Page 29 - Gallery 19c Volume 3_Les Types de Paris_digital_Neat

SINGLE LADIES

The woman at the center of Jongkind’s market
composition, eyeing the viewer and daringly lifting her
skirt, introduces another of the most prevalent “types”
in 19th century French art — the modern Parisian
woman, or parisienne, in one of a myriad of provocative
guises. The sheer volume of such exhibited works in
Paris at this time— proportional, in fact, to the number
in this exhibition, which stands at more than 1/3 of
the total displayed (cat. nos. 5, 7, 9, 13, 16, 21, 22, 23,
24 and 25)—attests to the popularity of the subject
among painters and patrons alike. In addition to
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Raffaëlli (1850-1924), whose Élégante presents a more
polished version of his roughhewn Types (cat. no. 21),
several major 19th-century artists featured the figure of
the parisienne silhouetted against a plain and timeless
ground (fig. 2). For Béraud, on the other hand, the
quintessential painter of the urban scene, it was the
boulevard that best set off this contemporary female
form (cat. no. 6). Strolling, shopping, conversing,
observing, and indulging in the food, drink, and
Fig. 2: Édouard Manet, La Parisienne, ca. 1876, Nationalmuseum entertainments that were the hallmarks of this site,
Stockholm
Béraud’s women command his compositions, and the
Paris street. 11
Fig. 1: Gustave Caillebotte, The Boulevard Viewed from Above, 1880, Private Collection
While the elevated perspectives and distant viewpoints of Parisian life, rather than be isolated or removed from Also commanding are the women of Henry Somm
featured in the works of many of these popular it. Indeed, the discrepancy between the two paintings (1844–1907), the illustrator of what must be the 19th
boulevardiers served to separate the artist from the scene by Jongkind included in this catalogue and exhibition, century’s most encyclopedic literary and
(note especially Caillebotte’s dizzying take), other the one recording the vastness of the boulevard in visual examination of female “types,” George
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artists preferred a more integrated approach. Louis winter (cat. no. 14) and the other, a more experiential Montorgueil’s La Parisienne peinte par elle-même (Paris,
Abel-Truchet’s Fairground, Place Pigalle (cat. no. 1), with presentation of a burgeoning flower market from the 1897). In Au Cirque, a work in keeping with the spirit of
its nighttime carousel ride and dazzling display of the perspective of a shopper or passerby, may be taken as that tome, the artist pairs his striking subject with a
city under gaslight, presents a glimpse of the fête foraine representative of the dilemma of the French artist at marionette, in the shape of a hapless clown
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from street level. The up-close focus and crowded this time: Seeking intimacy and connection in the city (cat. no. 23). Unable to move or to escape her quiet
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compositions of Victor Gabriel Gilbert (1847–1933) and of lights, they were often confronted by a cold and hand, the toy recasts Somm’s parisienne in deeply
Jongkind (cat. nos. 11 and 15) similarly demonstrate the calculated view instead. troubling terms: far from a fashionable fixture on the
desire of the artist to engage with the hustle and bustle boulevards of Paris, she is now a soundless femme fatale. 13

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