Prince Albert II has visited the first major retrospective devoted to French painter Éva Gonzalès, whose family had deep roots in Monaco, with several works from the Princely Collections featuring in the Paris exhibition.
The Prince toured Éva Gonzalès. Parcours d’une artiste libre at the Petit Palais on Monday 14th September, accompanied by Paris Mayor Emmanuel Grégoire and the exhibition’s curators.
Open to the public from 15th September 2026 to 24th January 2027, the exhibition seeks to restore Gonzalès to her place in 19th-century French art and examine a career that developed within a cultural world largely dominated by men.
An artist with deep ties to Monaco
Born in Paris in 1847, Gonzalès was the daughter of novelist and journalist Emmanuel Gonzalès. A bust of her father stands in Monaco’s Saint-Martin Gardens.
The family descended from a Spanish lineage established in the Principality in the early 17th century, when a Spanish royal garrison was stationed on the Rock to help defend Monaco’s sovereignty.
Although often associated with Mary Cassatt and Berthe Morisot, Gonzalès pursued a distinct artistic path. She studied under Édouard Manet and was his only formally recognised pupil, but developed an independent body of work encompassing paintings and pastels.
Her career was cut short when she died in 1883 at the age of 36.
Monaco loans support the retrospective
The Princely Collections hold around 10 paintings by Gonzalès, while the Palace Archives preserve a collection of family documents connected to her Monegasque ancestry.
Prince Albert is an important lender to the exhibition, allowing works from Monaco’s collections to contribute to what the Petit Palais describes as the first major retrospective devoted to Gonzalès in France or internationally.
The exhibition brings together works from different stages of her career, placing greater emphasis on Gonzalès as an artist in her own right rather than viewing her primarily through her relationship with Manet.
Following its run in Paris, an adapted version of the exhibition will be presented at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam from February 2027.
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Main Photo credit: Joséphine Brueder / Ville de Paris