Women in Black in French Painting 1860-1900 Engaging with Modernity through the Medium of Fashion Author:(Penny(Simmers(/(Student(number:(6183824(/(Supervisor:(Gregor(Langfeld(/(Master(Thesis(Art(History,( University(of(Amsterdam(/([email protected]/(Completion(date:(7(August,(2015.((( Table of Contents 1. Introduction…………………………………………………………………………3 2. Toward a Modern Fashion System 2.1 The Freedom of Dress Decree …………………………………………15 2.2 The Advent of a Modern Fashion System and the Importance of Taste …………………………………………………………………….18 3. Fashionable Black 3.1 Ladies of the Leisure Class Embrace Black ………………………...23 3.2 Black-Clad Women in Domestic Interiors ……………………………27 4. Stepping out of the Domestic Realm and into the Public Spaces of Paris 4.1 Housewife or Harlot - The Place of Woman in Nineteenth Century French Society …………………………………………………37 4.2 Fashion and Morality - Virtue and Vice ……………………………….40 4.3 Dressed for the Street - Respectable Black and Empowering Black ………………………………………………………………………..43 4.4 Power Dressing - Impressionist Depictions of the Fashionable Urbanite …………………………………………………………………….45 5. Black-Clad Women in the Streets of Paris 5.1 Social Mobility and the Anonymity of the Modern City …………....56 5.2 The Leveling Effect of Black …………………………………………....60 6. Conclusion ………………………………………………………………………...68 List of Figures…………………………………………………………………………......73 Appendices A. Figures ……………………………………………………………………………..75 B. Bibliography ………………………………………………………………………96 ( 2( ( 1. Introduction During the course of the nineteenth century, men’s clothing became increasingly sober, uniform and monochromatically black.1 The turn to black was so absolute that it caused French novelist and playwright Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850) to observe that the men of his time were “all dressed in black like so many people in mourning”.2 Associations with grief and mourning aside, by mid-century black had become inextricably linked with bourgeois male authority and was the favored garb of that characteristic figure of modernity: the flâneur.3 Nineteenth-century bourgeois women, on the other hand, were typically presented as the dazzling, colorful counterpart to the epoch’s predominantly soberly clad male.4 This is clearly expressed by the 1878 Guide sentimental de l’étranger dans Paris (Sentimental Guide to Paris for Foreigners) when stating: All of coquetry’s light is on Woman; we are the lining of the jewelry box against which the eternal diamond stands out … Civilized Man, from the point of view of his clothing, is nothing more than the accompanist of Woman; he allows her to sing the symphony ((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((( 1(Steele(1988:(65;(Harvey(1995:(21,(23,(195;(Thiébaut(in(Impressionism,+Fashion+&+Modernity+2012:(135,(137;( Entwistle(2000:(107;(Zeldin(1980:(83.(((( 2(Balzac(quoted(in(Harvey(1995:(26.( 3(Harvey(1995:(195W196,(216;(Harvey(2013:(211;(Steele(1988:(93;(Wilson(1985:(30,(189.(The(flâneur+is(the(man( who(strolls(aimlessly(and(anonymously(through(the(city(observing(the(ebb(and(flow(of(life(in(the(modern( metropolis.(Tester(1994:(2.(The(flâneur+appears(for(the(first(time(in(Baudelaire’s(essay(‘The(Painter(of(Modern( Life’,(one(of(thirteen(essays(describing(Paris,(metropolitan(culture(and(the(fastWpaced(modernization(of(the(city,( which(were(penned(in(1859W1860(but(did(not(appear(until(November(and(December(of(1863(when(published(as( a(series(in(the(daily(newspaper(Le+Figaro.(Wolff(in(D’Souza(and(McDonough(2006:(18W19;(Tester(1994:(6;( Søndergaard(in(Women+in+Impressionism(2006:(17(( 4(John(Harvey(observes(that(the(“black/light,(man/woman(division([was](not(so(marked(in(workingWclass(dress.( That(division(was(nurtured(by(the(middle(class(especially”.(Harvey(1995:(196.(As(will(be(discussed(in(Chapter(3,( working(class(women(such(as(shop(girls,(seamstresses,(domestic(servants(and(bar(maids(typically(wore(black( work(uniforms(throughout(the(nineteenth(century.(De(Young(2009:(103;(Ribeiro(1999:(107;(Hollander(1978:( 379,(382;(Harvey(1995:(10,(201W203.(In(workingWclass(menswear(certain(colors(might(indicate(employment(in(a( specific(area(of(trade:(for(example,(a(white(jacket(if(one(were(a(painter(or(plasterer(and(a(blue(one(if(a(man( worked(as(a(general(hand(on(a(construction(site.(Mancoff(2012:(13W14.(On(the(whole,(however,(male(laborers( in(big(cities(assimilated(bourgeois(dress(codes(during(the(latter(part(of(the(nineteenth(century,(and(increasingly( wore(black(and(other(darkWhued(fabrics(as(the(century(progressed.(Perrot(1994:(74.(((((( ( 3( ( of white, pink, and green as a solo, with all the modulations and half-tones of color that industry has introduced, like sharps and flats”.5 This color-based delineation of nineteenth-century middle- and upper-class femininity is borne out by the frequent depictions of balls and soirées from the second half of the nineteenth century, such as James Tissot’s Too Early (1873; fig. 1), Jean Béraud’s La Soirée autour du Piano (1880; fig. 2), and Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s Dance in the City (1883; fig. 3), in which men are typically depicted wearing black evening wear, and the women accompanying them in flouncy pastel-hued gowns. An intriguing phenomenon comes to light, however, when a larger sample of nineteenth-century depictions of contemporary women is considered. It then appears that the woman in black was an extremely popular subject for depiction by both the impressionists and their academic contemporaries during the second half of the nineteenth century.6 From approximately the 1860s onwards, black-clad women figure increasingly in bourgeois portraiture, and they form a marked presence in the Paris city scenes that the impressionists popularized during the second half of the century.7 What might be made of these women in black? Were they all in mourning, or were other factors potentially in play? Departing from the notion that dress, as Balzac once observed, is “the expression of society”, this thesis explores the theme of black-clad women in French painting from approximately 1860 until the turn of the century.8 By doing so, possible levels of (societal) significance that black dresses and artists’ depictions thereof held and generated during this period are examined; the thesis being that the woman in black is a key figure for understanding a number of urban developments and ((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((( 5(“Toute+la+lumière+de+la+coquetterie+est+pour+la+femme,+nous+sommes+le+fond+de+l’écrin+sur+lequel+se+détache+ l’éternel+diamant+…+L’homme+civilisé,+au+point+de+vue+de+l’habilement,+n’est+plus+que+l’accompagnateur+de+la+ femme;+il+laisse+chanter+seule+la+symphonie+du+blanc,+du+rose,+du+vert,+avec+toutes+les+modulations+de+demiE teintes+que+l’industrie+a+introduites,+comme+des+dièses+et+des+bémols”(quoted(by(Thiébaut(in(Impressionism,+ Fashion+&+Modernity+2012:(135.++ 6(De(Young(2009:(32.( 7(Forgione(2005:(664.( 8(Balzac(quoted(in(Steele(1988:(59.(Balzac’s(dictum(“La+toilette+est+l’expression+de+la+société”(is(from(Traité+de+la+ vie+élégante((Paris,(1830),(which(first(appeared(in(the(literary(and(fashion(magazine(La+Mode.+Wilson(1985:3.+( ( 4( ( changes in women’s role and place in French society that were taking place during the latter part of the nineteenth century. It will be argued that in their frequent depictions of the woman in black, painters of the era were engaging with and responding to a number of distinctly modern phenomena through the metaphor of the black-clad female figure: increased social and gender mobility, the anonymity of the modern city, the increasing ambiguity of dress in modernity, and the subsequent breakdown of legible social distinctions based upon appearances alone. Research Questions This thesis seeks to answer the following questions. What did it mean for a woman to wear black, or to be depicted wearing black during the latter part of the nineteenth century? What types of women wore black? In what kinds of scenes and settings were they depicted whilst wearing black, by whom, and to what effect? Did the impressionists and/or their academic counterparts in their depictions of black-clad women use black as a color to emphasize or destabilize the character and/or social standing of their sitters? Were these artists reflecting upon specific characteristics of modernity when engaging with the theme of the woman in black? Considering that during the nineteenth century black was overwhelmingly associated with masculine power and with man’s freedom of movement in the public sphere, what is the significance of women opting to wear black during the latter part of the century? Did this color choice have social and/or gendered implications when worn by women? And if so, what were they? Methodology The following works form the focal point for answering these questions: Pierre- Auguste Renoir Portrait of a Woman, Mme Georges Hartmann (1874), Alfred Stevens, Porcelain Collector (1868), Berthe Morisot, Interior (1872), Jean-Jacques Henner Portrait de Mme*** (1874), Édouard Manet, La Parisienne (c. 1875), Berthe Morisot, Figure de Femme [Before the Theater], (1875), Mary Stevenson Cassatt, In the Loge (1878), Jean Béraud, Devant l’Opera par Temps de Neige (1879), Jean Béraud, Le Pont Neuf (c. 1890), Anders Zorn, Omnibus (1892), Jean Béraud, La ( 5( ( Modiste sur les Champs Elysées (c. 1880), Jean Béraud, L’attente (c. 1880), and Camille Pissarro, Boulevard des Italiens, Morning Sunshine (1897). These paintings, by both progressive and more conservative artists, show the woman in black in a range of different environments: within the bourgeois domestic interior; in indeterminate settings between the domestic interior and Paris’s public spaces; and in the streets of Paris. The chosen works represent but a handful of the paintings dating from the second half of the nineteenth century featuring black-clad women in interior and exterior settings. However, given the practical limitations of analyzing the entire body of black-clad women in French painting for the period from 1860 until roughly the turn of the century, the selected works were singled out for review for the following reasons.