Paule Gobillard, a Post-Impressionist painter
Table of contents
Introduction
As an artist and collector, I am interested in the discreet voices of art history. Some works move through time on the margins of major institutions, preserved within families or in studios left intact, without ever receiving real attention.
Paule Gobillard belongs to this quiet zone of Post Impressionism. The niece of Berthe Morisot and Eugène Manet, she lived at the heart of the Impressionist milieu while remaining largely absent from official narratives. An important part of her work remained within the family circle before being dispersed late.
This page does not claim to establish a catalogue raisonné. It offers a documented framework to better understand an artist whose sensitivity deserves recognition. I bring together here biographical elements, references to public
collections, and a set of works from my own collection, with the aim of providing a clear resource for enthusiasts, researchers, and institutions.
Biography
Paule Gobillard was born in 1867 in Quimperlé. Orphaned at a very young age, she was raised by her aunt, the painter Berthe Morisot, and her uncle Eugène Manet. She grew up in an exceptional artistic environment, surrounded by personalities such as Degas, Renoir, Mallarmé, and the circle of the Impressionists.
She posed for several works by Morisot and Renoir and received an entirely domestic training, outside academic structures. Faithful to this education, she developed a practice centered on observing everyday life,
natural light, and intimate scenes.
She exhibited at the Salon des Artistes Indépendants from the 1890s, then at the Salon d’Automne and the Salon des Tuileries. A large part of her production nevertheless remained within the family sphere. After her death in 1946 in Paris, the studio remained largely intact before a major dispersal at the sale of 30 June 2004 at the Hôtel Drouot (estate of François Valéry).
Today, her work remains only partially documented but is attracting growing interest as part of the reappraisal of women artists associated with Impressionism.
The Impressionist circle: Morisot, Renoir and Degas
The life and work of Paule Gobillard are inseparable from the Impressionist household in which she grew up. Around her, Berthe Morisot, Pierre Auguste Renoir, and Edgar Degas were not only famous figures, but familiar presences, mixing affection, high standards, and technical advice. This circle shaped her way of looking, painting, and understanding painting as a craft in its own right.
Berthe Morisot: intimate transmission and apprenticeship
Morisot painted her around 1887 in Paule Gobillard painting, a picture that captures both family affection and the austerity of studio life. Paule sometimes appears impatient, which did not prevent Morisot from encouraging her, reminding her that the struggle with painting would last a lifetime. Later, after the successive bereavements that struck the family, Paule played an almost maternal role with Julie Manet, extending into daily life the chain of transmission initiated by Morisot.
Pierre Auguste Renoir: kindness and the painter’s craft
Renoir holds a particular place in the memories of Paule and Julie. He combines a very concrete presence in their lives with a clear view of what a “well made” painting should be. When he looks at Paule’s copies at the Louvre, for example in front of Titian’s The Virgin with the Rabbit, he judges her work “very well” begun and insists that painting is a craft that is learned, with technical demands that cannot be bypassed.
After the death of Berthe Morisot, Renoir also shows unusually attentive care. He accompanies the young women on trips, makes sure they are never left alone in uncomfortable situations, and treats them with a delicacy that Julie describes as “truly kind and sincere.” His admiration for Morisot reflects onto Paule, seen as the heir to a pictorial tradition that is both demanding and deeply intimate.
Edgar Degas: a critical eye and technical advice
Degas, often portrayed as distant or prickly, appears instead in the testimonies of Paule and Julie as a warm figure, sometimes cheerful, almost paternal. A regular guest at rue de Villejust, he follows the cousins’ progress closely and comments on their work with formidable precision.
In front of Paule’s copies at the Louvre, he recommends reducing the number of colors, unifying the blues of the sky, fabrics and mountains, and bringing flesh tones and orange closer together to create real harmony. He also reproaches her, with humor, for leaving visible corners of white canvas, a fault he attributes to the whole family, inviting her to “cover everything right away” on any still bare surface.
Degas also draws the cousins into his photographic experiments under artificial light, long and demanding sessions whose results he judges “failed,” but which show his curiosity for technical images and his desire to involve Paule in his research. Later, the echo of this relationship can be found in the painting Still life with the Degas bronze, where Paule records the presence of a bronze after Degas in the family collection, like a discreet homage to the master who closely observed her training.
Style and approach
Paule Gobillard’s work continues directly the Impressionist legacy transmitted by Berthe Morisot. She favors intimate formats and everyday subjects, with constant attention to light and domestic atmospheres.
Her recurring themes include:
- reading scenes and interiors
- female portraits and studies of young girls
- bouquets and flowers
- gardens, terraces, and domestic outdoor spaces
Her painting is characterized by a supple touch, softened outlines, and a light palette, often composed of pinks, blues, and ochres. She seeks sensation more than spectacle, favoring quiet moments and ordinary gestures.
In several paintings, Paule Gobillard also introduces Japoniste elements, echoing the Rouart Manet family’s taste for objects from the Far East. Decorative screens, large blue and white vases, round fans, and small objects placed in front of mirrors structure the space as much as they decorate the drawing room. These motifs, inherited from prints and fin de siècle Japonisme, flatten the background, shift the image’s center of gravity, and place her models in a world that is both domestic and open to Japanese visual culture.
Works in public collections
Paule Gobillard is scarcely represented in museums, but several French institutions preserve important works, confirming her place in the public heritage.
Petit Palais, Museum of Fine Arts of the City of Paris
- Madame Paul Valéry and her son Claude, oil on canvas, signed. 1900 to 1910.
Musée d’Orsay
- Seaside
- Provençal village
Musée Mallarmé, Valvins
- Friendly flowers
- Peonies
My collection
The collection I have built over time brings together a set of works by Paule Gobillard. As with a large part of her corpus, these pieces are not all dated, nor accompanied by complete provenances, which reflects the domestic nature of her artistic path.
I group these works here according to their visual affinities: interior scenes, gardens and flowers, female portraits, and studies of young girls.
Japonisme in my collection
Some works by Paule Gobillard in my collection clearly show the influence of Japonisme. The figure remains Western and contemporary to her milieu, but the surrounding space is populated with objects from Asia or inspired by them. Screens, large blue and white vases, circular fans, and decorated pots introduce another way of constructing the image, closer to Japanese prints than to academic tradition.
In the three paintings below, the female model is central, but the entire decor works quietly in the background. Japoniste objects frame the pose, flatten the background, and create areas of repeated patterns. The bourgeois drawing room thus becomes the discreet stage for a dialogue between Morisot and Manet’s Impressionist legacy and the taste for forms and colors from Japan.
Paule Gobillard
The woman with the hat
The woman with the hat reveals the full gentleness of her gaze on the women of her time.
Her delicate touch, shaped by the intimacy of the Impressionist circle, makes this canvas a sensitive rarity in my collection.
On the back, an old numbered label 2108.
Oil on canvas | 73 × 60 cm
Paule Gobillard
The woman in the white dress, mirror effect
This portrait depicts a seated young woman dressed in white, painted with the characteristic softness of Paule Gobillard. The diffused light and the handling of fabrics recall the direct legacy of Berthe Morisot.
The interplay of the mirror and the armchair reinforces the feeling of intimacy, in a calm and quiet atmosphere typical of her interior scenes. The model is the same as in the version painted by Julie Manet during posing sessions in the studio living room on rue de Villejust, recently shown in the exhibition “Julie Manet et ses cousines. La liberté de créer au féminin” at Les Franciscaines in Deauville.
Oil on canvas | 65 × 81 cm
Julie Manet, Young woman with an ermine stole, 1898 to 1899, oil on canvas, private collection, photo Jean Yves Lacôte.
Paule Gobillard
Presumed portrait of Julie Manet
This painting presents what could be a portrait of Julie Manet. The hypothesis is based on the model’s physiognomy and on the family closeness between the two women, at the heart of the Morisot Manet circle.
The slightly turned face, the restrained pose, and the soft light extend the tradition of the family’s intimate portraits, while asserting Paule Gobillard’s own sensibility.
On the back, old labels including an exhibition in Japan.
Oil on canvas | 81 × 65 cm
Paule Gobillard
Jeannie and François Valery
Jeannie and François Valery brings together on the same canvas two familiar figures from the artist’s circle, in a domestic atmosphere that is both simple and refined.
The composition highlights the intimate ties between the sitters, while the supple brushwork and color harmonies bear witness to Paule Gobillard’s Impressionist heritage. Oil on canvas signed at the lower right, countersigned on the back.
Oil on canvas | 65 × 81 cm
Paule GOBILLARD
Ernest and Julie Rouart in the Mesnil Saint Laurent drawing room in Juziers
The scene offers a palette comparable to that of Madame Paul Valéry and her son Claude (Paris, Petit Palais, oil on canvas, 60 x 73 cm, circa 1910). Julie’s concentrated silhouette stands out against the shimmering color of the mahogany secrétaire topped with its glass basin, as in a later watercolor by the artist that makes it possible to locate the scene (Women in an interior, watercolor, 22 x 31 cm, signed lower right. Brussels, sale 51 Galerie Bruxelles, December 2014).
This Mesnil Saint Laurent drawing room in Juziers, where members of the Rouart Manet family meet, becomes in Paule Gobillard’s work a recurring motif combining family intimacy and the memory of place.
Oil on canvas, 1905 to 1910 | 73 x 60 cm
Provenance: Former Rouart Manet collection.
Paule GOBILLARD
Still life with the Degas bronze
Still life with the Degas bronze was painted in the apartment on rue de Villejust and is a rare testimony to the presence, in Julie and Ernest Rouart’s collection, of a bronze executed after a studio work by Edgar Degas. On the reverse, handwritten inscriptions on the stretcher bar bear the mention “Gobillard” in ballpoint pen and “Still life with the Degas bronze.”
Ernest Rouart commissioned this bronze from the Hébrard foundry in Paris on 15 May 1924 (Mexico, New York, etc., 2003, bronze no 28 and Paris 2004, no 19). Paule depicted it at life size, emphasizing the sculptural presence of Degas’s work within the domestic space itself. Another work by Gobillard is also known, a portrait of another sculpture after Degas, Degas’s Little Dancer, painted in the galleries of the Louvre.
Oil on canvas, after May 1924 | 65 x 54 cm
Provenance: Former Rouart Manet collection.
Paule GOBILLARD
The piano lesson
The piano lesson captures an intimate learning moment, where the pupil’s (probably François Valéry) attention focuses on the keyboard under the discreet gaze of the adult. The scene reconnects with the interior themes dear to the Impressionist circle, between domestic life, music, and education.
The light touch and muted color chords create an atmosphere of quiet focus, while the tightened composition brings the viewer closer to the scene. Signed at the lower right.
Oil on canvas | 38 × 46 cm
Paule GOBILLARD
The Piano (François Valéry)
The Piano portrays François Valéry in profile, seated at the keyboard, fully focused on the sheet music resting on the stand. The vivid red of his outfit immediately draws the eye and anchors the composition, while the calm precision of his hands gives the scene its quiet intensity.
The setting is rendered with quick, confident brushwork, with domestic details kept to a minimum. The close framing emphasizes the child’s concentration and the direct relationship between body, instrument, and music, without any unnecessary narrative staging. Signed lower left.
Oil on canvas | 63 × 54 cm
Paule GOBILLARD
Young woman with a basket
Young woman with a basket presents a female figure caught in a quiet moment, holding the basket naturally. The lively brushwork, the gentle modeling of the face, and the subtle nuances of the dress place this canvas in continuity with the Impressionist legacy. Oil on canvas signed at the lower right.
Oil on canvas | 61 × 46 cm
Paule GOBILLARD
Portrait of a woman in a blue blouse
In the Portrait of a woman in a blue blouse, Paule Gobillard concentrates the composition on the sitter’s face and bust, with the blue blouse becoming one of the main color accents. The P.G. monogram at the lower right underlines the discreet nature of the signature.
Oil on canvas | 65 × 54 cm
Paule GOBILLARD
The reader
The reader shows a young woman absorbed in her reading, caught in a moment of quiet withdrawal. The still gesture, the slightly inclined body, and the softness of the outlines suggest an uncertain boundary between wakefulness and sleep.
Oil on canvas signed at the lower left. On the back, a handwritten note on the stretcher, “Is she sleeping?”, underscores the ambiguity of the scene and invites us to question this moment suspended between attention and reverie.
Oil on canvas | 65 × 54 cm
Paule GOBILLARD
The timely pause
Oil on canvas with a stamped signature at the lower right and on the back, this work bears the material trace of the artist’s studio. Its history is intimately tied to the family circle, as its provenance attests.
Oil on canvas | 55 × 46 cm
Provenance: former François Valéry collection.
Paule GOBILLARD
The black lake
Oil on canvas signed at the lower left and titled at the lower center, this work testifies to Paule Gobillard’s attention to variations of light and to quiet atmospheres. It carries the memory of its belonging to François Valéry’s circle.
Oil on canvas | 79 × 49 cm
Provenance: former François Valéry collection.
Paule GOBILLARD
Still life with fruit bowl and flowers
Still life with fruit bowl and flowers brings together, on the same table, the brightness of the fruit and the delicacy of the flowers, in a measured harmony of color. The composition highlights the play of volumes and materials, between the sheen of fruit and the softness of petals.
The free brushwork and subtle chromatic harmonies place this still life in continuity with the Impressionist tradition, while preserving the intimacy specific to Paule Gobillard. Signed at the lower right.
Oil on canvas | 54 × 65 cm
Recorded works and documentary selection
Beyond public and private collections, several works by Paule Gobillard have been recorded through auction sales or gallery exhibitions. This section serves a documentary purpose: it contributes to the reconstruction of a dispersed corpus.
| Work | Format (cm) | Description, medium and provenance |
|---|---|---|
| Red roses; Roses and green jug | 46 × 38 | Two oils on canvas, one signed. Provenance: former Rouart Manet collection. |
| Still life with the Degas bronze | 65 × 54 | Oil on canvas. Painted after 1924. Presence of the Degas bronze in the Rouart collection. |
| Child, circa 1885 | 61.5 × 54 | Pastel on paper. Handwritten note on the reverse. |
| Bouquet of roses and lilies, vase and Japanese fan | 73 × 60 | Signed oil on canvas. Motif reminiscent of Manet. |
| Bouquet of dahlias | 72 × 44 | Oil on canvas laid down on cardboard. Note on the back. |
| Child with a flute (Julien Rouart), attributed | 55 × 38 | Oil on canvas laid down. Probable portrait of Julien Rouart circa 1910. |
| Ernest and Julie Rouart in the Mesnil Saint Laurent drawing room | 73 × 60 | Oil on canvas, interior scene circa 1905 to 1910. |
| View from the window | 56 × 46 | Signed oil on canvas. Note “view from my window.” |
| Still life with bouquets and oranges | 55 × 46 | Oil on canvas, signature stamp. |
| The piano | 63 × 54 | Signed oil on canvas. |
| The piano lesson | 38 × 46 | Signed oil on canvas. |
| Model in a pink dress on a daybed | 54 × 66 | Signed oil on canvas. |
| Jeannie and François Valery | 65 × 81 | Signed and countersigned oil on canvas. |
| Portrait of a woman in a blue blouse | 65 × 54 | Oil on canvas monogrammed P.G. |
| In the park | 37.5 × 40 | Signed oil on canvas. |
| In the park | 46 × 55 | Signed oil on canvas. |
| The beautiful redhead | 65 × 54 | Signed oil on canvas. |
| Paul Valéry’s music room (1923) | 54 × 65 | Signed oil on canvas, dated on the back. |
| The woman with the hat | 73 × 60 | Signed oil on canvas. |
| François Valery reading | 77 × 62.5 | Signed oil on canvas. |
| Young woman doing her hair | 55 × 46 | Oil on canvas monogrammed. |
| The young girl with braids | 61 × 50 | Signed oil on canvas. |
| Young woman with a basket | 61 × 46 | Signed oil on canvas. |
| The three bathers | 65 × 81 | Major signed oil on canvas. |
| The rose bed | 46.5 × 55 | Signed oil on canvas. |
| The young Julie Manet | 53 × 65 | Oil on canvas, signature stamp. Provenance: Marumo. |
| Bouquet of flowers in a blue vase | 68 × 57 | Signed oil on canvas. |
| The reader | 65 × 54 | Signed oil on canvas. Note “Is she sleeping?” on the back. |
| Young woman sewing | 73 × 60 | Signed oil on canvas. Handwritten dedication. |
| Portrait of a young girl with a bun | 40 × 32 | Oil on canvas. Provenance: Galerie Bellier. |
| Snowy rooftops | 38 × 46 | Signed oil on canvas. Rare subject. |
| Still life and painting | 55 × 46 | Signed oil on canvas. Note “Study.” |
| The timely pause | 55 × 46 | Oil on canvas, signature stamp. Provenance: Valéry. |
| Dinard, view of the sea | 38 × 46 | Signed and located oil on canvas. |
| Presumed portrait of Julie Manet | 81 × 65 | Oil on canvas monogrammed. |
| The black lake | 79 × 49 | Signed, titled oil on canvas. Provenance: Valéry. |
| Flowers and fruit | 60 × 73 | Signed oil on canvas. |
| Agathe reclining | 51 × 62 | Signed oil on canvas. Note “Agathe.” |
| Reading (François Valery) | 38 × 46 | Signed and titled oil on canvas. |
| Young woman in a white dress | 65 × 81 | Signed oil on canvas. |
| Figures, flowers, hair | 42 × 32 | Signed oil on canvas. Provenance: Druet, Bellier. |
| Reverie | 65 × 54 | Signed oil on canvas. Label: French Art Exhibition 1917. |
Paule Gobillard exhibitions
This list was established from historic press, salon catalogues, and gallery archives, for the period from 1894 to 1999. Months are indicated only when they appear clearly in the sources.
Salon des Artistes Indépendants
- 1894 – Salon des Artistes Indépendants, Paris (group show).
- 1895 – Salon des Artistes Indépendants, Paris (group show).
- 1896 – Salon des Artistes Indépendants, Paris (group show).
- 1897 – Salon des Artistes Indépendants, Paris (group show).
- 1898 – Salon des Artistes Indépendants, Paris (group show).
- 1899 – Salon des Artistes Indépendants, Paris (group show).
- 1900 – Salon des Artistes Indépendants, Paris (group show).
- 1901 – Salon des Artistes Indépendants, Paris (group show).
- 1902 – Salon des Artistes Indépendants, Paris (group show).
- 1903 – Salon des Artistes Indépendants, Paris (group show).
Salon d’Automne
- October 1904 – Salon d’Automne, Grand Palais, Paris (group show).
- October 1906 – Salon d’Automne, 4th exhibition, Paris (group show).
- October 1907 – Salon d’Automne, 5th exhibition, Paris (group show).
Salon des Tuileries
- June 1926 – Salon des Tuileries, Paris (group show).
Galleries and group exhibitions
- October to November 1922 – Exhibition “Art and the Child”, Galerie Devambez, Paris (group show).
- January 1927 – Solo exhibition, Galerie Eugène Druet, Paris.
- March 1929 – Exhibition “Paintings and pastels”, Galerie Eugène Druet, Paris.
- April 1933 – Exhibition “Paintings and anecdotes”, Galerie Eugène Druet, Paris.
- May to June 1935 – Salon des Femmes Artistes Modernes, Galerie Bernheim Jeune, Paris (group show).
- February 1936 – Exhibition “Interiors, flowers, landscapes… and 12 sketches for the Mystic City”, Galerie Eugène Druet, Paris.
- November 1938 – Exhibition “Pastel landscapes, including Château”, Galerie Eugène Druet, Paris.
Posthumous exhibitions
- March 1949 – Exhibition “Georges d’Espagnat, Paule Gobillard”, Galerie Durand Ruel, Paris.
- September to October 1999 – Exhibition “Paule Gobillard”, Galerie Scot, Paris.
This list gathers the exhibitions and salons in which Paule Gobillard’s participation is confirmed by the available sources.
It may be expanded if new archives are brought to light.
Bibliography and resources
- Calmels Cohen sale, Hôtel Drouot, 2004 (estate of François Valéry)
- Galerie Scot catalogue, Paris, 1999
- Growing Up with the Impressionists, Julie Manet’s journal
- Public auction archives: Christie’s, Sotheby’s, Drouot, Artprice
Conclusion
Paule Gobillard is one of the painters closest to the Impressionist household, yet her work remains largely to be rediscovered. Her presence in several French museums, combined with the reappraisal of women artists, opens the way to a new reading of her contribution.
By bringing together here biographical elements, references to public collections, works from my own collection, and a selection of recorded works, I hope to offer a clear point of entry to better understand an artist who long remained in the background.
