The 19th century brought a significant change to gender roles and positions in society due to the industrial revolution and the implication and rise of capitalism. In ‘Vision and Difference’, Griselda Pollock paraphrases Janet Wolff’s description of modernity expressed through literature.
‘…literature of modernity describes the experience of men. It is essentially a literature about transformations in the public world and its associated consciousness…modernity as a nineteenth-century phenomenon is a product of the city.’ [1]
An essential question, with regards to gender depicted in painting in the late 19th century, is could women experience it? Furthermore, how is space represented according to the feminine and the masculine?
Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 5 Adrien DE WITTE Femme au corset rouge (1880)I have selected a few paintings by Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, which communicate various forms of gender difference, space and modernity that are very much indicative of the late 19th century city life.
‘The artist's mother comtesse Adele de Toulouse-Lautrec at breakfast, Malromé Chateau’, 1881-1883, ‘The Laundry Worker’, 1884-1888, ‘Mlle Marie Dihau at the Piano’, 1889 (figs. 1, 2 and 3) I have collated to exemplify the interiority and domesticity of the middle class woman. The chaos and dirt of the city influenced families to move to the suburbs therefore making the former mentioned arena to be a largely masculine domain. Elegant family women were out of place here unless chaperoned, and present in the daytime. And when they do, the hassle to be had in making themselves presentable (the costume to be adored to permit the status of acceptable and civilised femininity) was something in itself to prevent and hinder women to step into the public sphere. Figs. 3 and 4 are particularly interesting in displaying the occupied eyes and hands when under observation as the subject matter of a painting, in this instance. Their surrounding interior is heavily decorated and blended, rendering it almost suffocating to the sitter. ‘Mlle Marie Dihau at the Piano’, 1889 is slightly different, as there seems to be an opened newspaper in close proximity to our main focus. This indicates that the woman is in a public place; a bar or café. Therefore, confirming her status as kept woman, courtesan or prostitute (fallen woman). Nonetheless, her eyes and hands are looking away from the voyeurism of the artist. She is occupied, and seemingly unaware of the interest she attracts. What connects these images is how they indirectly display the flaneur- a definite masculine phenomenon of a mediatory stance between the impersonal and aggressive atmosphere of the city and the emotionally involved and intensity of the family home. Flaneury allowed for the erotics of enjoyment- the viewer could see and experience intimacy in an impassive manner, in intermediate spaces such as the arcades and the cafes. This is particularly explicit in fig. 5, where a seeming lack of self-consciousness gives licence over what the male voyeur desires to see. [1]
I have included the remaining images as they primarily involve the significant factor of looking. ‘The Laundry Worker’ interested me as a comparison to the afore mentioned paintings as it depicts a woman momentarily breaking from her work, and looking out of, what the light source indicates as being a window. This action gives rise to the possibility of the female flaneur. Although still very much from the private sphere, she is observing the life to be had outside of her immediate experience. However, it is notable that her hair is covering much of her face, particularly the eyes, so her looking is still very much concealed.
‘ Edouard Manet, 'The Railroad’, 1872-73
Edouard Manet, 'The Waitress' 1879
Edouard Manet is particularly famous for his paintings of women looking out from their circumstances. ‘The Waitress’, 1879, ‘The Balcony’, 1869, ‘The Railroad’, 1872-73. I have selected due to their use of barriers, a painterly prop, as identified by Pollock in ‘Modernity and spaces of femininity’. In these paintings, women of different social classes are each looking out from their occupation i.e. nanny, debutante, café worker, directly at the viewer implying their thoughts and fantasies go beyond what they are all physically confined to. The young girl’s action, in ‘The Railroad’, of holding the railings and peering through to a relatively new and radical invention of transportation, hints at an aspiration of travel and dislocation. The very quizzical stare of the main subject in ‘The Balcony’ is especially significant in this area of discussion, supported more so by how the faces of the two other figures are blurred and seemingly unfinished. The clear and detailed rendering of the balcony railings forces
‘…the viewer to experience a dislocation between her space and that of the world beyond it’s frontiers.’[2]
I have included ‘The Waitress’ as the woman seems to have a balustrade of men fashioned between the audience, the painter and herself. The flaneur seems to be evaded in ‘The Railroad’ and ‘The Waitress’ as the depicted women are looking out at the voyeur- he is not impassively able to observe his interest, which is something particularly significant with regards to outlining the zeitgeist of the 19th century concepts and experience of gender relations and spaces of femininity and modernity. The latter mentioned paintings, in particular, bring forth of our 21st century analytical eye, that individuals were aware, and indeed scrutinised the problems presented to them as part of the industrial revolution, and the effect of the phenomena of the city.
[1] Vision and Difference, G. Pollock, ‘Modernity and the spaces of femininity’, 1988 & 2002. Pp.76
[2] Ibid. pp.63
[1] Vision and Difference, G. Pollock, ‘Modernity and the spaces of femininity’, 1988 & 2002. Pp. 66
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