Following on from the recent post involving Jean-Auguste Dominique Ingres, a post on his much undervalued role as an intellectual patron and artistic chronicler of the liberating force of feminism. Below is one of the leading figures of the emerging movement that changed the landscape of life, Venus Anadyomène, painted by Ingres in slightly allegorical mode. Anadyomène was regarded by the ruling elites as "one of the most dangerous people in Europe" for her radical views regarding universal suffrage.
Ingres' most important work as chronicler of the rise of feminism is the painting below, which shows the first organised meeting of like-minded women from around Europe to debate and formulate strategies for the campaign ahead. Ingres, the only male present, was requested by Anadyomène to record the event for posterity, which , given the sociological climate of the time, he intentionally misleadingly titled
The Turkish Bath. Noone will deny Ingres has managed to capture something of the tension of the heated exchanges that occured at that seminal gathering.
And finally, below is a painting of the extremist figure, still only known by her nom de plume, The Source, by which the painting is still known. She believed the ends justified the means, and women were duty bound to resort to violence to further the struggle.
2 comments:
I still maintain that any of these Venus Anadyomene paintings from this era are interchangeable and indistinguishable from each other. Look at the ones by Cabanel and Bouguereau. The Turkish Bath looks like a big pajama party, sans pajamas. Maybe a girl's big slumber party. Being in the chattel possession of an Eastern Potentate hardly bespeaks of feminine liberation. This puts me in mind of a New York anti-Vietnam War protest in 1969. It was widely reported in the newspapers. An anonymous girl named "Jean" shed her clothes (which consisted of a US Army jacket and nothing else) and engaged in sexual intercourse with her equally anonymous male cohort. She told reporters she had done it to set us all free. But it didn't set me free of anything. They didn't even print photos of it in the paper. In the end, Jean turned out to be nothing more than a marijuana intoxicated exhibitionist who liked to screw in public and have people watch it. Nothing too radical about that. Certainly nothing liberating. So much for women's lib.
Though I think you underestimate the importance of Ingres' role as a chronicler of this movement away from patriarchal autocracy.
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