt intrigued me enough to overcome the book’s weaker fictional passages, and it’s enough to inspire persistent research for other stories from the past. – December 16, 09

Being an avid admirer of Manet and of the paintings in which Victorine Meurent appeared, I was happy to see a book about her. Finally, I would be able to learn something of her and her life! I learned that she was a Lesbian and died in 1927 and not as a destitute alcoholic as written in some rather sketchy histories of her. But that is all I learned. The book is actually more about the author and her trying to make peace with her past and her mother than anything else. If you want to learn about Victorine, you must find another book. If you want to know about Eunice Lipton, this is the book for you. Also very few facts in the book; the author puts Victorine in some situations and conversations, but these are all imaginary. Definitely would not recommend. Author was self-indulgent and apparently not very concerned with her subject. – Book Lover, October 26, 2002

This book is more autobiography than the “art history mystery” I had expected, but it’s an engaging story, and well worth reading. When the missing diary, or some such document, which will tell all about the real life story of Victorine Muerant fails to materialize, a fictional version is inserted in chapters. I was dissappointed by this because it gives more weight to the story Ms Lipton invented and hoped to prove, than to the facts she worked so hard to reveal. The research is tedious and discouraging, and the results will not rock the art history world. The true reward for the author is not the tidbits of information she aquires about her subject, but in her own growth both as a blossoming writer and a woman. Her finest writing is in the descriptions of the things she knows best and experiences first-hand: the great food in Paris, her past life, her present feelings, her beliefs and self-realization. It’s encouraging that Ms Lipton has chosen now to be a writer, and not an art historian, and I will look forward to her next effort. – Lynn Rutter, November 19, 2000

Alias Olympia is a personal biography of Eunice Lipton’s search for Victorine Meurent, the woman who modled for Manet’s Olympia. Not only does this book inspire one to go out and look for the truth they believe in their heart to be true, but it also provides hope for those who believe that one person can still make a difference. Lipton’s journey through history provides a longing yet frustrating ride through a world geared souly for men. By the end of this book I was in love and I wanted to spit at the same time. It is motivating; a look at the purpose of our lives and how we may be fulfilled. With this book in hand I feel like I could set out and discover anything I set my mind to. – A Customer, April 10, 2000