Modernity And The Space Of Femininity Essay

In Visions and Differences “Modernity and the Spaces of Femininity,” Griselda Pollock argues that social spaces occupied by men, were not open for women, who pertained a confined public and domestic life. (Pollock 62) Whether it be social gatherings, or their daily life women were unable to share as many social spaces as men. In comparison, male artists of the 19th Century could go to the back stages of theatres and cafés where these artists such as Manet or Renoir, to name a few painted many sexualized bodies of women which correlated to their Impressionist practices. (Pollock 73)

In the eighteenth and nineteenth century the “public sphere defined as the world of productive labour, political decision, government, education, the law, and

Pollock describes the comparison in scenes from domestic life paintings both painted by men and women. (Pollock 72) Mary Cassatt and Auguste Renoir both painted women in a public space, a theatre. (Pollock 76) In The Loge by Mary Cassatt and in The Loge by Renoir, both paintings are of the same space, but in Cassatt’s picture the women sit in a “erect position, other carefully grasping an unwrapped bouquet, the other sheltering behind a large fan,” (Pollock 75) Cassatt’s image shows a telling tale of “suppressed excitement and extreme constraint,” which contrasts greatly from Renoir’s which is a set scene and the “spectacle the women herself is made to offer, merged from the unacknowledged, but presumed male spectator” form her body language which is more offertory compared to Cassatt’s “oblique figures.” (Pollock

2) are set in similar spaces. Manet’s has a more sexualized approach, in which one women is nude and sitting with two men, who are engrossed in a conversation, while a second figure of a female casually bathes in the stream behind them not wearing as many clothes. Whereas, in Morisot’s painting with light feathery brushstrokes similar in style to Manet’s, but about motherhood, rather than a luncheon in a park with a mistress. (women’s art journal) These two spaces may be similar in that they are set in an outdoor space, but Manet’s is set in a more public domain with an open background, whereas, Morisot’s is set in a private domestic domain, which is confined within the four walls of her household. The confinement comes from the back space of the garden which is covered in greenery, where in Manet’s painting the back space is open and stretches out to a further length. The themes are entirely different, Morisot’s painting is showing motherhood, which opens up to the daily musings of a women in the nineteenth century. (Buettner,1986, Women’s Art Journal) Whereas, Manet’s shows a masculine space with more of a sexual image with dark colours and more nakedness, which plays a large role in this piece. (Bass,2009. Nakedness) This shows the “spaces in femininity” and the “spatial structures” that Pollock describes. (Pollock 66) Morisot used the back wall as a spatial