Reading Wednesday
May. 14th, 2025 11:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
troisoiseauxFinished Paris In Ruins: Love, War and the Birth of Impressionism by Sebastian Smee— osprey_archer beat me to writing a review; I co-sign all points, although I found that Smee's descriptions of paintings made up for the relative lack of actual art reproductions. Followed with Little Dancer Aged Fourteen: The True Story Behind Degas's Masterpiece by Camille Laurens, a slim, sprawling, personal meditation on the famous sculpture and its model, Marie van Goethem, that touches on everything from the pseudoscience of physiognomy* to Marilyn Monroe** to the plight of modern-day refugees and child laborers to the author's great-grandmother and childhood dreams of ballet. Fascinating book to read immediately after Smee's— at one point, Laurens mentions that Degas preferred the label "Intransigent" to "Impressionist" without mentioning the political context of the term,*** which Smee delved into; it's hard to square Laurens' description of Degas who "seemed to harbor an intellectual distrust towards women that closely bordered on contempt" with Degas who pitched a fit over the best way to display Berthe Morisot's drawings at a retrospective of her art that he, Renoir, and Monet organized after her death. (People! They're complicated!) I also found my reading experience overlaid with the palimpsest of a childhood picture book, Degas and the Little Dancer by Laurence Anholt, which made for a wild contrast.
* Apparently Degas made the sculpture's features more reflective of negative physiognomic theories/attributes than van Goethem's actual features, which are likely most accurately reflected in an early sketch, and the sculpture was originally displayed at the same time as his painting "Criminal Physiognomies", so that's... oof!!!
** who was photographed with the sculpture in 1956
*** it was primarily associated with the political backlash against pro-Communard sentiment after the fall of the Paris Commune
osprey_archer beat me to writing a review; I co-sign all points, although I found that Smee's descriptions of paintings made up for the relative lack of actual art reproductions. Followed with Little Dancer Aged Fourteen: The True Story Behind Degas's Masterpiece by Camille Laurens, a slim, sprawling, personal meditation on the famous sculpture and its model, Marie van Goethem, that touches on everything from the pseudoscience of physiognomy* to Marilyn Monroe** to the plight of modern-day refugees and child laborers to the author's great-grandmother and childhood dreams of ballet. Fascinating book to read immediately after Smee's— at one point, Laurens mentions that Degas preferred the label "Intransigent" to "Impressionist" without mentioning the political context of the term,*** which Smee delved into; it's hard to square Laurens' description of Degas who "seemed to harbor an intellectual distrust towards women that closely bordered on contempt" with Degas who pitched a fit over the best way to display Berthe Morisot's drawings at a retrospective of her art that he, Renoir, and Monet organized after her death. (People! They're complicated!) I also found my reading experience overlaid with the palimpsest of a childhood picture book, Degas and the Little Dancer by Laurence Anholt, which made for a wild contrast.* Apparently Degas made the sculpture's features more reflective of negative physiognomic theories/attributes than van Goethem's actual features, which are likely most accurately reflected in an early sketch, and the sculpture was originally displayed at the same time as his painting "Criminal Physiognomies", so that's... oof!!!
** who was photographed with the sculpture in 1956
*** it was primarily associated with the political backlash against pro-Communard sentiment after the fall of the Paris Commune
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Date: 2025-05-15 03:49 am (UTC)And oh my goodness, I also had that children's picture book. I remember… mostly the bit about the ribbon, I think.
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Date: 2025-05-15 04:05 am (UTC)I haven't thought about that picture book in literal decades, but then Laurens was writing about van Goethem modeling for Degas and I realized that my subconscious mental image was of Anholt's lanky illustrated Degas and then I identified the book via google search. Wild the things that stick with you! I also remember Linnea in Monet's Garden— different author, but also a picture book about Impressionism.
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Date: 2025-05-15 05:07 am (UTC)I read that one!
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Date: 2025-05-15 05:06 am (UTC)I find this statement incredibly strange to read, because I've been visiting one of the bronzes since my own childhood and the little dancer never looked to me like she was going to knock over a grocery. What physiognomy did Degas think he was giving her?
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Date: 2025-05-15 10:58 am (UTC)I have no idea??? Apparently people had a very strong reaction to it at the time, though.
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Date: 2025-05-15 03:25 pm (UTC)Wow.
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Date: 2025-05-15 05:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-05-15 07:29 pm (UTC)Okay, I'd already returned the e-book when I originally responded, but since this point appears to be of general interest, I borrowed it again to copy some of the relevant bits:
"The face of the Little Dancer undeniably has some of the features identified by the phrenologists and medical anatomists of the day as typically criminal: a sloping forehead, a protruding jaw, prominent cheekbones, thick hair. It has been reported that Edgar Degas sought out information on these physiognomic theories, which are illustrated in several of his oil portraits and monotypes of bordellos." Laurens also notes that, comparing Degas' sketches to the actual sculpture, it appears that he accentuated these features.
Laurens is not entirely sure what to make of this, writing that: "A parallel question is whether Degas believed in the fashionable physiognomic theories of his time, to the point of wanting to illustrate them by modeling his Little Dancer's features to resemble those of a delinquent ... Or, on the contrary, was the sculpture intended to create a needed scandal, exposing the racist roots of this pseudo-science and abjection of society?" She considers arguments on both sides and... doesn't really come to a conclusion.
Regardless of what Degas intended, apparently critics responded by saying she looked "depraved" and had "the features of a 'criminal.'" Part of this reaction was also due more broadly to the fact that, as a low-level and lower-class ballet dancer (a "rat"), she was "perceived ... as a prostitute, either actual or prospective." This is all especially heartbreaking in the context of the sculpture literally being titled "Little Dancer, Aged Fourteen."
So, tl;dr... OOF.
(Interestingly, Degas apparently also had Marie van Goethem model for The Schoolgirl, which portrays a very different social context.)
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Date: 2025-05-15 05:33 am (UTC)Ooh, I've been meaning to read this.
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Date: 2025-05-15 11:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-05-15 12:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-05-15 12:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-05-15 12:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-05-15 12:48 pm (UTC)Maybe I should make a lunchtime visit today and then get the book... okay I'll have to put a hold to get it from another library, so cannot do this ALL today.
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Date: 2025-05-15 01:04 pm (UTC)Does your university also have The Schoolgirl? Apparently it was also modeled on Marie van Goethem.
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Date: 2025-05-15 01:08 pm (UTC)