"Olympia" Response

I must start out by saying that I enjoyed this story much more than I enjoyed Vreeland’s "Yellow Jacket". It was all because of Suzanne Manet’s character. Here is a woman who has been at the very hand and foot of a very well renowned artist. One would not find it uncommon to practically worship a celebrity, which is what Manet basically was. However, he was still a man, and as sweet as he could be at times, he was not a very good husband. He was a cheating womanizer in my eyes. The way I see it, Suzanne eventually got so tired of being a doormat that she gradually started being assertive. After Manet died, that assertiveness lead to slight aggression, but it was understandable. This was a faithful wife who had been cheated on repetitively and chose to brush it under the table rather than confront the problem. When she finally did confront it, she felt much more at ease.

I think my favorite passage in this story is when she rants on about how awful the syphilis actually was. The description alone would be enough for someone to get sick, but her anger on top of it was more than intimidating. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, and this is what she was. It didn’t matter whether or not Victorine was the actual source of the syphilis, Suzanne had finally gotten the nerve to speak her mind to one of Manet’s models. There’s just so much power in this passage, it’s so easy to picture. Suzanne wasn’t as pretty as the other women Manet painted, but her personality had grown multiple times more than the models’. This section, to me, just shows how Suzanne’s timid shell shatters and she becomes this powerful woman who can finally speak for herself. I admire that.

In the beginning of the story, when you get the visual of Suzanne examining the paintings with her nephew, there is this other side of Suzanne that is apparent. She does become a very strong woman, that it may seem like she has been bottling up all this anger that has finally exploded, but she is also very loving. Despite all of the hell Manet put her through with his other lovers, she loved him dearly and she would have done anything for him. Even when she is looking at the paintings of the other women and discussing them, she notes all of these similarities between her nephew and Manet. However, they come off as compliments rather than snide comments, showing her deep affection for the man. She really did miss him, probably not his antics, but she missed him.

The visuals this story provided were powerful, and I love a story that allows me to picture what is happening. It had so much description that I was able to see the paintings without actually looking at them. I did not think the writing was too spectacular, however it was decent. I enjoyed the read. Suzanne Manet definitely was a character I admired most about the story. She was the woman who could have stayed timid, but no doubt had the free will to be strong and yet still have that compassionate side.

Alice Neel Annotated Bibliography

"Alice Neel: Last Sickness." The University Art Museum. 30 Jan 2009 .

Although this source was very short, I found it very compelling and worth-while. There are only a few sentences about Alice Neel and the painting "Last Sickness". The woman in the portrait is in fact Neel’s mother. And when she was a child, her mother used to say to her "I don’t know what you expect to do in the world. You’re only a girl." Then later in life, the very woman that said this to her finds it difficult that she has no way to express herself. To me, that says so much more about the painting than I originally thought. Honestly it puts some pieces into place and it helps me get a better understanding of why her face is set in that manner. However the woman is still depicted as being strong by the bold colors of the robe and the hard shapes in the background.


Allara, Pamela. Pictures of People: Alice Neel's American Portrait Gallery. Washington DC: University Press of New England, 1998.

I found an entire book on her portraiture, so I specifically looked in the book for "Last Sickness". "Last Sickness" was finished in 1952, depicting Neel’s mother. In the book, it tells how Neel took care of her mother during the last moments of her life. I find it odd how the book says the robe in the painting resembles a shroud or a body bag. I also liked how the book noted the irony in Neel becoming the caretaker for the mother, rather than the other way around. I didn’t read the entire book, but it was an excellent source. Sadly, there was really only a small section on that particular painting.

"The Art of Alice Neel." Whitney Museum of American Art. 2008. Traditional Fine Arts Organization. 29 Jan 2009 .

This source was particularly handy for all aspects of Neel. It started off discussing her art and where they are now located, for devoted fans. It then launched into a short bibliography. Neel was apparently married to Carlos Enriquez and bore her first child, Santillana, who only lived for a year. Later on, she was separated from her second-born daughter, Isabetta, after a divorce. She went through many hardships, including a nervous breakdown and a suicide attempt. She worked for the W.B.A. as a painter during the Great Depression. It was then when she really explored portraiture. The one thing I find interesting about this source is how Neel referred to herself as a "collector of souls" rather than a portrait painter.