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!