Book Review: With Violets by Elizabeth Robards

By Carlotta G. Holton
When a man gives violets it’s a symbol of love. Perhaps it’s the only overt symbol he can proffer when an affair is an illicit one during a period when double standards still dictate private intimacies. Such are the circumstances in this fictional romance between French painter, Edouard Manet and his model, Berthe Morisot, a founder of the Impressionist movement in Paris.

With Violets (HarperCollins Publishers, 2006) by Elizabeth Robards effectively depicts the changing 19th century, rife with change, not only in the streets of Prussian- invaded Paris, but also within the artistic community. Robard also successfully portrays Berthe’s own struggle to live independently and remain true to her self. With Violets is a love story, rich in the emotional longings of the 27-year-old Berthe. At her first meeting with Manet, at the Louvre, she recalls, “I felt my throat tighten.” There was instant chemistry. “It is his unpretentious freedom that draws me to him. His ability to ‘just be.’”

This is also a coming of age story that, in some ways, is emblematic of every woman’s inner struggle between love at all costs and societal conformity. She appropriately designates these two sides of her being as “Propriety” and “Olympia.” She lives amongst Frenchmen who take for granted adultery with a mistress, including members of the Manet household. Women are not afforded the same acceptance.

To her credit, Robards’ canvas depicts no ordinary woman of the time – Berthe is an accomplished painter – she also bucks the establishment in every way. She refuses, much to her mother’s chagrin, to find a suitable marriage partner. She studies painting and joins the movement to break away from the Academe’ D’Arts. She acknowledges her departure from societal convention and states, “While most parents insist daughters of marriageable age not approach a hobby such as painting as more than a fleeting fancy, mine indulge.”

Berthe takes a stand against the Academe and prevails. She bonds with colorful artists of the times, such as Degas, who shares her frustration with their depiction of the era. Berthe notes, “It [the Academe] has a firm grasp, dictating the direction of modern art. Many, myself included, believe they need to move forward away from the staid mode of history. We are more than halfway through the 19th century yet art does not reflect the times.”

This book could have benefited from a more detailed description of the aesthetic battle waged on the Academe. Without bogging the story down with historical detail, one or two specific incidents would have made this struggle more real. At times the reader’s patience with Berthe grows thin. As the “other woman,” she questions Manet’s marriage, stating, “I do not understand how a man with such an eye can find anything beautiful in this woman, and it irritates me.” Their on again off again romance confuses Berthe. She ponders, “Why is it that he does not want me when he can have me, yet tries so desperately to win me the moment I resolve I am finished with him?”

Perhaps in such a dubious relationship the ending should not come as a surprise, but it does. It is not a conventional solution, nor is it the one readers might hope for, yet it is one that leaves the door open to all possibilities.