Hidden in the Shadow of the Master The Model-Wives of Cezanne, Monet, and Rodin Ruth Butler

Paul Cezanne, Claude Monet, and Auguste Rodin - The names of these brilliant nineteenth-century artists are known throughout the world. But what is remembered of their wives? What were these unknown women like? What roles did they play in the lives and the art of their famous husbands? In this remarkable book of discovery, art historian Ruth Butler coaxes three shadowy women out of obscurity and introduces them for the first time as individuals. Through unprecedented research, Butler has been able to create portraits of Hortense Fiquet, Camille Doncieux, and Rose Beuret - the models, and later the wives, respectively, of Cezanne, Monet, and Rodin, three of the most famous French artists of their generation. The book tells the stories of three ordinary women who faced issues of a dramatically changing society as well as the challenges of life with a striving genius. Butler illuminates the ways in which these model-wives figured in their husbands' achievements and provides new analyses of familiar works of art. Filled with captivating detail, the book recovers the lives of Hortense, Camille, and Rose, and recognizes with new insight how their unique relationships enriched the quality of their husbands' artistic endeavors.

Ruth Butler is professor emerita, University of Massachusetts, Boston, and the author of the award-winning book Rodin: The Shape of Genius, published by Yale University Press.

"'Ruth Butler has produced an astonishing book about a virtually unknown story within this overly rehearsed moment in art history. This is a monumental achievement.' Paul Tucker, author of The Impressionists at Argenteuil and Monet in the 20th Century 'Vividly brought to life. We come away with a fuller understanding of what it took to be a revolutionary painter or sculptor, and what it meant to be a woman, in late-19th-century France.' Ann Landi, ARTnews"