Degas’ photos of women bathing, Gérôme supporting photography as a fine art, Pierre Bonnard’s snaps of Marthe, and the extreme realism of Ellen Altfest.
Degas
In the 19th century, literary stories changed with the coming of detective and mystery novels. In the latter half of the century, painters gained fame in problem pictures.
From tired seamstress to milliner, into the fashion house of Paquin, and onto the streets alongside the affluent of Paris at the turn of the century.
Originally the toilet, this is where ladies prepared themselves for the day. Paintings from Hogarth. Degas, Vallotton, Pierre Bonnard and others.
At the ballet with Degas,Sargent’s Spanish dancer, entertainment in North Africa, an Ionian dance, the Can-Can, Salome and the Dance of the Seven Veils.
A cheap substitute for tapestries, they came of age in the 19th century when paper could be made in long rolls and colour printing had improved.
Laundresses who collect clothes and linen from homes, launder and press them, and return them for a pittance. Seamstresses working long hours with an uncertain future.
Fashionable hats and milliners by Georges Clairin, Edgar Degas, Jean Béraud, Pierre-Georges Jeanniot and Henri Gervex.
The evils of absinthe in paintings by Degas, Raffaëlli, Jean Béraud, and other booze like Bocks by Manet and Friant, with artists also drinking heavily.
Stairs to fall down, to sit in disgrace, or pose with your sibling? Stairs winding up and defying gravity, bearing ballet dancers, or in a Gothic prison.
The Eclectic Light Company 