Splendours and Miseries: Images of Prostitution in France, 1850-1910

Hardback

Main Details

Title Splendours and Miseries: Images of Prostitution in France, 1850-1910
Authors and Contributors      By (author) Guy Cogeval
By (author) Nienke Bakker
By (author) Marie Robert
By (author) Isolde Pludermacher
By (author) Richard Thompson
Physical Properties
Format:Hardback
Pages:308
Dimensions(mm): Height 245,Width 297
Category/GenreArt and design styles - c 1800 to c 1900
Painting and paintings
Exhibition catalogues and specific collections
Human figures depicted in art
ISBN/Barcode 9782081372740
ClassificationsDewey:758.9306742
Audience
Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Illustrations With 328 illustrations in colour and black and white

Publishing Details

Publisher Editions Flammarion
Imprint Flammarion
Publication Date 2 May 2016
Publication Country France

Description

From the scandalous Olympia by Edouard Manet to Degas' The Absinthe Drinker, from Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Edvard Munch's forays into brothels to the bold figures and caricature portraits of Georges Rouault, Kees Van Dongen, and Pablo Picasso, this book foregrounds how the shadowy domain of prostitution played a central role in the development of modern painting. In nine chapters, readers roam the streets of Paris and head into its maisons closes and private boudoirs, where courtesans-often actresses, singers, or dancers-were looked after by rich protectors. These famous paintings, sculptures, lithographs, sketches, and press clippings are given context within the moral framework of a time when prostitution was considered-depending on the point of view - as an unavoidable or enticing evil. The catalogue also demonstrates how the works of art are intrinsically bound to the literary works of the period, in which Balzac, Baudelaire, and Zola negotiated parallel questions of presentation and representation, reverie and reality. Comprehensive appendices include a complete list of works featured in the exhibition organized by medium, a selected bibliography, and an index of names. The book powerfully evokes the ambivalent place held by prostitutes in the midst of nascent modernity - from the splendours of the demimondaines to the miseries of the working girl pierreuses.

Author Biography

Guy Cogeval, art historian and president of the Musee d'Orsay, is an expert on nineteenth-century art. Nienke Bakker is the curator of the Van Gogh paintings at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. Marie Robert and Isolde Pludermacher are curators at the Musee d'Orsay. Richard Thomson is Watson Gordon Professor of Fine Art at the University of Edinburgh."