Young Women In 19th Century Art

         Angels and Tomboys: Girlhood in 19th Century American Art is an extensive collection of visual works, depicting the lives and times of young women/girls during the 19th century. This traveling exhibition is currently being displayed at The Newark Museum, and features works from some of the most prominent artists of the 19th century. The Angels and Tomboys collection is a representation of the visual understanding of young women/girls by artists of the 19th century, which in turn helped in the social development of these women/girls at the time. These works examined the partial collective/social perception of young women/girls of the 19th century; innocent, angelic, while also portraying the aggressiveness, and assertiveness of some of the young women/girls of the working class. 

Charles Courtney Curran, Lotus Lilies, 1888

          Lotus Lillies by Charles Courtney Curran, is a visual work portraying Curran’s wife Grace Winthrop Wickham, enjoying a leisure boating ride with her cousin Charlotte Ada Taylor on Old Woman Creek, an estuary of Lake Erie in Ohio. The women are surrounded by an array of water lilies, which brings a sense of peace and tranquility to the scenery, in harmony with the overall feel of the landscape. An emphasis to a “care-free”, pleasant, easy lifestyle is highly regarded throughout the painting. This is made clear by the stillness throughout, but also the lack of effort by the women to navigate through the vast amount of water lilies; they are surrounded and drowned by them, and make no attempt to overpower them, but actually symbolically succumb to them. Curran’s use of perspective is highly regarded throughout Lotus Lilies, embodied in the picture plane is the use of three dimensionality, and a forth, mid, and background shows this. Curran was known to shy away from the conventional historic paintings of the time, but rather enjoyed painting landscapes that portrayed scenes of modern life. He adopted impressionist techniques in his works; bold colors, loose brushstrokes, while also incorporating techniques of academic drawing, and the use of balance in his compositions.

Pablo Picasso, Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, 1907

          Les Demoiselles d’Avignon by Pablo Picasso, portrays five female prostitutes from a brothel on Carrer d’Avinyo in Barcelona, Spain. These women are depicted in a rigid, forward manner with no concept of femininity; very abstract, and disconcerting, with no use or understanding of proportion. This painting represents a more modernistic perspective of painting. It uses concepts of cubist art; geometric perspective (in a two dimensional format), abstraction in multiple viewpoints, as well as African art to express the subject matter. No perspective is used; a flat, two-dimensional picture plane is visible throughout this work. Picasso’s bold use of linear drawing opted out of the use of color and light of traditional painting techniques of the time to depict form. Picasso wanted to capture the essence of Spanish art and Iberian culture in Les Demoiselles d’Avignon by incorporating artistic influences from both. It is said that Picasso was not influenced by African art in the production of this piece, but I beg to differ. It is clear by observing two of the subjects in the work that African art indeed influence the making of this piece. Les Demoiselles d’Avignon represented sexual freedom, and expression, and was a movement against the traditional values of his time. It was a revolutionary and controversial piece, and was the source of negative discussion, and disagreements in its subject matter in Picasso’s close circle. 

         Both Lotus Lillies by Charles Courtney Curran, and Les Demoiselles d’Avignon by Pablo Picasso are similar in their use of linear drawing to construct the subjects within the work. Bold use of lines are used to delineate the figures within the piece, instead of shadows, light, and color to give form to the subjects. Another similarity is the female subjects used in the works as the main focus in the paintings. One of the major differences is the overall feel of both of the works. Lotus Lilies depicts a scene of tranquility and serenity, a leisurely afternoon with no sense of hardships, or discomfort; this can be depicted through the use of light, pastel colors, and softness in the overall construction of the female figures, but also the surrounding space. While Les Demoiselles d’Avignon is a harsh depiction of the “working woman”, and their adversity; this can be represented through the strong use of odd, distorted shapes, rigid forms, and distorted faces. 

          While both pieces give much to talk about, their similarities, and differences are quite vague. The most concerning, and highly noticeable connection is the use of women to represent the subject matter within the works, as well as the use of bold linear drawing to accentuate the forms of the subjects. Both paintings represent a different way of life; nonetheless they both portray the importance of the subjects and the significance given to them by the artists, by making the figures upfront, and forward in the picture plane. These works represent two equally great works of their time, and are inspirations to many artists of today. 

References

"Terra Foundation for American Art: Collections." Terra Foundation for American Art: Collections.

             N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Nov. 2012.              <http://collections.terraamericanart.org/views/objects/asitem/People$0040178/0;jsessionid=65251120992d7056518031040E0B1E88?t:state:flow=daa3a4e7-1a5c-4dfa-8b6d-ca04a52a4ad5>.

"Les Demoiselles D'Avignon." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 27 Nov. 2012. 

              Web. 29 Nov. 2012.         

              <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Demoiselles_d'Avignon>.

Hunter, Sam, John M. Jacobus, and Daniel Wheeler. Modern Art: Painting, 

              Sculpture, Architecture, Photography. [Upper Saddle River, N.J.]: Prentice 

              Hall, 2004. Print.

*Painting caption links to source image.