Details

Name

Suzanne Manet

Brief Biography

1829–1906, Dutch/French

Occupation

Pianist; artist's model

Description

Suzanne Manet was the owner of the French painting 'Portrait of a Woman' by Édouard Manet in Glasgow Museums.

Born into an artistic family in the Netherlands, her father earning his living as a professional carillonneur, Suzanne Leenhoff moved in the late 1840s with her mother and two younger brothers to live with their grandmother in Paris. One brother, Ferdinand, later became a sculptor. She may have moved to Paris to continue her studies as a pianist on the advice of no less a person than the composer Franz Liszt, who had encouraged her, after having heard her play in 1842, whilst he was on holiday in the Netherlands.
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Suzanne soon found work to supplement her studies, being hired by Auguste Manet to teach his sons the piano. A romantic relationship soon developed between Suzanne and Édouard Manet, but it was to be shrouded in secrecy, perhaps because of a rumour that Suzanne had been Auguste's mistress. On 29 January 1852, Suzanne gave birth to a son, Léon-Édouard Koëlla, who was baptised in 1855, with Édouard Manet standing as godfather. However, to the public at large, Léon was to be known NOT as Suzanne's natural son, but as her youngest brother. Why this complicated state of affairs arose is still a matter of conjecture.

Suzanne and Édouard married in October 1863, after the death of Auguste. The Manet household consisted of Édouard, Suzanne, Léon and Madame Manet, a set of complex relationships which could have been disastrous in extremis, if it had not been for Suzanne's legendary placid nature and even temper.

A model for her husband only on a handful of occasions, she preferred to stay in the background, providing a congenial 'salon' for her husband and his friends, entertaining them with her accomplished piano recitals.

Shortly before her death in 1906, to make certain that Léon would inherit, she acknowledged what most of Parisian society had known for years, that Léon was, indeed, her son. She is buried with her husband at Passy.