Art and the Sportsman, Sporting Art and the Man: Gustave Caillebotte and the Late Nineteenth-Century Male Body
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
ART AND THE SPORTSMAN, SPORTING ART AND THE MAN: GUSTAVE CAILLEBOTTE AND THE LATE NINETEENTH-CENTURY MALE BODY A Dissertation Submitted to the Temple University Graduate Board In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy By Erin Lizabeth Lehman August, 2014 Examining Committee Members: Dr. Therese Dolan, Advisory Chair, Art History Dr. Gerald Silk, Art History Dr. Peter Logan, English Dr. Suzanne Singletary, Art History, Philadelphia University ii ABSTRACT This dissertation focuses primarily on the Impressionist artist Gustave Caillebotte’s paintings of rowers on the Yerres River outside Paris, created in the late 1870s. The works engage with many of the radical shifts in social and cultural norms that took place during the latter half of the nineteenth-century as industrialization and urbanization increasingly affected daily life in Europe and America. The paintings are in dialogue with developments in the fine arts, including the growing influence of Impressionism and avant-garde artists, and deal extensively with the male figure, reacting to and engaging with changing norms of masculinity. To fully examine the works, I focus on five areas of comparison. First, in considering the possible implications of changing masculine ideals in relation to the physical body during the period, I consider Caillebotte’s controversial nude male bathers. I then contrast Caillebotte’s oarsmen with both the professional rowers portrayed by his American contemporary Thomas Eakins, and the more leisurely boating scenes of his fellow Impressionists. Finally, I examine the history of the dandy/flâneur figure, arguing that Caillebotte’s rowers illustrate the artist’s attempt to reinvent and modernize the concept. My thesis attempts to bridge different methodological approaches that have tended to isolate aspects of the artist’s work, thereby obscuring his overall project of engaging with both the social and theoretical concept of modernity. Although the artist is underrepresented in the general literature of Impressionism, he has lately played a significant role in texts examining Impressionist interest in the suburban vacation spots along the Seine River. Such authors have illuminated Caillebotte’s background as a iii serious sportsman, an aspect of the artist previously underexplored. I also build on feminist and queer theorists, who in recent years have called attention to the potential for sexual subversity within Caillebotte’s œuvre. Although acknowledging a debt to all of these scholars, my dissertation is an attempt to expand the scholarly conversation by examining how these works explore the concept of modernity, both formally, in the manner in which Caillebotte calls attention to the artifice of painting and socially, in how he engages with the changing physical landscape and the increasing potential for leisure activities outside Paris following the Franco-Prussian War. Finally, in arguing that Caillebotte rowers are transported flâneurs, who, though now engaged in daytime paddling rather than evening strolling, continue their mission of anonymity and observation, I suggest an expansion of the very definition of flâneur, and by extension, the dandy figure that remains relevant as a type even today. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank my advisor and dissertation chair Dr. Therese Dolan, not only for her careful attention and contribution to this dissertation, but for nearly a decade of support, encouragement, good humor and care. It has been a pleasure to work with you throughout my career as a graduate student. Thanks also to my committee members Dr. Gerald Silk, who so graciously agreed to come on board in the final stages, Dr. Peter Logan, who chose to stick with the project even as it evolved, and to my outside reader Dr. Suzanne Singletary, who unknowingly planted the seed that became this dissertation. It has been to my great benefit to work with all of you not only on this dissertation, but in coursework as well. Additionally, I would like to extend my gratitude to the entire Department of Art History at Temple University, faculty, staff and students, who have guided me through the program, challenged me to expand my understanding of the discipline, and made the pursuance of my degree an enjoyable experience. Thank you as well to Sammy and Rosie, who kept me company through it all, to HT, the best motivation I have ever had, and of course to my husband Dr. Daniel Lehman, whose support makes everything possible. Finally, I want to extend my deepest appreciation to the Graduate School at Temple University for their invaluable financial assistance in providing me both a University Fellowship and a Dissertation Completion Grant. v DEDICATION To my grandmother Rose Moran, who needed another PhD in the family and to my parents Charles and Donna Moran, whose love and support never hinged on it. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE ABSTRACT........................................................................................................................ ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ................................................................................................. iv DEDICATION.....................................................................................................................v LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS............................................................................................ vii CHAPTERS 1. INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................1 2. CAILLEBOTTE’S CONTROVERSIAL BATHERS……………………….……………23 3. THE SPORTING PICTURES OF CAILLEBOTTE AND THOMAS EAKINS………………………………………………………………………….59 4. BOATING ON THE SEINE: CAILLEBOTTE AND HIS FELLOW IMPRESSIONISTS………………………….…………………………………..89 5. THE EMERGENCE OF PHYSICAL CULTURE IN FRANCE AND THE ASSIMILATION OF THE DANDY…………………………………………...127 6. CONCLUSION....................................................................................................165 ILLUSTRATIONS ..........................................................................................................173 BIBLIOGRAPHY............................................................................................................187 vii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Figure Page 1. Gustave Caillebotte, The Floor-Scrapers, 1875, Oil on canvas, Musée d’Orsay………………………………………………………………………….173 2. Gustave Caillebotte, Oarsmen, c. 1878, Oil on canvas, private collection……..........173 3. Gustave Caillebotte, Oarsman in a Top Hat, c. 1878, Oil on canvas, private collection……………………………………………………………………………..173 4. Gustave Caillebotte, Périssoires, 1877, Oil on canvas, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC……………………………………………………………………...174 5. Gustave Caillebotte, Périssoires sur l'Yerres, 1877, Oil on canvas, Milwaukee Art Museum………………………………………………………………………….174 6. Gustave Caillebotte, Périssoires, 1878, Oil on canvas, Musée des Beaux- Arts in Rennes……………………………………………………………………….174 7. Gustave Caillebotte, Man at his Bath, 1884, Oil on canvas, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston……………………………………………………………………….…175 8. Apollo Belvedere, 2nd century CE marble copy of late 4th/early 3rd century BCE bronze by Leochares. Museo Pio Clementino, Vatican………………………..175 9. Jacques-Louis David, Cupid and Psyche, 1817, oil on canvas. Cleveland Museum of Art……………………………………………………………………….175 10. Farnese Hercules, Roman copy of Greek original from early 3rd century CE, marble. Museo Nazionale, Naples………………………………………………….176 11. Gustave Courbet, The Wrestlers, 1853, Oil on canvas. Szépmüvészeti Museum, Budapest……………………………………………………………….…176 12. Photographer unknown, Gustave Caillebotte Boxing, c. 1880. Private Collection…………………………………………………………………………..176 13. Honoré Daumier, “Les bains à quatre sous,” Le Charivari, Croquis d'Été, Plate 29, June 29, 1858, Brooklyn Museum………………………………………..177 14. Honoré Daumier, “Après l'eau, le feu,” Le Charivari, Croquis d'Été, July 7, 1858, Brandeis University…………………………………………………..177 viii 15. Gustave Caillebotte, Man Drying his Leg, 1884, Oil on canvas. Private Collection on Loan to the Art Institute of Chicago…………………………………177 16. Anonymous, Photograph of Gustave and Martial Caillebotte, c. 1886, Photograph. Private Collection……………………………………………………..178 17. Gustave Caillebotte, Nude on a Couch, 1880, Oil on canvas. Minneapolis Institute of Arts………………………………………………………………......…178 18. Honoré Daumier, “N'allant aux bains froids que pour avoir occasion de développer son biceps,” Le Charivari, August 10, 1865, Brandeis University…….178 19. A.P. Martial, Arms of the City of Paris, circa 1871………………………………...179 20. Édouard Manet, Woman in a Bathtub, 1878-79, Pastel. Musée d'Orsay, Paris…….179 21. Edgar Degas, Woman Leaving the Bath, 1877, Pastel. Musée d'Orsay, Paris.......…179 22. Currier & Ives, James Hammill and Walter Brown, in their great five mile rowing match for $4000 & the championship of America: at Newburg Bay, Hudson River, N.Y., Sept. 9th 1867, lithograph……………………………………180 23. Thomas Eakins, The Champion Single Sculls (Max Schmitt in a Single Scull), 1871, Oil on canvas. Metropolitan Museum of Art…………………………….…..180 24. Thomas Eakins, The Pair-Oared Shell, 1872, Oil on canvas. Philadelphia Museum of Art………………………………………………………………….…..180 25. Thomas Eakins, The Biglin Brothers Turning the Stake, 1873, Oil on canvas. The Cleveland Museum of Art…………………………………………..……........181 26. Thomas Eakins, Biglin Brothers Racing, 1872, Oil on canvas, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC……………………………………........................181 27. Thomas Eakins,