Parisian models in the 19th century

Modelling as a Parisian lady at Selfridges 

This is another post from the now defunct blog The art model. I am reposting here, as it might be of interest to those who love both painting and photography and of course, modelling and its history.

From the very beginning of photography (we tend to place it around 1826, when the first permanent photographic image was made) there was an interest in the nude, understandably so. The female nude of classical art was influential and photographers felt that their work would not be perceived as artistic if they did not engage in photographing the female nude, using the same established conventions as in painting or sculpture.
Little is known about the photographic models of this early period. Alexandra Botelho has discussed the work of Durieu whose photographs were used by Eugene Delacroix for his paintings (2001). Botelho 's study, carried out during her residency as Andrew W. Mellon Fellow at George Eastman House, in Rochester,was about photographic techniques and processes used in early photography. It is also an important piece of research because it shows the influence of photography on painting - the relationship beween the two is often thought only as a one way exchange.

Delacroix: La mort de Sardanapale

It appears that Durieu and Delacroix were friends and Delacroix documented in his diary his collaboration with Durieu (Botelho 2001: 5). Botelho's paper is fascinating but it gives us little information on the models. She remarks that photographers and painters in 1850s Paris often worked with the same models pointing to the woman in figure 10 in the book to corroborate her statement but we are given no further information on these models (2001: 9).
Prior to the 19th century there were no professional artist's models. There were muses, modelling courtesans, wives who modelled, but no professional artist's models as such. In fact, women until the 19th century were not admitted into the Fine Art Academies, where models were all male (Lathers 1996).
 The 19th century saw the rise of the professional artist's model as well as that of  the photographic model and the runway model in the Art et la Mode shows (Thomas nd). It is an important development which coincides with a different way of making art, of producing art, to be precise: this is the time when we also see the professionalisation of the artist, whose work was now being sold in salons rather than being commissioned by a king.
Marie Lathers has given us an insightful account of 19th century Paris art models (2000) and we can infer that these women also modelled for photographers, starting off a trend that continues in contemporary times. Lathers talks of three moments in this 19th century history of the early model: that of the Parisian grisette* and the Jewish model from about 1820 to 1850 (la belle Juive); that of the Italian model, from 1850 to 1860 and also well into the beginning of the 20th century (la belle Italienne); and that of the Parisienne. There are shifts here which denote a concern with race and we see the Parisienne as the white, purely French model, with the Italian as "an intermediary ethnic type" (Lathers 2000: 27). In her book of 2001, Lathers further develops her discussion of the model, showing the interconnection of model status and artistic practices.

Photographers: Faby and Carlo. Model: myself Taken during a photography workshop

This study of the model in 19th century Paris is continued by Susan Waller in her The invention of the model (2006) in which she focuses on the social identity of the models and, in her words, "the artist/model transaction"(2006: xiv). Countering the modernist paradigm of the model being the equivalent of an apple in still life, Waller draws attention on 'posing' as a social practice and on the reciprocal aspects of the artistic production through the artist/model association (2006: xiv). She also examines stereotypes of the model in the popular imagination and here her study converges with that of Lathers. Waller gives us an important caveat about the historical accounts of modelling, never by the models themselves, but often written by male observers.
The 19th century, with  Paris again as its hub, also sees the rise of the professional dancer, both the ballet dancer and the exotic dancer as also the development of the Romantic ballet. It is all part of a continuum and a web of inter-relationships and social networks which are significant in marking the role and perception of women in society.

I never finished writing this history of the art model, I got sidetracked and abandoned the project. It is however a topic that still intrigues me, so I might add a few more posts as I go along, as part of this blog. 



* the grisette was a 'young working girl', usually of working class origin

References

Botelho, Alexandra (2001) "Early Paper Photographic Processes: the Calotype Legray's Waxed Paper Negative Process Notes on Photographs, George Eastman House

Lathers, Marie (1996) "The social construction and deconstruction of the female model in 19th century France" Mosaic, 1st June
___________ (2000) Posing the "Belle Juive": Jewish Models in 19th-Century Paris.Woman's Art Journal, Vol. 21, No. 1. (Spring - Summer, 2000), 27-32 
___________ (2001) Bodies of art : French literary realism and the artist's model Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press

Thomas, Jacqueline  (nd) History of Runway Modeling

Waller, Susan (2006) The Invention of the Model. Artists and Models in Paris 1830-1870. Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing Ltd