BATHTIME RENOIR , CEZANNE, DAUMIER AND THE PRACTICES OF BATHING IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY FRANCE

Andrew Andrew

Fourth Fourth

Craig Craig

David David

on on

World World

history history

H.W. H.W.

Previously Previously

October October

Hugh Hugh

Janson, Janson,

Freedberg, Freedberg,

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held held the the The Sixth Gerson Lecture held in memory of Horst Gerson (1907-1978) in the aula of the University of Groningen on November 21, 1991

Linda Nochlin Bathtime: Renoir, Cezanne, Daumier and the Practices of Bathing in Nineteenth-Century France

Gerson Lectures Foundation

The The 971.2 971.2

Oude Oude

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BATHTIME BATHTIME

enhanced enhanced

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P.A. P.A.

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century, century,

on on

sense sense

of of

to to

(Fig. (Fig.

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to to

contrary contrary

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the the

it it

"Bathers" "Bathers"

would would

my my

is is

term, term,

drapery, drapery,

baigneusetheme baigneusetheme

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construction, construction,

in in

mind's mind's

itself itself

it it

of of

seem seem

a a

like like

is is

by by

river river

high high

a a

as as

or or

to to

of of

highly highly

Renoir's Renoir's

a a

eye, eye,

a a

less less

even even

a a

art art

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sub-category sub-category

playful playful

long long

art. art.

or or

history: history:

problematic problematic

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particular particular

lolling lolling

artificial artificial

the the

is is

see see

artistic artistic

anything anything

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occasional occasional

gesture gesture

5 5

a a

timeless, timeless,

painting painting

by by

and and

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of of

to to

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than than

but but

Baigneuses Baigneuses

or or

self self

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certain certain

towel, towel,

Philadelphia Philadelphia

ocean, ocean,

elevated, elevated,

a a

ennobled ennobled

of of

the the

conscious conscious

genre genre

given; given;

naked naked

and and

late late

their their

historical historical

their their

of of

far far

the the

19th-century 19th-century

immediately immediately

idealized, idealized,

Museum Museum

women women

the the

by by

construction construction

from from

presence presence

opposite opposite

nudity nudity

nude nude

a a

period, period,

contemplative contemplative

being being

of of

of of

and and

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in in

sometimes sometimes

within within

of of

generous generous

bather: bather:

comes comes

the the

natural, natural,

natural. natural.

as as

though though

at at

such, such,

that. that.

later later

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to to it it What I am going to attempt to do in this essay is precisely to problematize an apparendy unproblematic and "natural" subject by putting the bather, and bathing, back into the history of social institutions , practices and representations from which Renoir and most of the high artists of his time abstracted them. The point of this investigation, in other words, is not so much to discover anything new about Renoir's Grandes Baigneuses, but rather, to consider what it has excluded; what about bathers and bathing during our "bathtime" of the later 19th century has the painting occluded? This is not, stricdy speaking, going to be a monographic study ofRenoir's Bathers at all, although Renoir's painting will lie at its heart. I had a reason for choosing the tide "Bathtime". It is meant to imply a study focussing on a certain historical period in France and the project of my research has been to locate Renoir within an historically specific discourse of the pool, bathers and bathing, a discourse both visual and textual, extending from approximately 1850 to the fin-de-siecle. The issue, therefore, cannot be reduced to the simple one of a certain representation - the bather - (in French, during our period, an almost invariably feminine noun, the "baigneuse") but rather, the problematization of what has generally been accepted without question as a "natural" subject in the art of the period, and especially its vanguard art, although it exists as a popular Salon theme as well. The Salon of 1887, the year when Renoir completed his Gran des Baigneuses, contained at least twenty-five representations of female bathers, including works by Renault, Lebrun, Dufaux, Dumonchel and Benner all indistinguishable in theme from Renoir's painting, except perhaps for the relatively daring Dufaux with its half dressed, contemporary figures slipping in and out of the water. The bather was a perennial favorite in the Salons of the 19th century, a theme increasingly secularized and generalized as the century progressed and earlier classical or Biblical pretexts - Dianas, Susannahs, or even the more up-to-date Orientalist "Sarahs la Baigneuse" vanished, giving way to the newer bather-subject of preference: the "Baigneuse" tout courf.

Why, at a certain moment in the history of French art, did the naked female figure, alone or in company, in water or near it, become so important?3 Speaking from an historical vantage point, Renoir's Great Bathers may be said to belong to a certain moment ofBathtime: that of the artistic rappel a1' ordre of the 188os (a recall to order presaging the better-known one which took place in France after the First World War') when, after the bold attempt of Impressionism to eradicate the past and create an art modem in both its formal strategies and its subject matter, certain painters in

6 the group, most arduously Renoir, dissatisfied with the openness, instability and vivid contemporaneity characteristic of high Impressionism, attempted to restore a sense of permanence, timelessness and high-minded harmony to their art. As such, the Gran des Baigneuses may be seen as the site of multiple contradictions and repressions. In it, Renoir rejects the present in its complexity, dynamism and destabilization of traditional relationships; its confrontation of gender and class issues; its engagement with urbanism and modernity. Renoir espoused high-minded reasons for undertaking his project in the Bathers.5 Yet it is important to see that in it, he returns not merely to the traditional sanctions for the bather-subject provided by Raphael and Girardon, whose work hasoften been cited in relation to the formal and iconographic specificity of the work;6 nor even to the precedent of such minor artists of the 18th century as Pater, who specialized in semi-prurient bather fantasies deploying semi- clothed female bathers in imaginary settings of great piquancy; nor even the precedent provided by his teacher, the long-suffering Charles Gleyre. More importantly, perhaps, Renoir returns to the kitsch sensibility of his own era, if a little earlier, works like L 'espieglerie, of which there are versions from 1849 and 1867, mass-produced lithographs in which the theme of mischievous naked bathing­ girls, teasing and splashing one another other is archly frozen in place for the pleasure of a male viewer. The standard range of poses and physical types, the gamut of complexions and ages, the sense of savoring the delectable details of the youthful bodies-all these features are shared by works as different in ambition as Renoir's Bathers and the popular lithographs of the period (Fig. 2).

This then, is the construction of the female bather within a convention which may encompass a variety of discourses and practices, from mass culture to high art, from the site of erstwhile vanguard production to that of the most conservative "official" specialists in the nude, like Bouguereau. All of these Bathers are replete with what I would call "the aesthetic effect";' they are smooth, fetching, playful relaxed, and strenuously removed from any context that would suggest either contemporaneity or the realities of urban existence, including the existence of the opposite sex. There are rarely any men in these pictures aside from an occasional faun or satyr-the pastoral idyll represents only the naked female: the male presence is an absence or rather, it is displaced to the understood position of the creating artist and the consuming viewer, not to speak of the potential buyer of the work. Is there any position available for the female viewer ofRenoir' s painting, or, more interesting, for the female viewer ofRenoir's time? Long consideration and a too

7 2. L'espieglerie, 1849, anonymous lithograph. tight belt in Paris gave me a possible answer. Perhaps Renoir's nudes enable a certain feminine fantasy as well as the more conventional male one, a fantasy more conscious and historically restricted one, but a meaningful fantasy nevertheless: a fantasy of bodily liberation. It is difficult to imagine how women, especially ample women, condemned to the strictures of corsets and lacing, must have felt before this vision of freely expanding flesh, the pictorial possibility of unconstricted movement, of simply breathing deeply, of not having their breasts pushed up under their chins and their ribs and lungs encased in whalebone. The imaginary pleasure oflolling about with their uncorseted flesh exposed to air and light in the epoch before sun was supposed to be good for you and well brought up ladies scrupulously covered their pale skins with parasols, veils and long sleeves, not to speak of long skirts and stockings must have been considerable. Perhaps this aspect of openness, unfetteredness and deconstriction might have appealed, not merely to men, for obvious reasons which have been reiterated innumerable times, but, for the reasons I have just stated, by women as well.8

8

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s e e the high art of their time by representing bathing as well as sailing and rowing as a contemporary activity, carried on in bathing suits and bonnets in the context of urban, or more accurately, suburban, social relaxation rather than an elevated, classical topos represented by artificially posed nudes in idealized pastoral land­ scapes."

' . .J . ' . r· '-·-, ' ' ;,.:f - 'f .

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4- H. Daumier, Naiads of the Seine, 1847, lithograph. But in addition to such revolutionary paintings of the sixties- revolutionary in their synoptic style and vivid broken color which is part of the modernity of their subject - there exists an unexplored archive of visual alternatives to those provided by the

10 Salon's, and the later Renoir's idyllic versions of the baigneuse theme. This is the whole realm of representation produced by the nascent mass-media of "bathtime " , a production focussed for the most part on Paris itself although in some cases, on its suburbs, and dealing with contemporary swimming and swimming pools: female bathers beneath the notice of the sort of elevated artist and conservative yearner for the simpler, more natural veri ties of the past whose persona Renoir was increasingly affecting by the decade of the 188os. As early as the middle of the century, Daumier was engaging with bathing and bathers, male and female, but in Paris, not in the country, clothed, not naked, ridiculous, not elevated'3 (Fig. 4). One can only think, in looking at Daumier's caricatures, like his Naiads of the Seine, that he was pillorying not merely his victims, but the high-art bather theme itself, such as it existed in endless dreary Salon representations of his time: the naiads, Dianas and Susannahs and just plain baigneuses, whose ranks cast a pall of boredom over the art experience, year after year. Daurnier's Naiads of the Seine plays on the oxymoronic humor of this juxtaposition of terms. There can't be serious naiads of the Seine, Daurnier implies, because, like Marx, he believes that antiquity can only be repeated as farce in modern times. T he present day Seine gets the bathers it deserves, that are appropriate to bathtime today: bathing-suited, spindle-shanked, frowsy-headed, anti-classical in figure type. His bathers are grotesques of the Seine, but living, breathing contemporaries, not classical nymphs or goddesses. Here, the connection between the female bather and the world of nature is severed, revealed for the farce that it is: nothing could be less natural than these bathers and their baths: modern life, essentially urban for Daumier, is necessarily sundered from the pastoral: women's bodies cavorting in that prototypically modern body of water-the Parisian piscine-is naturally funny. Modern women bathers, and men too, for that matter, Daumier's lithographs asserted with brilliant and acerbic formal inventiveness, were neither naked nor classically beautiful, but they engaged with the splendors and miseries of the modern world with a certain courage and sense of adventure; their forms are cast with an edgy energy of contour and character utterly foreign to the later Renoir's bland poncif. Of course, Freud's understanding of jokes should be kept in mind while enjoying Daurnier's Baigneuses (Fig. 5). For Freud, jokes are never innocent, and in looking at these images, the aggressive and destructive aspects ofhumor assert their presence. On the one hand, the Baigneuses series can be read in the light ofDaurnier's more specific anti-feminist caricatures of the late forties as misogynistic lampoons directed

II

Whether Whether

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of of

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and and

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actually actually

in in

as as

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the the

they, they,

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12 12

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taking taking

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1847, 1847,

phrase phrase

middle-class middle-class

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caricatures caricatures

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care care

manner; manner;

discourse discourse

literary literary

hollowness hollowness

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of of

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husbands husbands

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women women of of

for for

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classical classical

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high high

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children children

temps", temps",

should, should,

culture culture

nation

theater theater

also also

hand, hand,

be be . .

Lambert Lambert

for for

by by

ladies ladies

taken taken

swimming swimming

public, public, and and

discourse discourse

1884, 1884, pour pour

women's women's

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Daumier, Daumier, 6

the the

lycee, lycee,

to to

his his

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both both

caricatures caricatures

C. C.

home home

lie lie

its its

in in

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Dames Dames

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Hugot, Hugot,

and and

second second Saint Saint

healthy healthy

language language

which which

all all

health-giving health-giving

by by

are are

jeunes jeunes

swimming swimming

of of

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the the

on on

above above

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all all

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swimming swimming

turns turns

Baim Baim

Louis Louis

of of

and and

quartiers quartiers

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flocked flocked

and and

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constituted constituted

half half

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(Fig. (Fig.

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properties: properties:

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goes goes

c. c.

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Lambert Lambert

a a 19th 19th

women women

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not not

1852; 1852;

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timelessness timelessness

Louis Louis

ladies ladies

powerful powerful

at at

public public

Ecole Ecole

is is

on on

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only only

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best best

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to to

pools pools

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say, say,

most most visual visual

Natation Natation

the the

the the

almost almost

condition condition

of of and and

13 13

was was

from from

from from

cold cold

hygiene hygiene

the the

as as

river river

established established

gymnastics; gymnastics;

Quai Quai

powerful powerful

pure pure

elevation elevation

counter-discourse counter-discourse

certainly certainly

qualities qualities

Texier's Texier's

imagination. imagination.

baths baths

next next

has has

was was

in in

de de

as as

and and

all all

that that

possible" possible"

not not

Bethune Bethune

the the

door door

Tableau Tableau

ofParis

of of

means means

on on

pleasure represented represented

of of

"bathtime" "bathtime"

the the

they they

yet yet

pool's pool's

running running

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the the

water water

to to

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5 5

Seine, Seine,

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luck luck

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hygiene; hygiene;

in in

also also

Ecole Ecole

in in

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water, water,

most most

the the

by by

article, article,

where where

for for

1852-53· 1852-53·

which which

recommended recommended

would would

and and

the the

the the

the the

popular popular

d'Anjou) d'Anjou)

the the

de de

prominent prominent

"tribut "tribut

later, later,

for for

ambience ambience

Salon, Salon, illustrated illustrated

those those

"official" "official"

the the

Natation Natation

they they

Parisian Parisian

have have

young young

Bains Bains

after after

press press

des des

are are

for for

the the

it, it, of of immondices" (tribute of filth) from the great city. The article, using as its major illustration a print based on the original by Hugot which had appeared in the 1846 mustration stressed the advantages offered to women by the Bains Lambert. Elegance, decorum and amenity are emphasized by the often repeated and varied visual representations of the interior of the Ecole de Natation of the Bains Lambert. The classical columns and pediment as well as the classical sculpture suggest the baths of antiquity and it is noteworthy, in the interests of decorum, that the only nude female body represented in the prints is that of classical sculpture: all the contemporary ladies are properly dressed; a maid is prominendy featured in the foreground and bathing costumes are as concealing and unseductive as possible.And indeed, in the series of pirated variations ofHugot's print, one can see the gradual disappearance ofless than fully-clothed figures all together. Propriety, good morals, decent hygiene and healthfulness are the primary characteristics stressed by this visual representation of the female bather. Nudity, as I have said, exists only as a sign of elevation in the form of a reference to classical antiquity, establishing the high-class credentials of the pool as a site of upper middle- class recreation, stricdy segregated by sex as well as class. Yet this is only one side of the discourse on women's bathing establishments and their habituees current within popular representation during our bathtime. Other draftsmen or journalists might figure the subject quite differendy (Fig. 7). Notions of sexuality, voluptuousness, and seductiveness haunted the imagination of the commercial artist who designed this print of women at the swimming pool. Memories of the odalisques of Ingres and his prototypical Turkish bath are roused by the languid poses and the intimate crowding together of female bodies. Despite the reassuring presence of the maitre naigeurand the contemporary bathing costumes the print stirs up a certain uneasiness connected with sexual exoticism . "Low" or popular art can, it is clear, no more be viewed monolithically, as a single entity, than can high: here too, there are different voices, different tasks the image . is intended to perform, with different audiences in view. In the Bain des lionnes, the naked classical statue seeins more a reference to the near-nakedness of the swimmers, and their lack of tenu, than to bourgeois decorum and elevation. Indeed, many accounts of women's swimming pools stressed the unfortunate presence in them of ladies of the theater, and even worse: smoking and drinking and carrying on "like 6 men. "' Women on their own enjoying the~nselveswithout the benefits of male companionship or protection then as now inspired suspicion, sexual innuendo, and often, gross satire (Fig. 8). Daurnier's Baigneuses were not the only series to poke fun at women's attempts

swinuning swinuning

there there

order. order. related related

in in century century

of of

and and prostitutional prostitutional

by by

regulation regulation

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connection connection

representations representations

constituted constituted

7. 7.

to to

Ultimately, Ultimately,

his his

"putting "putting

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its its

histories histories

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and and

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during during

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and and

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was was

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Foucault, Foucault, connected connected

with with

all all

to to

Lionnes, Lionnes,

discourse discourse

of of

the the

body body

swim swim are are

discourses discourses

of of

bathing, bathing,

associated associated

cleanliness, cleanliness,

part part

other other

our our

feminine feminine

discourses discourses

discourses discourses

in in

r8so; r8so;

must must

or or

official official

of of

period. period.

its its

and and

with with

and and

amuse amuse

regimes regimes

illustration illustration

both both

stipulating stipulating

place": place":

be be

of of

with with

that that

more more

swinuning swinuning

sports, sports,

the the

of of

prostitution, prostitution,

viewed viewed

of of

government government

themselves themselves

the the

the the

Enlightenment Enlightenment

of of

body body

bathing bathing

a a

of of

from from

body's body's

smells smells

policy policy

recently, recently,

popular popular

and and

as as

prohibitions prohibitions

"reglementarianism" "reglementarianism"

and and

part part

Negrier's Negrier's

posture posture

pools pools

15 15

and and

products, products,

which which

and and

in in sanitation sanitation

its its

of of

and and

code code

swinuning swinuning

by by

practices, practices,

garbage, garbage,

a a

and and

swinuning swinuning

Les Les

more more

ideals ideals

and and

had had

official official

Alain Alain

of of

b:Uns b:Uns

the the

and and

comportments comportments

deportment deportment

its its

and and

generalized generalized

regulations regulations

of of

as as

practices practices

.i .i

regimes regimes

origins origins

approving approving

pools. pools.

Corbin Corbin

control, control,

traven traven

discourses discourses

well well

wetnursing wetnursing

must must

-

as as

official official

les les

And And

during during

brilliantly brilliantly

Georges Georges

of of

training. training.

be be

politics politics

in in

~s. ~s.

hygiene, hygiene,

in in

or or

women women

practices. practices.

of of

of of

understood understood

his his

employments, employments,

the the

192.5. 192.5.

to to

course, course,

the the

government government

bathing bathing

which which

and and

studies studies

Vigarello, Vigarello,

r~ r~

realm realm

later later

analyzed analyzed

and and

Bathing Bathing

bathers bathers

policy policy

these these

This This

civil civil

18th 18th

it it

and and

of of

of of

in in is is 8. G. Bertal, Smoking and Drinking; illustration from Briffault's Paris d:ms ]'eau, 1844. official "regulationism" is accompanied by a stream of propaganda extolling the physical and social benefits of swimming and bathing, and, at the same time, by a plethora of irreverent satire aimed at the foibles associated with water-sports, a contradiction-laden discourse which marks the bathtime of the second half of the 19th century. In none of this material, however, is it a matter of naked goddesses lolling about on the banks of classical or Edenic shores, but rather, a question of modern women emerging from locker-rooms, learning the strokes and the dives, taking showers before and after, and eyeing each other in bathing suits. Nakedness and the elevation of the nude is never an issue here, but rather, the ludicrous effects of contemporary bathing costumes on less than perfect bodies. Popular art tells a story of mundane dangers and down-to-earth (or water, more accurately) triumphs. The Parisian piscines are seen as both beneficially democratizing, where men are concerned, and perhaps somewhat equivocally in the case of women. '8 What might be perceived as a beneficent, temporary mixing of social milieus in the case of male swimmers had different overtones in the case of female ones, as demi-mondaines, grisettes, dancers and actresses, mingling with respectable girls and women, might well be a corrupting influence.'9

16 LES CIL\LEI'HS,- p:u· 1'\ADA!\,

l ~

9- Nadar, Les Chaleurs, c. r86o; illustration from Petit ]oum~pour Rire.

17

effect effect

years years

bather bather

cases, cases,

Modernism Modernism

that that

Renoir's Renoir's

that that

the the

advertising. advertising.

possibilities possibilities as as

of of

-the -the

the the

in in

receding receding

has has

print print

it it

at at

aesthetic aesthetic

about about

Renoir's Renoir's

published published

municipal municipal

from from

Piscine Piscine swim."' swim."'

very very

Pont Pont

of of

represented represented

case case

Crowding, Crowding,

Of Of

catches catches

a a

our our

stake: stake:

Sophisticated Sophisticated

terms terms

the the

cheaper cheaper

visual visual

campaign campaign

its its

cornmere cornmere

visual visual

course course

later, later,

popular popular

and and

although although

N N

of of

print print

the the

is is

own own

theme theme

quality quality

Seine Seine

specific specific

euf euf

of of

involved involved the the

the the

of of

space space

enterprise. enterprise.

illusionistic illusionistic

excellence excellence

almost almost

Seine, Seine,

the the

sign sign

Chateau-

by by

encumbered encumbered

section- the the

day: day:

pools pools

representation representation

signification, signification,

jostling, jostling,

Col Col

offered offered

High High

itself itself

to to

pool, pool,

humorously humorously

viewed viewed

cheap cheap

is is

by by Emile Emile

eye eye

of of

here here

of of

differently, differently,

called called

of of

print print

latter latter

and and

work work

sprightly, sprightly,

or or

subversion subversion

posters posters

contemporary contemporary

the the

200,000 200,000

exchange-value exchange-value

the the

Art Art

of of

(Fig. (Fig.

the the

In In

is is

(Fig. (Fig.

-the -the

Landon, Landon,

the the

by by

baim baim

Levi Levi

flat, flat,

-

the the

up up decade decade

which which

and and

from from

into into

originally originally

pool, pool,

both both

representation representation

too too

bodies, bodies,

but but

to to

the the

10). 10).

with with

multiple multiple

poster, poster,

began began

compere, compere, 11). 11).

spectator, spectator,

outlines outlines

loss loss

people people

do, do,

in in

separated separated

had had

up-to-date, up-to-date,

by by

question question

a a

rather rather

a a

the the

Courbet's Courbet's

emphasizing emphasizing

and and

image. image.

from from

in in

1882, 1882,

disconcerting disconcerting

What What

of of

quatre quatre

floating floating

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Nadar Nadar

one one

of of

its its

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the the

Louvre, Louvre,

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to to

entitled entitled

Grandes Grandes

although although

modernity modernity

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control control

own own

task task

attended attended

the the

of of

within within

copies. copies.

simplified, simplified,

advertising advertising

prices. prices.

appear, appear,

in in

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with with

8os. 8os.

male male

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as as

from from

is is

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sous sous

(Fig. (Fig.

as as

Courbet, Courbet,

wooden wooden

way way

much much

find find

counter-discursive counter-discursive

of of

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come come

separated separated

it it

boldly boldly

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from from

first first

woman woman

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over over

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18 18

which which

or or

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were were

commercial commercial

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9), 9),

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disconcerting disconcerting

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interesting interesting

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intersect, intersect,

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bain", bain",

the the

the the

piscines."" piscines.""

as as the the

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image image

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perceived perceived

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certain certain

connecting connecting

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year year

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engages engages

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river-space, river-space,

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keeps keeps

traditional traditional

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take take

of of

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get get

a a

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two two

attractions attractions

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as as

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for for

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to to

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as as

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pools pools constructed constructed during during

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collage, collage,

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elevation elevation

in in

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especially especially

learned learned

area area

identified identified

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and and

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photograph photograph

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in in

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across across

bath bath

amenities amenities

with with

each each

claims claims

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various various

what what

to, to,

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of of

poster poster

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both both

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Poster

of

the

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de

la

Bourse

et

de

la

Presse,

19

1882,

Paris,

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Nationale

(detail)

.

II

language language

contemporary, contemporary,

the the fleshiness fleshiness

topos topos

. .

G

meaninglessness meaninglessness

. .

Courbet, Courbet,

itself. itself.

in in

of of

toto toto

In In

the the

The The

the the

dressed dressed

fat fat

Bathers, Bathers,

refuses refuses

Manet Manet

body body

of of

the the

men men

1853, 1853,

the the

and and

painting, painting,

gesture gesture

Montpellier, Montpellier,

natural natural

signify, signify,

the the

presence presence

which which

abandoned abandoned

as as

once once

a a

Musee Musee

20 20

possibility possibility

calls calls

more, more,

of of

Fabre Fabre

abandoned abandoned

into into

clothing clothing

contemporaneity, contemporaneity,

(

detail). detail).

of of

question question

representation. representation.

clothing, clothing,

as as

well well

naturalness naturalness the

as as

but but

the the

but but

alienated alienated

presence presence

the the

formal formal

of of

the the

by by of of

Renoir Renoir

positioned positioned

conununal conununal

Renoir Renoir he he

2) 2)

cultivation cultivation

This, This,

within within

1) 1)

everyone everyone

dangerous, dangerous,

a a

formal formal

innovates innovates

more more

and and flawed flawed

why why

both both

the the

arduously arduously

said said high-minded high-minded

characteristic characteristic

a a

Impressionism Impressionism

in in

itself

participated. participated.

of of

other other

This This

multitude multitude

Market Market

The The

Growing Growing

I I

Earlier Earlier

l'ordre l'ordre

search search

understandably understandably

naked, naked,

should should

construction construction

to to

practices practices

this this

. .

was was

in in

its its

comple

vanguard vanguard

It It

level, level,

belong belong

Great Great

painting painting

industrial industrial

so so

a a

was was

and and

formal formal

should should

a a

forces forces

of of

in in

way

else else

or or

disliked, disliked,

of of

dark-skinned dark-skinned

subversion subversion

Renoir, Renoir,

enterprise enterprise

as as

like like

and and

of of

demands demands

more more

of of

this this

not not

as as

But But

Bathers

summarizes

a a

his his

x x

the the

of of

, ,

and and

-

wealthy wealthy

harmony harmony

to to

at at

unique, unique, pressures pressures

might might

to to

reacted reacted

demanding demanding

conceptual conceptual

to to

knew knew

rather rather artists artists

strategies strategies

be be

lecture

just just

high high

least least

a a

of of

fellow fellow

by by

society, society,

eradicate eradicate

timeless, timeless,

188os, 188os,

make make

did did

certain certain

interesting interesting

the the

and and

attempted attempted

the the

the the

Renoir Renoir

, ,

had had

on on

from from

be be

one one

Impressionism

with with

as as

their their

his his

than than

case; case;

to to

clients

, ,

invariably invariably (almost

he he

Great Great

188os 188os

females

it it

well, well,

I I

during during

the the

considered considered

to to

. .

blurred blurred

a a

artists artists

with with

best best

and and

authority authority

made made

"subcategory "subcategory

a a

These These

clear clear

specialization specialization

complained complained

within within

and and

universal, universal,

all all

historical historical

a a

the the

to to

places.'

the the

sign sign

part part

who who

masterpiece: masterpiece:

. .

and and

most most

indicate indicate

its its

to to

its its

as as

Bathers Bathers

to to

longing longing

past past

Increasingly, Increasingly,

ideological ideological

. .

felt, felt,

that that

the the

the the

openness, openness,

succeed succeed

and and

such. such.

of of

ambiguities ambiguities

contradictions, contradictions,

of of

subject subject

restore restore

was was

1890s, 1890s,

in in

3 3

notably notably

has has

women women

and and

period period

assertion assertion

part part

"

which which . .

I I

blunted blunted

indeed, indeed,

progress" progress"

not not

moment moment

I I

consider consider

fleeing fleeing

the the

and and

for for

contended

bitterly bitterly

It It

should should

or or

21 21

and and

create create

things things

of of

within within matter, matter,

a a

is is

male) male)

a a

incorrecdy, incorrecdy,

various various

moment" moment"

the the

other other

sense sense

preceding preceding

muddles. muddles.

instability instability

Renoir, Renoir,

the the

record record Gauguin, Gauguin,

individualization individualization

for for

certainly certainly

during during

the the

and and

that that

eternal eternal

immediacy immediacy

"good "good

an an

had had

now now

about about

same same

the the

rights, rights,

when, when,

which which

hero hero

the the

uniqueness uniqueness

I I

works works

of of

certain certain

failures, failures,

art art

Renoir's Renoir's

," ,"

"overdeterminations" "overdeterminations"

maintain, maintain,

of of

changed changed

Bathers Bathers

as as

like like

but but

permanence

dealer dealer

the the

modern modern

values values

objectionable objectionable

ofbathtime

old old

conflicting conflicting

of of

it it

who who

not not

its its

an an

and and

education, education,

that that

Renoir Renoir

in in

after after

are are

of of

creation creation

to to

8os, 8os,

Impressionist, Impressionist,

days" days"

creation

artists artists

and and

his his

constitutes constitutes

a a

actually actually

system system this this

vivid vivid

the the

suggest, suggest,

an an

Great Great

inscribed inscribed

within within

of of

painting painting

Impressionism's Impressionism's

of of

exist exist

each each

the the

letters

and and

contemporaneity contemporaneity

ambitious ambitious

individual individual

when when

inscription inscription

artistic artistic

period

in in

increasingly increasingly

: :

desires

, ,

and and

, ,

contemporaneity contemporaneity

Bathers Bathers

bold bold

that that

and and

contemporary contemporary

not not

and and

timelessness timelessness

the the

including

artist artist

left left

the the

"progress" "progress"

. .

very very

Nevertheless, Nevertheless,

women-

self-creation. self-creation.

on on

which which

a a

production production

. .

subjecthood subjecthood

of of

group, group,

merely merely

through through

France France

avant-garde avant-garde

had had

response response

, ,

attempt attempt

had had

intenti

the the

mediating mediating

the the

but but

styles styles

sketchily, sketchily,

might might

of of

actively actively

: :

bodies bodies

found found

rappel rappel

much much

either either

to to

badly badly

brief brief

most most

itself itself

on on

that that

and and

and and

and and

the the

ons ons

but but

be be

be be

to to

of of

......

in in a a personalities. Viewer's had difficulty, for example, telling the difference between Monet's and Renoir's versions of La Grenouilliere. Now, by the decade of the 8os, stimulated by the dealer system and a competitive market extending as far as the United States, the unique artist was encouraged to produce identifiable objects: it was no longer a question of "Impressionist works" but of "Monets" or "Renoirs". One might call it "bending to the market" or "opportunism" but that is to imagine that at all times an artist like Renoir is consciously catering to the wishes of others and would, on his own, do something quite different. On the contrary, I would say that most of the time, producer and consumers shared the same values, and that it is a question not so much ofbowing to market pressures as a version of Althusserian "interpellation" in the realm of cultural institutions: certain positions and formations gradually emerge which call into being subjects who will fill them. "The artist" by the 188os, was already positioning himself as a specialist and a genius, not as a representer of modern life, but of its opposite, an inventer of timeless, aestheticized realms of value, beginning, perhaps, with experience, but transcending it. Monet became a specialist in series; Renoir in bathers, Gauguin ofTahitians, etc., with styles that could not be confused with those of other artists. Cezanne, of whom more later, but more specially, Seurat and the Nee-impressionists, offer a counter-example to this more general trend of the 8os and 90s, sticking to the city and to an interchangeable style, but, like Renoir, rejecting the fluidity and experiential ephemerality characteristic of Impressionism at its high point in the 70s. Renoir's Great Bathers, then is part of the history of that retreat from experience, from daily life, from urban subject matter and from social engagement which defines one strand - perhaps the dominant one - of Modernism, until the advent of cubism. The question is, of course, to what extent can such a painting be associated with the modernist enterprise at all. In Renoir' s case, I think certain special factors are at work in the "rappel a1' ordre" . Impressionism, and Renoir in particular, came in the late 187o's to be associated not only with the inchoate, the momentary, and the transient but, at the same time, with the quintessentially feminine in both subject and style. In other words, I believe there is a hidden, and probably an unconscious, gender agenda at work here. There is a way in which, in the Great Bathers, Renoir may be said to be ridding himself of what was considered "feminine" formlessness and the triviality of a "feminine" style."•s Renoir, who could hardly but be aware of this discursive efferninization of Impressionism in the critical texts of the period generally and that directed towards his own production particularly, took harsh steps to remedy these "flaws". Earlier,

22 Renoir had engaged with the rest of the Impressionists in constructing a painting of daily life, of the city or suburbs with men and women interacting as social beings within the milieu of historical experience, even if this might be a Utopian world of desire and pleasure, as it had been in the Moulin de la Galette of 1876 and other works of that period. Now, in 1887, the male is positioned outside the world of the painting, as desirer and viewer rather than participant. The representation is no longer social and concrete but reduced to the "timeless" realm of women's bodies in a vague, natural setting. History and the social order are occluded in order to produce an atemporal, natural realm, in which a masculine subject views a feminine object. The end of Impressionism, viewed from the vantage point of gender discourse, coincides with a (possibly unconscious) rejection of the "feminine" at the end of the century, a return to "solid" values on the part of a certain fraction of the avant-garde: the nude, specifically the bather, inscribed in the order of the "natural," stands for the return of value in art itself. Nowhere can this mythology of the return of solid values to art be so convincingly deployed as in the case of the ambivalendy approached female body. It is here that aesthetic goals can coincide most productively with unconscious psychosexual factors and these unconscious impulses in turn erased, modified, or sublimated. The baigneuses, freed from contemporary specificity and historical narrative alike are now understood to be the primary realm of pure aesthetic, of course masculine aesthetic, challenge.

And what of the other "Great Bather" painter; what ofCezanne? (Fig. 12). I am afraid I can only briefly sketch in what I feel to be Cezanne's achievement vis a vis the bather, bathtime and the construction of a modem-modernist and vanguard­ representation of the nude. One might start by observing that in the work of Cezanne, modernity intersects with the female nude in terms of a language, a pictorial construction, not a subject matter. Cezanne's "doubt" as Merleau-Ponty called it, calls into question both subject and object: the painter's vision, his powers of inscription, the naked body and the space-surface it must exist in or on.26 Cezanne, like Renoir in his youth, had represented the concrete and the contemporary in his early work, albeit a sexually charged and bizarre "daily life", often dependent for their peculiar frisson upon certain melodramatic types of popular imagery.27 But his retreat from contemporaneity does not, like Renoir's, involve a recall to order, a return to traditional modes of representation. In fact, one might say that Cezanne never abandons contemporaneousness, in the form of immediacy, as a mode of access to experience. It is simply that now, in the later work, the present

23 12. P. Cezanne, Grear Bathers, c. r90(5, Philadelphia, The Philadelphia Museum of Art.

enters his practice as a painterly process rather than being a subject matter. In terms of perspectival construction, Cezanne' s decentering of the pictorial point of view relates both to desire and sexuality in the construction ofhis bather paintings. Cezanne refuses Renoir's obvious, single, centered viewpoint in his Great Bathers, and, by shattering one-point perspective, destroys the understood presence of the desiring individual male as the painter/spectator's point of view. In laying emphasis on Cezanne's famous doubt, I should like to compare it, a doubt of which the signifier is revealed process, with Renoir's doubtfulness, an uncertainty veiled by the harmonious stasis characteristic of a product. For Renoir of course doubts too; or rather, he has troubles about the validity ofhis art, especially about the everyday subjects, impermanently painted surfaces, and the unstable compositions-in short, the processive structures- characteristic ofhigh Impressionism. And, from a different standpoint, like most female nudes of the 19th century, his

relationship relationship

very very

exist exist

the the

art art

and and

theme theme

In In

epistemological epistemological

gradually, gradually,

of of

difference. difference.

maker, maker,

down down

Bathers. Bathers.

ideal ideal

naturalism naturalism

constructed constructed

their their

masculine masculine

in in

equally equally

very very

escape escape

so-called so-called

here here

its its

that that

carefully carefully

no no

inscribing inscribing

the the

bathers bathers of19o6, of19o6,

What What

concluding, concluding,

Cezanne

traditions traditions

studied studied

proportions

the the

contrary, contrary,

splashing, splashing,

practices, practices,

seductiveness seductiveness

not not which which

different different

signs signs

inscription inscription

disregarded

as as

through through

like like

late late

although although

disturbing disturbing

from from

well well

there there

just just

as as

Cezanne Cezanne

He He

and and

of of

"

by by

learns learns

the the

gaze gaze

anxieties anxieties

as as

Bathers. Bathers.

' '

subjects subjects

background"), background"),

As As

separates separates

with with

s s

for for

sexual sexual

is is

of of

as as

as as

bathers, bathers,

conventional conventional

to to

well well

as as

lovingly lovingly

drying, drying,

the the

is is

work work

baigneuses, baigneuses,

, ,

the the

much much

erasing erasing

I I

undifferentiated, undifferentiated,

alternatives, alternatives,

the the

visual visual

on on

its its

dilemma dilemma

other other

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specific specific

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of of

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own own

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contour

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and and

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high high

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in in

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the the

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art, art,

boundaries

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to to

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it it

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anatomy, anatomy,

antiquity antiquity

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effort effort

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, , : : relationship of fierce rejection or negation. It is only through an understanding of such relationships and the cultural struggles through which they are manifested in all their complexity that we can begin to construct an inclusive and truly social history of 19th- century visual representation, a history in which works like Renoir' s Grandes Baigneuses will be viewed not as neither a masterpiece or a sorry failure, but rather as the result of certain kinds of practices, the product of a particular, shifting structure of cultural institutions at a particular moment of history. It is only thus that works of art, specifically bathers, and, more generally, bathtime itself as a cultural entity, can be more fully understood.

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. . : : in The Politics of Vision: Essays on Nineteenth-Century Art and Society, New York, Harper & Row, 1\)89, pp. 47-49· 8. It is interesting to note that Renoir, with rare exceptions, represented his mistress (later his wife), Aline Charigot- a fat woman by all accounts, and a lower-class one -in unfashionably uncorseted attire. She often is depicted dressed in flowing, sometimes waisdess garments, which, in a sense, signify in clothed terms what the bathers signify in unclothed ones: the rejection of fashion and history, and the substitution for them of an ideal, perhaps timeless, condition of freedom and unconstriction. When Renoir does portraits of fashionable women sitters, like Mme. Charpentier, for example, they are, of course, always represented as properly corseted, their ample flesh constrained in accordance with the historically specific codes of elegance and propriety governing the presentation and representation of the female body in the later 19th century. 9· The recent controversies over High and Low art and their relationship to which the recent, extremely controversial exhibition at the Museum of Modem Art in New Y ark (High & Low Modem Art md Popuhr Culture, Kirk Varnedoe and Adam Gopnik, 1990-1991) has given rise, have stimulated interest, I hope, in these neglected aspects of visual representation which social and cultural historians, in this country, in England and in France, have been investigating with great intelligence and originality for quite a few years now. There has also been a good deal of original work on the history and social positioning of the body in recent years, an issue,like that of popular art and culture, relevant to the subject of this essay. See, for example, the various investigations of the body in relation to cleanliness, sport, and hvgiene by Georges Vigarello: Le propre et le sale: L 'hygil!ne du corps depuis le Moyen Age (Paris, Seuil, 1985); Le corps redresse (Paris, Debrge, 1978); and Une histoire culturelle du sport, techniques d'hier et d'aujounl'hui (Paris, EPS/R. Laffont, 1\)88). These studies investigate subjects relevant to bathing and swimming in their textual, if not in their visual aspects. 1o.For a long discussion of the rise in importance ofboating and sailing as leisure activities in the later 19th century, see Paul Tucker, M on et at Aigenteuil, New Haven, Yale University Press, 1981. Robert L. Herbert, in Impressionism: Art, Leisure and Parisian Society (New Haven & London, Yale University Press, 1898), devotes a substantial section of his study to sailing at Argenteuil and rowing and boating at Chatou (pp. 229-2.45). 11. See the versions of this theme by Renoir of 1869 now in the Pushkin Museum in Moscow, the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm and in the Oskar Reinhart Collection in Winterthur. Robert L. Herbert publishes a richly detailed engraving of men and women bathing together at La Grenouillere of 1973 (Herbert, Impressionism, fig. 210, p. 211) and there is a spirited and sexy calor ptint of 1880 illustrating mixed bathing and general good fun at this popular bathing establishment in Francois Beaudouin, Paris/ Seine, Paris, Nathan, 1\)89, p. 172. 12. Renoir himself looked back at the period when he painted at La Grenouillere with great nostalgia, choosing to envision it as an idyllic, pre-industrial pastoral era rather than the period of vigorous urban modernization that it was: "In 1868 I painted a good deal at La Grenouillere. I remember an amusing restaurant called Foumaise's where life was a perpetual holiday ... The world knew how to laugh in those days! Machinery had not yet absorbed all oflife; you had leisure for enjoyment and no one was the worse for it." Renoir, late in life, cited in Antbroise Vollard, Renoir: An Intimate Record , tr. H. Van Doren and R. T. Weaver, New York, 1934, Alfred A. Knopf, p. 49· (a rig. pub!. 1925). It is interesting to see how often artists, and the rest of us as well, tend to look back at our youthful years as "pre-industrial", simpler and more leisured, despite the fact that one person's youth is, of course, another's old age, and that the period from which Renoir was looking back so nostalgically was dubbed "the gay 'Nineties" by people who had been young during it looking back from their vantage point of the :z.oth century.

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