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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Ambitious and commendable, but..., October 27, 2008
This review is from: Hidden in the Shadow of the Master: The Model-Wives of Cezanne, Monet, and Rodin (Hardcover)
Ruth Butler has set herself an ambitious and commendable task in "Hidden in the Shadow of the Master," namely, to pluck from oblivion the histories of three women who shared the lives of three remarkable artists - Monet, Rodin, and Cezanne - sometimes happily and sometimes in utter misery. Butler asks good questions: Why have these women never figured in traditional biographies of these artists? Did they feel cast aside in their own time, as their husbands pursued extramarital affairs and devoted, almost always, more attention to matters of art than of family? Did their roles as the principle models for their husbands' figurative work constitute an important contribution to art history? Unfortunately, Butler isn't really in much of a position to answer these questions. Researching the lives of obscure people is undoubtedly very difficult: to pull off her project successfully, Butler would have needed to get extremely lucky in uncovering previously unknown documents, like correspondence and diaries - as, for instance, Gail Levinson did in researching the life of Edward Hopper's wife, Jo, who is brought vividly and poignantly to life in Levinson's "Edward Hopper." Butler however has not hit upon many revelatory documents, and one tends to doubt that she tried very hard to find any. Ninety-five percent of the sources she cites are war-horses of the traditional history of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art, which she creatively reinterprets to place the "model-wives" front and center. The result is a lot of rhetorical questions: "What must Madame Cezanne have felt like" in her difficult marital circumstances, etc. The first sign of trouble comes in Butler's introduction where she says, "The story I tell depends both on fact and on imagination." To my mind, that statement makes this book a very suspect addition to the academic literature, and I am frankly surprised that Yale University Press would have published it. Most disturbing, to fill in the gaping blanks in her narrative, Butler engages in highly speculative biographical interpretations of paintings and sculptures - often presuming to intuit the feelings of both sitter and artist. This is precisely the sort of thing that one would expect of undergraduates writing on art for the first time, and one would caution them against it because of the methodological speciousness of the approach. In sum, high-minded intentions cannot make up for a lack of rigorous research and ground-breaking discoveries. Despite Butler's best efforts, all three of the women about whom she writes in "Hidden in the Shadow of the Master" remain, as far as I can see, unrevealed in this very ambitious though questionable book.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Too much conjecture and speculation!, December 27, 2008
This review is from: Hidden in the Shadow of the Master: The Model-Wives of Cezanne, Monet, and Rodin (Hardcover)
I agree with everything that reviewer Margaret Williams said. Ms. Butler constantly says things like, "We know nothing about Madame Monet's feelings at this point, but surely she must have felt..." or "one can imagine that she felt..." I think that this started out as an admirable project, but that after Butler started researching, she discovered there simply was no source material available on these women. So she repeats all the well-worn stuff about the artists, then tries to guess what the women in their lives must have felt. Sometimes she contradicts her own research -- emphasizing that one of these women adored her artist/lover and was "surely" happy with her lot, when other documentation which she quotes indicates otherwise. And some things are just downright silly. She claims, optimistically, that Camille Monet "loved posing" for her husband; how can she possibly know that? And to say that Camille made an important contribution to her husband's paintings just because she chose the outfits she posed in? Any art lover -- let alone an art history prof like Butler! -- knows that an artist will paint his sitters however he sees fit, regardless of what they actually look like or what they're wearing! Another problem -- not necessarily the author's fault -- is that there aren't nearly enough illustrations. For every five artworks that Butler references, maybe one is reproduced -- and usually in a small black & white photo. I, too, wonder why Yale published this. It's very telling, too, that the NY Times book review did not publish an actual review, but rather an interview with Ms. Butler -- presumably because an honest review would have revealed that there are serious problems with the book. Ms. Butler must have friends in high places who don't want to hurt her.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Hiddlen in the Shadow of the Master The Model-Wives of Cezanne, Monet, & Rodin, January 29, 2009
This review is from: Hidden in the Shadow of the Master: The Model-Wives of Cezanne, Monet, and Rodin (Hardcover)
How do you write a nonfiction book about the lives of three women who were barely recognized in their own lifetimes? Hortense Fiquet, Camille Doncieux and Rose Beuret are not familiar historical names. Yet they were the wives of three of the most influential artists of the twentieth century: Paul Cezanne, Claude Monet and Auguste Rodin. Ruth Butler does a remarkable job of research and literary detective work to give personality and substance to these women who literally lived in the shadow of their husbands. For example, when Paul Cezanne met the woman he would marry is revealed in a letter he wrote to his sister. However, it is only through the birth certificate of their son born some three years later that we learn Hortense Fiquet's name; and she will not become Hortense Cezanne until 14 years later. Similarly, Claude Monet and Camille Doncieux married some three years after their son was born, although their names appeared as husband and wife on Jean's birth certificate. For Auguste Rodin and Rose Beuret, their wedding did not take place until shortly before her death in 1917, though she was thought of as his wife almost from the beginning of their relationship in 1864. All of these women began their relationships with these men as artists' models. In 1947 a discovery in some old boxes belonging to Monet indicates that Camille Doncieux had been his model for an unfinished painting much earlier than had been assumed. There are many paintings of Hortense Fiquet over many years. We find a somewhat different relationship with Rose Beuret and Auguste Rodin. Not only was she a model for many of his sculptures, but she also helped him with the art work--primarily making sure that the clay sculptures were kept moist with wet towels until he could preserve them in a plaster mold. Hortense Fiquet and Camille Doncieux never really experienced the life of being married to a famous artist. Most of their lives were spent struggling to make ends meet. When paintings were sold, they had money; otherwise, their husbands relied on friends for support. This resulted in much moving about. On the other hand, Rose Beuret saw her husband become famous and for the most part they always had money--she was a seamstress and could help supplement their income in the early years. But, even with the money, they lived a very austere lifestyle. These three women experienced living with men who were totally focused on their art almost to the exclusion of anything else. They all experienced living alone with their children for long periods of time. They all experienced other women in their husband's lives. And through all of this, they remained the family to whom these men returned. As a docent who spends considerable time around art, I found this book to be fascinating. Even though Butler had to rely on second and third hand sources (letters, public records, books about their husbands, etc.), she makes each one of these women come alive and presents three distinctly different personalities who--even though they lived their lives in the shadow of their husbands--were women of substance. by Penny Appleby for Story Circle Book Reviews reviewing books by, for, and about women
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