Les Femmes Françaises

Le Pain Bénit by Pascal Adolphe Jean Dagnan Bouveret - 1885 - Musée d'Orsay, Paris


Yesterday, Grandpère and I had a lovely day in New Orleans. I left all thought of the squabbles in the Anglican Communion behind, (Grandpère has no thoughts on the squabbles) and we drove off to see Femmes, Femmes, Femmes, Paintings of Women in French Society From Daumier to Picasso, From the Museums in France. Since we, like apparently many others, had procrastinated in making the visit to the New Orleans Museum of Art, we found it fairly crowded, since the exhibit ends next week.

The exhibit was magnificent. The Renoir pictured in the post below is glorious. I have not often seen reproductions of The Excursionist, but it is a sight to behold. The reproduction does not do justice to the brilliance of the true colors. I purchased the catalog, but, as usual, some of the reproductions are not true to the colors of the paintings, and I will soon forget the true colors and come to think the colors in the catalog are the reality.

I chose the painting at the top, by Dagnan-Bouveret, because I loved the contrast between the somber colors of the clothing of the women and the bright white and red of the vestments of the altar boy. The faces of the girls and women are beautiful to see, with the realism of their expressions and the faithful representation of the results of time. The women are separated from the men in the traditional manner of the churches in the French Comté. Of Dagnon-Bouverey, the catalog says, "After an intense mytical experience, Dagnan-Bouveret painted little but religious subjects...."

Among the paintings were a good many representations of the lower classes of French society, both rural and urban, one a work titled "La Mort du Pauvre", by Jean-Pierre Alexandre Antigna, which affected me greatly. The woman sits at the side of her dead husband with her two children, a large tear rolling down her cheek. The little girl hugs her mother and the little boy stares straight at us with sad look. What will become of them now? I couldn't find a link to any but a very small reproduction, which is hardly worth viewing.

There was another called "The Striker's Wife," by Alfred Roll, in which the woman sits with her two children, looking to be in a state of shock. What will they eat while the strike goes on? Men are killed in strikes. What will happen to the mother and children? I came away from the portrayals of the poor with the thought that the lot of women has been hard through the ages. Again, I could find no illustration for a link.

Even among the middle and upper classes, the women were subject to the men until the 20th century and beyond. The show included a self- portrait of Berthe Morisot, which appears to be frank and clearly not especially self-flattering. The plaque beside the picture quotes these words of Morisot, "I do not believe there has ever been a man who treats a woman as his equal and it is all I will have asked for, because I am worth them all." She was a friend of Manet and Renoir and often posed for them.

Grandpère spent a good bit of time before the picture by Henri Gervex titled "Rolla", 1878". From the catalog, "The painting was inspired by a poem (Rolla) by Alfred de Musset....Marion is a young prostitute; the man (Jaques Rolla) is a despairing reveler, casting a final look at the young woman with whom he has spent the night. He is about to climb over the balcony and leap to his death." Once you read the story behind the painting, you look at it differently, more soberly.

After viewing the paintings, we went to a nearby restaurant call La Vita, a small Italian restaurant, and had an excellent lunch. Altogether, it was a day of la vie douce or la dolce vita; take your choice.