In this confusing and self-serving study, Lipton (formerly, Art
History/SUNY-Binghamton; Looking into Degas, 1986 - not reviewed)
claims to find in Victorine Meurent (Manet's favorite model, known
as "Olympia"): herself; a mother-figure; and a surrogate victim of
the patriarchal community of artists and art historians. Most of
the narrative here is about Lipton and her rages - against her
mother for abandoning and then abusing her; against the faithless
father whom Lipton thinks she has spent her life trying to please;
against her arrogant first husband, the parents of her current
husband/lover (the relationship is unclear), a friend who visited
her in Paris (where most of the book takes place), a courteous
librarian who was unable to find the manuscript Lipton wanted
("Idiot!"), and a male academic who served on her dissertation
committee. Lipton admires sensuous female contemporaries;
speculates on their sexuality; and offers, for no apparent reason,
a detailed description of a meal she ate in Paris, of several
tawdry sexual encounters, and of the position she most enjoys in
bed with her husband, a locksmith who decided to become a
professional painter. The real problem is fitting Olympia into all
of this. Having depicted herself as a Jewish intellectual attending
CUNY in the 50's, a misguided academic who later decided to give up
her career to become a writer, and an overanalyzed and
self-preoccupied feminist, Lipton resembles Woody Allen more than
Olympia. As for Olympia - the author's "alias" - Lipton concludes
that she lived as a neglected painter and lesbian and died at an
advanced age in a suburb of Paris. Unable to find any records of
her, Lipton fears that Olympia "had no life" - that "she was a
nothing." Olympia deserves better and, fortunately, she received it
in Otto Friedrich's Olympia (p. 30), which captured her dignity and
stature as an icon of her age. (Kirkus Reviews)
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 ayers of lies to reveal startling truths
about Victorine Meurent -- and about Lipton herself.
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