Ellen Andrée

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Portrait of Ellen Andrée -
photograph by Felix Nadar , before 1900

Ellen Andrée , actually Hélène André , also Hélène Andrée (born March 7, 1856 in Paris ; † December 9, 1933 there ) was a successful French stage actress from 1879 to the beginning of the 20s of the 20th century. She participated in pieces of naturalistic theater and had numerous roles in comedies. She began her professional career as a mannequin and from the mid-1870s she was a model for various impressionist painters . The artists she portrayed several times include Édouard Manet , Edgar Degas and Pierre-Auguste Renoir . Although she only worked as a model for a few years and successfully performed on the stage for several decades, today she is mainly remembered for the now popular paintings.

Life

Ellen Andrée was born as Hélène André in 1857 on Rue Geoffroy-Marie in Paris. There is only incomplete and sometimes contradicting information about their origins and youth. In 1910, the art dealer Ambroise Vollard , who asked her about a biography of Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and later the art historian Adolphe Tabarant , who did research with her for his Manet biography, received essential information .

The author John Collins states that Hélène Andrés father was an officer in the military and that her mother was a salesman in the clothing department of a large department store. In Edouard Manet's notes, however, there is a reference that the father was the painter Edmond André. According to her own statements, she was originally supposed to be an elementary school teacher, an idea that was rejected due to poor performance in mathematics. She began her professional career as a mannequin in the Worth fashion house .

Henri Gervex: Rolla , 1878

From the middle of the 1870s she frequented the Café de la Nouvelle Athènes , a pub that was very popular among artists at the time. This was unusual, as it was considered inappropriate for an unmarried middle-class woman to stay in a café at this time and only prostitutes or women from the working class usually visited such a place alone. In this context, it seems improbable that Ellen Andrée herself was born in 1862, since she would have been only 13 years old in 1875, when she was the model for Édouard Manet for the first time. Her appearance in these paintings does not correspond to a 13-year-old, nor does a visit to a café seem likely at this age. In the Café de la Nouvelle Athènes she got to know painters like Edgar Degas and Pierre-Auguste Renoir in addition to Manet , whom she subsequently served as a model. The prerequisite for this was neither good looks nor a good figure, but, as the art historian Françoise Cachin explains, that Hélène André had the patience necessary to remain in poses and that her charisma had that “certain something”.

The actor Lassouche discovered her for the stage in one of the painters' studios , although the scandal surrounding her nude portrait of Rolla by Henri Gervex in the Salon de Paris in 1878 favored her acting career ( see below ). When she started working on the stage, she took on the stage name Ellen Andrée, which she kept after she married the painter Henri Julien Dumont in 1887 . After her wedding, she lived in the Paris suburb of Ville-d'Avray and performed as a stage actress until the 1920s. In addition to the various paintings that she created between 1875 and 1881, numerous photographs by Felix Nadar , who documented her stage activities, have been preserved.

The painter's model

Manet

Manet: La Parisienne , 1875

Besides Degas, Manet was the first painter to be modeled by Hélène André. His painting La Parisienne ( National Museum Stockholm ), created in 1875, shows her as a typical type of woman of the Third Republic , who for Manet represented the epitome of “Parisian chic”, as did Nina de Callias and Henriette Hauser . In the following years, Manet repeatedly used Hélène André as a model. There is evidence that she was used for the pastel that is now in the Musée d'Orsay

Manet: Portrait of a Young Blond Woman , 1878

Portrait of a young blond woman from 1878 standing as a model. In the same year Manet portrayed her as a figure in the painting Café-concert de Reichshoffen . Today the painting only exists in two revised partial fragments. The left part with the portrait of Hélène André is in the Oskar Reinhart collection “Am Römerholz” . It was also used as a model for Manet's painting Seated Girl (private collection) from 1880. In two other paintings by Manet from 1878, the role of Hélène André is not entirely clear. In the painting Beim Père Lathuille, in the open ( Musée des Beaux-Arts, Tournai ) she initially sat as a model, but then did not appear after two sessions and was replaced by Judith French, a relative of Jacques Offenbach , so that her share in the painting is unclear. With the painting Die Pflaume ( National Gallery of Art, Washington DC ), the art historian Theodore Reff suspected for the first time in 1982 that the portrayed could be Hélène André, but without providing any evidence of this. His colleague Charles S. Moffett points out the lack of resemblance to other portraits from this period.

  • Manet: La Parisienne , 1875

  • Manet: Portrait of a Young Blond Woman , 1878

  • Manet: Au Café , 1878 (André as a female figure with a hat)

  • Manet: Seated Girl , 1880

Degas

Edgar Degas noted in a notebook around 1875 that he was planning a painting with the motif "Hélène et Desboutin dans un café" (Hélène and Desboutin in a café) . This is the painting Absinthe (Musée d'Orsay) from 1875–76 , in which the painter Marcellin Desboutin sat next to Hélène André . This café scene is set in the Café de la Nouvelle Athènes, where Degas met Hélène André. The portrayal of the two people, in which the art historian Françoise Cachin sees “urban flotsam”, was extremely displeasing to Hélène André and she later remarked “le monde renversé, quoi! Et nous avons l'air de deux andouilles “ (The world is upside down! And we look like idiots) . Not only did her face appear distorted, but the absinthe in front of her in particular surprised her, as the Desboutin sitting next to her was more into such high-proof alcoholic beverages.

The monotype with the portrait of Hélène André ( Art Institute of Chicago ), also made in 1876, was probably more similar to the sitter. Another monotype, created around 1877–80, shows her profile with an earring ( Metropolitan Museum of Art ). Two pastels with her portrait are known from 1879: besides the woman in city costume , she is one of the three women in a portrait frieze (both pictures in private collections). In the same year - in the meantime she had adopted a stage name - the drawing The Actress Ellen Andrée ( Museum of Fine Arts, Boston ) was created.

When asked about Degas' art later, Ellen Andrée was negative about his paintings. She stated that Degas once wanted to give her a picture with dancers from the Paris Opera, but she refused because the picture seemed too green and ugly to her. Ellen Andrée preferred pictures by painters such as Camillo Innocenti , Louis Welden Hawkins and Giuseppe de Nittis .

  • Degas: Absinthe , 1876

  • Degas: Portrait of Ellen Andrée , 1876

  • Degas: Woman in City Costume , 1879

  • Degas: Profile with earring , 1877–80

Renoir

Pierre-Auguste Renoir did not choose Ellen Andrée as a model for his pictures until a few years after Manet and Degas. She appears, sitting in an armchair, in the small-format pastel portrait of Ellen Andrée (private collection) in 1879 and is one of the three figures in the painting At the End of Breakfast ( Städel ). In The Breakfast of the Rowers ( Phillips Collection ) from 1881, one of Renoir's main works, she was identified as a beer-drinking female figure in the background, despite her dark hair, after she had been suspected to be the blonde woman in the right foreground for some time.

  • Renoir: At the End of Breakfast , 1879 (left: Ellen Andrée)

  • Renoir: Ellen Andrée , 1879

  • Renoir: The Rowers' Breakfast , 1881

  • Renoir: Ellen Andrée in The Rowers' Breakfast , 1881

More painters

During her career as a model, the painting Rolla (Musée des Beaux-Arts de Bordeaux) by Henri Gervex caused the greatest sensation. She's here as la belle Marion from the poem Rolla by Alfred de Musset to see. It is the only nude portrait by Ellen Andrée and caused a scandal in the Salon de Paris in 1878. Here the picture was initially admitted, but had to be removed again after the intervention of the superintendent for the fine arts, Edmond Turquet , as he considered it immoral felt. Other painters who have portrayed Ellen Andrée include Alfred Stevens and Florent Willems .

stage

Ellen Andrée received her stage training from Joseph Landrol (1828–88), a successful actor at the Théâtre du Gymnase . In 1879 she made her debut at the Théâtre du Palais-Royal . This was followed by appearances in La Cigale by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy and pantomime performances in the Folies Bergère . She also appeared in vaudeville pieces at the Théâtre des Variétés and the Théâtre de la Renaissance . One of the first journalists to recognize her achievements was Arnold Mortier in Figaro in 1881 , who compared her style to that of the actress Celine Chaumont .

After her marriage to the painter Henri Julien Dumont in 1887, she continued her stage work. She was one of the first cast of the Théâtre Libre founded by André Antoine , a theater committed to naturalism . The theater of naturalism endeavored to present people and their surroundings in an “unadorned” manner. In addition, she appeared in Die Erde (La terre) by Émile Zola and in Ode Triomphale by Augusta Holmès . Her success enabled her to perform at the Théâtre Royal du Parc in Brussels in 1894/95 and later toured Russia, Argentina and the United States.

In 1897 Oscar Méténier founded the Théâtre du Grand Guignol and engaged Ellen Andrée for his play Lui! . The following year she appeared in Les Boulingrin by Georges Courteline . At the side of André Antoine she was the sutler in Les Gaietés de l'escadron in 1899 - also by Georges Courteline, in whose Le commissaire est bon enfant she participated in 1900. Moreover, the same year she appeared in La Clairière of Lucien Descaves on. Her prominent roles included the portrayal of Madame Lepic at the side of André Antoine in Red Fox (Poil de Carotte) , a play by Jules Renard . In 1902 she played again with André Antoine at his new place of work, the Théâtre Antoine , in Boule de suif , a play by Oscar Méténier based on a model by Guy de Maupassant .

This was followed by appearances in Monsieur Vernet by Jules Renard (1903) and La Rafale by Henri Bernstein (1905). In 1908 she appeared in Un divorce by André Cury , La Maison en ordre by Arthur Wing Pinero and Le Lys by Gaston Leroux . In 1909 she played two plays at the Théâtre du Vaudeville : La Maison de danses by Charles Muller based on a novel by Paul Reboux and Suzette by Eugène Brieux . They also came this year in La Route d'émeraude of Jean Richepin on. After La Vagabonde by Colette (1910) and Le Tribun by Paul Bourget (1911), she starred in La Prize de Berg-op-Zoom by Sacha Guitry and On nait esclave by Jean Schlumberger in 1912 . Before the First World War interrupted her career, she appeared in 1913 in the plays La Belle Aventure by Étienne Rey , Le Phalène by Henry Bataille , Hélène Ardouin by Alfred Capus and Les Éclaireuses by Maurice Donnay .

After Ellen Andrée was seen again in a play by Colette in a role in Chéri in 1920 , she celebrated one of her greatest successes in 1921 at the Théâtre Édouard VII . She played there in Le Comédien by Sacha Guitry in more than 100 performances. In the same year she also appeared at the Théâtre du Vaudeville in Le Chemin de Damas by Pierre Wolff . Her last known role was in Les Vignes du Seigneur by Francis de Croisset in 1923 .

literature

  • Jean Sutherland Boggs: Degas . Exhibition catalog Paris, Ottawa, New York, Réunion des musées nationaux, Paris 1988, ISBN 2-7118-2146-3 .
  • Françoise Cachin : Manet . DuMont, Cologne 1991, ISBN 3-7701-2791-9 .
  • John Collins: Ellen Andrée in Berk Jiminez: Dictionary of Artists' Models . Fitzroy Dearborn, Chicago 2001, ISBN 1-57958-233-8 .
  • Bernard Denvir: The chronicle of Impressionism . Thames and Hudson, London 1993, ISBN 0-500-23665-8 .
  • Benoît Noël, Jean Hournon: Parisiana: la capitale des peintres au XIXe siècle . Presses Franciliennes, Paris 2006, ISBN 2-9527214-0-8 .
  • Theodore Reff : Manet and modern Paris . National Gallery of Art, Washington and University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London 1982, ISBN 0-226-70720-2 .
  • Maryanne Stevens, Colin B. Bailey, Stephane Guegan: Manet, portraying life , exhibition catalog Toledo Museum of Art and Royal Academy of Arts 2012–13, Royal Academy of Arts, London 2012, ISBN 978-1-907533-52-5 .
  • Terry W. Strieter: Nineteenth-century European art . Aldwych Press, London 1999, ISBN 0-86172-115-2 .
  • Adolphe Tabarant: Manet et ses oeuvres . Gallimard, Paris 1947.

Web links

Commons : Ellen Andrée  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Portrait of Hélène Andrée as a description of the painting La Parisienne by Édouard Manet in Julius Meier-Graefe: Manet , Munich 1912, page 267
  2. ^ Fiche de naissance n ° 5/32. Archives en ligne de la Ville de Paris, état-civil du 3ème arrondissement (ancien), fichier des naissances de 1856.
  3. ↑ Acte de décès n ° 1216 (vue 17/24). Archives en ligne de la Ville de Paris, état-civil du 9ème arrondissement, registre des décès de 1933.
  4. ↑ a b c d e f g John Collins: Ellen Andrée, page 44.
  5. ^ Jean Sutherland Boggs: Degas., P. 286
  6. ^ Pfeiffer, Hollein: Impressionists , page 14
  7. ↑ Adolphe Tabarant: Manet et ses œuvres
  8. ^ A b c Françoise Cachin: Manet, page 127.
  9. ↑ The identity of those portrayed as Ellen Andrée and the image designation La Parisienne come from Madame Manet's cash book. See Hansen, Herzogenrath: Monet and Camille , page 163. The art historian Maryanne Stevens questions identity: "Ellen Andrée ... may not have been the model for La Parisienne " without giving a reason. In Stevens, Bailey, Guegan: Manet, portraying life , p. 146.
  10. ^ Françoise Cachin: Manet , 1983, p. 429
  11. ↑ a b c d John Collins: Ellen Andrée, page 45.
  12. ↑ Identified by Léon Leenhoff in Tabarant: Manet 1947, p. 396.
  13. ↑ see in detail: Juliet Wilson-Bareau, Malcom Park: Manet meets Manet
  14. ^ Theodore Reff: Manet and Modern Paris , page 76.
  15. ^ Catalog Paris 1983, page 409
  16. ^ Françoise Cachin: Manet , page 128
  17. ^ Jean Sutherland Boggs: Degas, p. 261.
  18. ^ A b Jean Sutherland Boggs: Degas., P. 285.
  19. ↑ a b c d John Collins: Ellen Andrée, page 46.
  20. ↑ a b c d Benoît Noël, Jean Hournon: Parisiana, page 51.
This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on August 16, 2009 .
personal data
SURNAME Andrée, Ellen
ALTERNATIVE NAMES André, Hélène (real name); Andrée, Hélène
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French actress, model
DATE OF BIRTH March 7, 1856
PLACE OF BIRTH Paris
DATE OF DEATH December 9, 1933
Place of death Paris