This article was originally published in “Figaro Magazine”.

She writes like a painter the Impressionists She is attentive to the detail that expresses the artist’s humility in the face of reality, to the little true fact that also indicates his willingness to wrestle with the material, without ever forgetting that perspective and an overall vision are necessary to compose a painting. Not contradictorily, she is also in the vein of psychological biography, Stefan Zweig style, or even psycho-genealogy, as she loves family sagas. You will have recognized Dominique Bonawhose biographies of the three Heredia daughters, Berthe Morisot, the two Rouart sisters (born Lerolle), Jeanne Voilier and Colette have been brought together in a single volume.

All these women are connected by family, friendship or social ties – with the exception of Colette, who nonetheless gravitated into their orbit. What they have in common is a love of…