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museums, private collections, archives and libraries to track down and collate artworks, letters, photographs and other historical documents.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.’