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oursinBecause I'm more likely to put it down to male-gazey prurience. Do we need to know the identity of the woman who posed for Courbet's L'Origine du Monde?
Experts say they are 99% sure model who posed for LâOrigine du monde was ballet dancer Constance Queniaux.
Jonathan Jones, who has a certain amount of form for ponceyness, higher codswallop and general obnoxiousness, is yay pissed, because he has just identified the model as another well-known artists' model of the period in a book he's just finished: Who posed for the 'Mona Lisa of vaginas'? (As several commentators point out Below The Line, Mr Jones does not appear to understand the distinction between a vagina and a vulva...).
But either way - and it might not be either of these two ladies, one of whom 'became a highly respectable lady of leisure known for her philanthropy' - so what? and would whoever it was really appreciate speculation about their identity over 150 years after the painting was completed?
no subject
Date: 2018-10-02 08:46 pm (UTC)DDDD:
"But doubts persisted â mainly because the dark pubic hair in the painting did not correspond with Hiffernanâs mane of flaming red curls."
//opens mouth
//shuts mouth
no subject
Date: 2018-10-02 09:13 pm (UTC)I cackled reading that article, it was just so self-parodically awfully awful from beginning to end.
no subject
Date: 2018-10-02 09:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-10-03 08:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-10-05 05:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-10-02 09:33 pm (UTC)... really? really?
Have art historians been sitting round debating this passionately for decades? Does our understanding of 19th-century art hang on it? Does anything at all of any significance hang on it?
From Jones:
Yet itâs particularly tempting to imagine Hiffernanâs features hidden under that white sheet. It not only gives this picture a fuller human identity but adds a carnal dimension to some other very beautiful 19th-century paintings.
Translation: "I enjoy looking at these other paintings more if I can imagine that I've seen the model's vulva".
no subject
Date: 2018-10-03 08:14 am (UTC)Trust me, I'm an art historian.
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Date: 2018-10-03 08:20 am (UTC)I mean, people are free to enjoy paintings in any way they wish! I'm just surprised that he thinks this is a Deep and Valid art theory point he's making, as opposed to a disclosure about his personal kinks.
... wait until he realizes that all clothed cis female models in paintings have vulvas. Even if you haven't seen them! They're still there! All the time!
He may never recover from the shock.
no subject
Date: 2018-10-03 03:59 am (UTC)