The painting is a showcase of the thinking of the time in which the artists lived.The paintings and drawings reflect the feeling of society and its evolution in multiple themes.Even during the Italian Renaissance they were used as a sample of the fabrics that the city-states commercialized.One of the clearest cases in which painters show a common feeling is in the way they treat prostitution in the 19th century in France.
Prostitution in the nineteenth century in France
French painting from the mid-nineteenth to the early twentieth century, mostly reflects an urban society in evolution and that does not avoid at all the theme of prostitution .Some of the most important paintings of this period tell us about this topic: Les demoiselles d'Avignon of the Spanish Pablo Picasso (they are the prostitutes of Avinyo de Bacelona street), Olympia de Manet, Rolla de H enry Gerveux, Women on the terrace of a Degas cafe, etc.For painters of this era prostitution, although it is relegated to the shade, it has a aura of modernity , and many of them were inspired by those women to create his works.
In France, during the reign of Napoleon III, strict rules were established to regulate prostitution .Women who were engaged in this job should register in the police, work in a single brothel and pay a municipal fee .A body was created within the police that should monitor that all regulations were met.He was known as the Brigade des Moeurs (Brigade of good manners or anti-vice).The newspapers of the time echoed cases of women who before being taken before the prefecture they preferred to commit suicide.These rules, dictated from the most absolute machismo, only considered women as mere objects for male pleasure .
mandatory medical inspections for women who worked in prostitution.The exams were deeply humiliating, and as seen in Toulouse-Lautrec's painting, they were forced to stand in line without their lower undergarments, in order if they were recognized.These reviews were done once a month and were mandatory under penalty of being sent to the court and having to pay a fine .What in principle was a good idea happened to be one more humiliation for those women.They were not only the victims of their clients, but also of the bureaucrats Taste insensitive.
However, at that time, there was a higher class of women dedicated to prostitution but at a higher level.They were the courtesans and enjoyed of a social status very different from those who worked in the street.They were praised and acclaimed by artists who in many cases made them their muses .One of the courtesans more Apollonie Sabatier was famous, they called her "the President" and her salon came as important figures as Delacroix, Flaubert or Baudelaire.Artists generally preferred to have the image of the happy prostitute than to see the harsh reality that we Toulouse-Lautrec showed.Most of them were poor girls who came from the provinces and when they arrived in Paris they had no choice but to prostitute themselves to sub to remain, being in many cases victims of violence.
If you have been interested in this post about prostitution in the 19th century, you may want to know more about this topic by reading the article on prostitution in the Victorian era.
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