Outline for- realist quandaries: posing professional and proprietary models in the 1860’s- susan Waller

Outline for- Realist quandaries: posing professional and proprietary models in the 1860’s- Susan Waller
I. The Rejection of the “modeles de profession for “modeles privilegies”

A. Caricatures (Slide 1)

1. Both illustrate a dual shift in the artist model transaction- from the artist who directs the model’s staged performance to one who captures a casual gesture, and from the professional to the non-specialist or lay model.

a. The first by Felix Nadar- portrays the unnaturalness of the academic practice

b. The second by Eustache Lorsay

2. 
   In 1848- Horace Laecoq de Boisbaudran published a book advocating the release of models from the model stand to wander at will and introduced exercises to develop the student’s ability to recall movements
   
   1. 
      Manet and other Realists frustrated with the perceived artificiality of the posed professional model, were casting about for alternatives to the traditional artist-model transaction
      
3. 
   To reject the professional model meant not only renouncing the static performance on the model stand but also entering into social exchanges that resonated beyond the atelier
   
4. 
   Closely identified with Edouard Manet’s work
   
   1. 
      Once Manet established his studio his models were no longer specialist professionals
      
      1. 
         used family and friends- “modeles privilegies”
         
      2. 
         were not payed by the hour
         
      3. 
         poses assumed by
         
   2. 
      He did use some “modeles de profession”- Victorine Meurent (Slide 2)
      
      1. 
         artists did establish ongoing relationships with models who’s skills or appearance suited their projects
         
5. 
   the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood rejected what they called “ordinary paid models”
   

1. Found their appearance not sufficiently distrinctive

2. 
   The Models Reputation (Slide 3)
   
   1. 
      Posing for an artist in his studio- even if it didn’t entail nudity- was risky behavior for a respectable woman
      
      1. 
         the artists studio was a morally ambiguous and potentially dangerous space
         
      2. 
         a place where women sold their bodies
         
   2. 
      A women concerned with her reputation may refuse to pose
      
      1. 
         Manet taken by a gesture of a street singer as she left a café, attempted to hire her as a model, he was rebuffed and turned again to Meurent
         
3. 
   Fantin-Latour’s The Toast! Homage to Truth- exhibited in the 1865 Salon (Slide 4)
   
   1. 
      destroyed shortly after 1865
      
   2. 
      Included the images of seven artists and two writers- Manet & Whistler being two of them
      
   3. 
      All the men were grouped around a nude female- identified as an allegory of Truth
      
      1. 
         maintaining this allegorical status proved to be problematic
         

9. 
   the popular identification of the modele de femme with prostitution
   

1. 
   though critics recognized the work’s allegorical ambition they perfered to read it literally
   
1. 
   The read hair of the woman
   
   1. 
      linked her to Victorine Meurent whose image was present at the same Salon- Olympia
      
   2. 
      the read hair identified her as “a red-head from the quartier Breda” (the Parisian neighborhood known for prostitution)
      

i. critics chose to see her as a prostitute

2. 
   Whistler’s The Artist’s Studio (Slide 5)
   
   1. 
      Never completed the painting
      
   2. 
      Joanna Hiffernan (Slide 6- Left Image- The White Girl)
      
      1. 
         the artist’s mistress
         
      2. 
         un-educated
         
      3. 
         She is depicted in the white dress in the sketch
         
   3. 
      Christine Spartali (Slide 6- Right Image- La Princesse du pays de la Porcelaine)
      
      1. 
         was the daughter of the Greek consul general
         
      2. 
         was chaperoned by her sister when she came to the studio to pose
         
      3. 
         is the woman with her back to the viewer wearing a Japanese robe
         
      4. 
         in many cases posing for a Royal Academy painting was a way of portraying marriageable young women
         
   4. 
      Brittish artist mainly relied on “modeles privilegies”
      
      1. 
         juxtaposition of both kinds of models- even though both are considered “modeles privilegies”
         

9. 
   due to Spartali’s social standing she could exercise more control over the paintings circulation in the public context
   

ii. Hiffernan was economically dependent on Whistler and was of lower class- didn’t have any control over the painting’s circulation

iii. still unusual to see these two women in the same setting

2. 
   Monet and Renoir
   

1. Camille Doncieux (Slide 7- right image)

a. Monet used Camille Donciex as a model in many of his paintings

b. was possibly his mistress at one point

c. She was securely middle class- therefore considered to be of “modeles privilegies” status

d. Posed for the painting- Camille that was exhibited at the 1866 Salon

i. Initiated a new shift- by exhibiting a painting of a female modele privilegie and titling the painting after the model’s own name

ii. Camille is viewed as being of a woman of equivocal morality

aa. her dress is meant to attract male admirers

2. Lise Trehot (Slide 7- left image)

a. was of lower middle class- considered to be of “modeles privilegies” status

b. was the mistress of Renoir

c. posed for twenty-three of Renoir’s works

i. performed many roles that would have been more common of a modele de profession

ii. posed nude twice

iii. Like Monet’s Camille- Renoir titled the one painting after her- Lise with a Parasol

3. Both artists turning to their mistresses is evidence that both were short on money

4. The success of their work placed Monet and Renoir at the forefront of Realism and identified the avant-garde with two new practices

a. plein-air painting

b. the use of modeles privilegies

J. Since a modele de femme in the Parisian studio was thought to be a woman of suspect morality of bohemian lifestyle- even female modele privilegie would be tainted by the stigma carried by posing

1. Artists of the Realist movement were concerened with maintaining bourgeois decorum in their paintings rather then succumb to the bohemian lifestyle

2. Turned to painting the female modele privilegie in the streets, parks, and cafes of Paris

K. The “new painter’s” model

1. Choice of model was integral to their innovations

2. in place of the traditional modele de femme- turned to “the ideal of this artist’s heart and mind”- his wife or mistress- the object of his affection: a modele privilegie

Image List:

1. 
   Felix Nadar, “Well Antoine! What a lucky break…” from Les Folies Parisiennes, 1894.
   
2. 
   Eustache Lorsay, “You’ve just come in time…” from Petit Journal pour Rire, no. 487, 1866.
   
3. 
   Manet, Le Dejeuner ser l’herbe, 1863.
   
4. 
   Manet, Olympia, 1863.
   
5. 
   Oreste Cortazzo, The Interrupted Pose, 1870.
   
6. 
   Fantin-Latour, Study for “The Toast”, 1865.
   
7. 
   Whistler, Sketch of “The Artist’s Studio”, 1865
   
8. 
   Whistler, Symphony in White, No. 1: The White Girl, 1862.
   
9. 
   Whistler, La princesse du pays de la porcelaine, 1863-1864.
   
10. 
    Monet, Camille (Woman in a Green Dress), 1866.
    
11. 
    Renoir, Lise with a Parasol, 1867.