The feminist art historian Linda Nochlin called the work "pornography" but also "a little masterpiece of overt sexuality."COMMENT
And now finally the matter of its sitter seems to have been solved, thanks to a chance discovery by a mild-mannered French historian toiling in the archives.
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Mr Schopp's breakthrough came innocently enough. He had been working on annotation the letters between Dumas and the writer George Sand, and had long been perplexed by a passage in the old typewritten copies, where Dumas inveigh against the "insolent" and "cowardly" Courbet, who had committed an artistic heresy, in the view of Dumas:
"One doesn't paint with one's most delicate and sonorous brush the interview of Mademoiselle Queniault of the Opera, for the Turk who took refuge inside it from time to time -- all of it life-size, and life-size also two women passing for men."
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But what about that world "interview" in the typescript, and the other painting referred to? Mr. Schopp went back to the source -- the manuscript of the Dumas letter at the National Library.
The word Dumas had actually written was "interior," not interview. He underlined it, to emphasize that he was playing with worlds.
"I dared to utter an inner 'Eureka,'' Mr. Schopp writes in a new book about the affair, "The Origin of the World: Life of the Model," which will be published in France this week.
The first rule of research is, when in doubt consult the original source. The name of the model for a famous (and famously risqué) painting by Gustave Courbet was unknown, even though the answer to the mystery was hiding in plain sight. It took a researcher brave enough to admit that the transcription made no sense to go back and investigate what the original manuscript actually said. It didn't help that Dumas had misspelled the name of Constance Queniaux, foiling a keyword search strategy. The journalist is pleased to report that the sexy Ms. Queniaux lived long and prospered.
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