ECR French Nineteenth-Century Art Network: Expanding the Discourse: Gender & Queerness in Nineteenth-Century France
23 March 1600 (GMT) / 1700 (CET) / 1200 (EDT)
In nineteenth-century France, the habitual exclusion of artists from cultural organizations and gatherings on the basis of gender did not preclude their artistic endeavours. But, as has been widely recognized, this disparity of treatment naturally presented a significant barrier. In the mid-century, for example, ‘animalière’ Rosa Bonheur was one of the few women artists to enjoy profound commercial success, yet she still had to request permission from the government to wear pants or risk punishment. Even today, her sexuality remains a subject of controversy. Considering questions of gender, gender expression, and sexuality encourages us to move beyond binary and heteronormative modes of thinking and explore new avenues of research. What visual codes were used to signify queerness in the nineteenth century? How could artists (overtly or implicitly) subvert traditional ideas about gender and sexuality in their work? This network session will pursue these questions and more to address the roles played by gender and queerness in nineteenth-century visual culture.
Details of Speakers:
Sarah Lund, “Lithograph as Archive: Anne Emilie Bès and Joséphine Formentin and Nineteenth-Century Gendering of Touch”
Anne Emilie Bès and Joséphine Formentin were two prominent lithographers in early nineteenth-century France. Like many female artists, their names rarely appear in catalogues, and scant archival information survives. A key source of information for these women are their prints themselves: the signatures, addresses, and collaborators in the margins. Their prints, however, also record their touch, marks, and manipulations of their media: especially in lithography, which relies on the stone matrix’s sensitivity and ability to absorb the lightest grease marks, even from inky fingertips. This paper will examine how Bès and Formentin mobilized lithography and its relationship to sensitivity to participate in politics, challenge gendered prejudices, and negotiate their identities as women and artists.
Sarah Lund is a PhD Candidate at Harvard University in the History of Art and Architecture department, and is currently a Visiting Research Fellow at the Ecole normale supérieure in Paris. She studies 18th and 19th-century works on paper, with a special focus on female artists, gender, and printmaking techniques. Her dissertation in progress examines French female printmakers from 1789 to 1848.
Annabelle Dance, “Gender Chameleon: Codeswitching in the Fictional Work and Life of Rachilde”
French woman writer Rachilde, born Marguerite Eymery in 1860, has mystified critics for generations, with some hailing her as a proto-queer/trans figure, and others branding her an anti-feminist conservative. What lies behind these contrasting interpretations? Rachilde was a chameleon who could codeswitch at will: in order to be accepted by the notoriously misogynistic Decadent movement of the 1880s and 1890s, she arguably moulded herself to her audience’s more “masculine” tastes, before settling into a more traditionally “feminine” role as a salonnière later in life. This is reflected in her work of the time: her slippery Decadent heroines adapt their gender practices according to their needs, defying conventions of femininity without, however, totally relinquishing their feminine prerogative. Annabelle Dance will aim to unpick this tangled web, exploring how gendered social codes interact with individual identity in Rachilde’s novels, as well as in her own life.
Annabelle Dance is a fifth-year student at NYU’s Department of French Literature, Thought, and Culture. She is shortly due to complete her doctoral thesis on the figure of the cougar in novels of the 19th and 20th century in France. Other research interests include feminism, aesthetics, and the relationship between literature and the visual arts.
Aaron Slodounik, “The Challenge of Trans*historicities."
Aaron Slodounik will discuss the challenge of putting trans*historicities into practice in our research and teaching. In their 2018 TSQ article, “Trans, Time, and History,” Leah Devun and Zeb Tortorici think about the potential for transgender history if scholars were to employ historicity: an approach that considers the relationship between the past, present, and future. As a case study, Aaron will reflect upon the successes and failures of his recent seminar Nonconforming Before Genderqueer at Cooper Union, which largely focused on the eighteenth century through the early-twentieth.
Aaron Slodounik received his doctorate in art history and a certificate in women’s studies from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York in 2021. He is currently at work on a book project, tentatively entitled Savage Whiteness: Paul Gauguin and the Birth of Modernism.
This is a virtual event - the Zoom link will be sent out on the day. For any issues please get in contact via email and we will try and help as best we can.
The network will meet (roughly) once a month virtually via Zoom. It is open to current PhD and research students as well as ECRs who have recently graduated and are making their way in the world of academia/museums/education/arts or heritage. It is global, open to those located anywhere in the world who wish to join. Feel free to join, participate and we hope to create an engaging, diverse, fun and rewarding community.
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