Someone pointed this out on Twitter and I love it so much. You can literally see the ways in which Marianne’s portrayal of Heloise changes in the process of Marianne painting the portrait–and by implication the alterations in the way that Heloise posed for Marianne as their relationship and intimacy deepened and evolved into mutual fondness and love.
At the time of the top version, Marianne said, “I can’t make you smile. I feel I do it and then it vanishes.”
And Marianne really couldn’t make Heloise smile at that point, not while posing, and the times Marianne did manage to evoke that smile, it was fleeting. It’s only as they spend more and more time together, becoming closer and closer, getting to know one another better, that Heloise’s smile lingers and then irrepressibly tries to conquer Heloise’s mouth despite the need to be “serious” while sitting for Marianne.
As a result, look at how the gaze softened, the eyebrows appear more relaxed, how the corners of the mouth turn up more, on the cusp of the suggestion of a smile. Heloise looked at Marianne differently, Marianne felt differently, they created art that changed with the way they changed.
You know how we X-ray paintings these days to see the layers underneath and the changes a painter might have made over the course of making the piece? I love the thought that someone could X-ray Marianne’s painting of Heloise and see exactly these changes, that beneath the finished top layer lies the start of their story and how each additional layer builds toward the culmination of all that they became to one another.
Marianne never did make Heloise smile in the portrait. She didn’t have to; it wouldn’t have been right. The smile Marianne got to see was not an expression she was meant to send to this unknown husband-to-be. But Marianne and Heloise know the changes that happened in the portrayal over time. It is another piece of knowledge they share.
“This time, I like it,” says Heloise. A far cry from the bewildered assessment of “Is that how you see me?” Heloise looks at this final rendition and she recognizes herself–as well as Marianne and that Marianne sees her as Heloise is, as she wants Marianne to see her, not according to conventions or ideas, but as Heloise presents herself to her.
This time, the portrait is closer to both of them.
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