A Synthesis of love and Disgust: An Exploration of Twentieth-Century Scholarship on Degas' Brothel Monotypes
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A Synthesis of love and Disgust:
An Exploration of Twentieth-Century
Scholarship on Degas' Brothel Monotypes
Nicole Lawrence
"When critics disagree the artist is in accord with himself."
-Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray
In the late 1870s, Edgar Degas (1834-1917) made more than fifty small
monotype prints of brothel interiors. 1 While most twentieth-century scholarship
on Degas has considered them to be a harmonious series, 2 Linda Nochlin argues
that "they are far from unified."3 The subjects of the monotypes include
representations of relaxed congeniality among women, women waiting for a
male client, awkward or intimate moments with a male client, and women
enjoying either their own bodies or the bodies of other women. However,
because critics insist on discussing the series of brothel monotypes as consistent
in subject matter and in terms of expression, there is no consensus of opinion on
them. Critics have tended to make blanket assumptions about the intent of the
1
The key catalogue of the brothel monotypes provides this essential information. Eugenia
Parry Janis, Degas Monotypes (Cambridge, Mass: Cambridge University Press, 1968) xix.
However, Jean Adhemar and Francoise Cachin argue that between 1874 and 1884, and
again from 1890-92, Degas made perhaps 250 monotypes; Degas: The Complete Etchings,
Lithographs and Monotypes (London: Thames and Hudson, 1974) 8.
2
See Carol Armstrong, Jean Sutherland Boggs, Hollis Clayson, Eugenia Parry Janis, Eunice
Lipton and Richard Thomson.
3
Linda Nochlin, "A House is Not a Home: Degas and the Subversion of the Family,"
Representing Women (New York: Thames and Hudson, 1999) 176-77.series, rather than recognizing the multiple and complex readings of the aggressive and non-seductive gestures in images such as Relaxation [Figure 1].
monotypes. In these various readings there are a cornucopia of contrasting He also believes that the middle-class costume of the client in the image The
opinions on Degas' moral stance on prostitution, his views on class and social Serious Client indicates that Degas was, in fact, depicting a maison de quartier, a
standing, and his sexuality and his personal relationships with women. In this bourgeois establishment, a fact supported by the standard mirrors and long
essay I will bring together a wide range of criticism that discusses Degas' political divans seen in monotypes such as Relaxation and The Madame's Name Day
and personal opinions of prostitution as depicted in his brothel monotypes. [Figure 2]. 8 Although some scholars have considered Degas' brothel monotypes
The modernization of Paris that was initiated during the rule of to be a direct representation of a maison de luxe while others have proposed
Napoleon III (r.1852-70), but implemented by Georges Haussmann, permanently that these images reflect a maison de quartier, both types of houses were part of
changed the practice and structure of brothel prostitution. 4 Many of the working- the state-regulated maison close.
class areas where the brothels would have operated were destroyed during the Many twentieth-century scholars have stressed the prominent role of
urban renewal process, displacing not only their inhabitants, but also their prostitution in late nineteenth-century Paris/ and it is clear from Norma Braude's
study on Degas and nineteenth-century French feminism that the issue of the
businesses. Therefore, during the last half of the century, the number of licensed
state-regulated maison close was a major topic of public debate and political
or tolerated houses decreased steadily. 5 As the second-rate brothels
disappeared, they were superseded by a different category of brothels, created controversy .10 Degas' unique depictions of government-controlled brothels, with
for the newly prosperous grand boulevards: the maison de luxe or grande their stylized blurriness and lack of definition, have brought some critics to the
tolerance. These were deluxe houses that occupied the pinnacle of the social, conclusion that Degas created them with a specific political agenda. 11 Richard
economic, and erotic hierarchy of the tolerated brothels in Paris. 6 According to Thomson and Hollis Clayson both suggest that by depicting these establishments
Hollis Clayson and Roy McMullen, the costumes of the prostitutes and the setting as "hardly a stimulant to the sexual appetite," Degas was implicitly supporting a
of Degas' brothel monotypes are typical of this new deluxe house of prostitution regulationist position, because regulationists only condoned brothel activity if it
of the late 1870s, which were designed to cater to the expensive and did not facilitate "sexual stimulation and arousal." 12 For the Paris bourgeoisie,
sophisticated tastes of the upper-class client. 7 Richard Thomson debates this
point, observing that Degas' brothels are "not necessarily a maison de luxe'
8
because of the vulgar and low-class character of the filles, suggested by the Thomson 101.
9
See Carol Armstrong, Charles Bernheimer, T.J. Clark, Hollis Clayson, Eunice Lipton, and
Richard Thomson.
10
Norma Broude, "Edgar Degas and French Feminism, ca. 1880: 'The Young Spartans,' The
Brothel Monotypes, and the Bathers Revisited," The Expanding Discourse: Feminism and
4
Hollis Clayson, Prostitution in French Art of the Impressionist Era: Painted Love (New Art History, ed. Norma Broude and Mary G. Garrard (New York: Harper & Row Publishers
Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1991) 28. 1992) 277-279. ,
11
5
In 1840 there were 300 licensed brothel, in 1855 there were 204, about 190 in 1860, in Most earlier nineteenth-century images of prositution have dealt with the topic in a far
1869 there were 152, 128 in 1878 and by 1886 there were 70, and in 1888 only 69 more glamorous manner such as, Edouard Manet's Nana from 1877 and Henri Gervex's
remained. Clayson, Prostitution 28. Richard Thomson, Degas: The Nude (London: Thames Rolla from 1878.
12
and Hudson, 1988) 100. Thomson 101. Hollis Clayson, "Avant-Garde and Pompier Images of 19th Century French
6
Clayson, Prostitution 28. Prostiution: The Matter of Modernism, Modernity and Social Ideology," Modernism and
7
Clayson, Prostitution 28-33. Roy McMullen, Degas: His Life, Times, and Work (London: Modernity: The Vancouver Conference Papers, ed. Benjamin Buchloh et al., (Halifax: The
Seeker & Warburg) 271-273. Press of the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, 1983) 60.
112
... 113stricter government controls on prostitution, including regulations on the nature Degas' brothel monotypes. Reff believes that images such as Relaxation display
of brothel activity, meant an increase in public health and security due to the same vulgar proportions and depraved postures that were described in
limitations on the number of prostitutes allowed to operate, the services they Huysmans' novel. 19 Not all critics see such a specific connection between the
literature of the time and Degas' monotypes. Both Eugeneia Parry Janis and Jean
were allowed to perform, and where they were allowed to work.B However, for
the women of the brothels, rigid legislation meant less money, the loss of sutherland Boggs see the tragic naturalism of Huysmans' Marthe as inconsistent
with the monotypes, although it is only Boggs who vehemently denies any
autonomy, and less work. 14 Operating on her own, a fille insoumise (unregistered
prostitute) could work when she liked, choose her clients, pocket her earnings relationship between literature and the brothel monotypes. 20 Boggs is clearly in
and enjoy greater liberty - all benefits that a registered prostitute would have to the minority, and, although there is no consensus of opinion over which specific
surrender. 15 Therefore, in contrast to Thomson and Clayson, Norma Braude sees novel inspired Degas to produce the brothel series, the majority of critics see a
Degas' harsh depictions of the maisons closes as feminist in nature, decrying link between Degas' brothel monotypes and contemporary literature, suggesting
calls for increased state-regulated and sanctioned prostitution .16 Due to this that Degas was certainly aware of the social and political issues about
prostitution in nineteenth-century Paris, even if he was not consciously
disagreement among critics, it is impossible to know what side, if any, Degas
allied with in the debate over state-regulated prostitution. However, the issue of contributing to the debate himself.
controlled prostitution was an important topic of debate in Parisian society, and it Some scholars have also made analogies between Degas' brothel
is likely that the prevalence of the issue contributed to Degas' interest in the monotypes and contemporary medical data on hysteria. James H. Rubin explicitly
subject. describes some of the images as "awkward experiments," paralleling the "bizarre
The issue of prostitution was a popular subject in contemporary novels, poses" in images such as Relaxation with illustrations in Jean-Martin Charcot and
which many critics have seen as an influence on Degas' brothel monotypes. For Paul Richer's contemporary psychiatric treatises on hysteria. 21 Hysteria was
example, Richard Kendall regards Edmond Goncourt's La Fille Elisa, from 1877, believed to be a female illness caused by gynaecological disorders and
as an inspiration for the monotypes, due to the fact that its title was inscribed in suppressed sexuality, and was therefore considered to be common among
Degas' note-book drawings. 17 Hollis Clayson has agreed with Kendall's findings, prostitutes. Like Rubin, Richard Thomson has also made connections between
and also notes parallels between Degas' brothel images like The Madame's Name the unconventional poses of some of Degas' women and contemporary medical
Day and Guy de Maupassant's fiction; a connection that has also been observed
illustrations of hysterics having contortions. 22 However, while Rubin avoids
drawing conclusions as to why Degas may have been referring to these medical
by Linda Nochlin. 18 Theodore Reff suggests that Joris-Karl Huysmans' novel
about a prostitute, entitled Marthe, published in 1876, was a direct influence on
19
Theodore Reff, Degas: The Artist's Mind (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art
1976) 181. ,
20
13
Thomson 98. Janis xix-xxi. Instead, Jean Sutherland Boggs suggests that Degas' brothel series is
14
Braude, "Edgar Degas" 279. based on the masters of the first half of the century, such as Guys and Gavarni, and on
15
Thomson 100. Japanese printmaking. Jean Sutherland Boggs et al., eds., Degas (Ottawa: National Gallery
16
Braude, "Edgar Degas" 277-281. of Canada, 1988) 296.
21
17
Richard Kendall, Degas: Images of Women (Liverpool: Tate Gallery, 1990) 44. James H. Rubins, Impressionism (London: Phaidon Press, 1999) 209.
22
18
Nochlin 172. Thomson 102.
114 115
....findings, Thomson felt that Degas was clearly alluding to the view that Degas thought of these women as threatening social deviants." 29 However,
prostitutes were unstable and should be confined to the brothel, 23 again Callen and Clayson have also suggested that, by phy?ically stereotyping the
suggesting that Degas was making a political statement through his monotypes. prostitutes, Degas was making a misogynostic statement, a theory that Richard
Some critics believe that Degas' monotypes attribute negative Kendall refuses to accept, asserting that Degas depicted both men and women
characteristics to the prostitutes not only through their suggestive hysterical with negative physiognomic traits, and therefore Degas was concerned more
with the issues of class than of gender. 30
postures, but also through their sheer physical appearance. Almost thirty-five
years ago, Eugenia Parry Janis called attention to what she called "vulgar facial Critics such as Jean Sutherland Boggs and Theodore Reff have argued
characteristics" in Degas' brothel prints: 24 an observation that has taken on great that the images were based directly on first-hand experience, rather than on
significance in light of the more recent studies by Anthea Callen, Douglas Druick second-hand sources such as literature, medical treatises, or public opinion. 31
and Peter Zegers on the influence of nineteenth-century physiognomy in Degas' Roy McMullen and Hollis Clayson also agree that Degas' monotypes convey a
art. 25 Physiognomy investigated how a person's "inner moral character" "raw, unvarnished, objective truth," attainable only through first hand
manifested itself physically. 26 For instance, physiognomists believed that the experience, through which the essential facts of the brothel are accurately
morally inferior nature of the criminal underclass or the ignorant was visible in described. 32 Some critics, like Jean Adhemar and Francoise Cachin, dispute the
their facial features, in their jutting jaw, prominent cheekbones and low receding scientific accuracy of the prints. While acquiescing that the monotypes certainly
foreheads. Some critics believe that Degas supported this belief by depicting the have "an air of reality" and a quality of "absolute immediacy," these critics refuse
prostitutes with these features, clearly seen in the two women standing in the to classify the images as objective social documents. As Adhemar and Cachin
monotype The Madame's Name Day. Anthea Callen believed this visual have pointed out, a monotype has to be executed in a studio, due to the
classification of character types "fulfilled an urgent social need" 27 for required equipment, and therefore the act of creation occurs away from the
distinguishing class, and Degas' employment of the theory of physiognomy in his subject, and is filtered through the subjective realm of memory and the artist's
art served that very purpose. As Richard Thomson has declared: "Degas' images imagination. Richard Thomson supports this claim, proposing that the brothel
of prostitutes were strongly shaped and determined by the conventional monotypes were not "a systematic attempt to represent an urban institution."33
preconceptions and prejudices of a man of his class and upbringing." 28 Hollis He believed that Degas did not scientifically and objectively record the facts of
Clayson confirms both Anthea Callen and Richard Thomson's statements, writing, the state-regulated brothel in minute detail. Therefore, while some critics see
"the appearance of the stereotyped faces in the brothel monotypes suggests that Degas' monotypes as scientific and objective records of brothel life, other critics
23
Thomson 102.
24
Janis xx. 29
25
Rubin 200. Clayson, Prostitution 48.
26
Anthea Callen, "Anatomy and Physiognomy: Degas' Little Dancer of Fourteen Years," °Kendall47.
3
31
Boggs 296. Reff 264.
Degas: Images of Women, ed. Richard Kendall (Liverpool: Tate Gallery, 1990) 10. 32
27
Callen 10. McMullen 270-271. Clayson, Prostitution 40.
33
28
Thomson 117. Thomson 101.
116 117
....Due to the possibility that these images were only of a personal nature,
have seen them as illusory conceptions that were partially based on recollection I
some critics have opted for a more biographical reading of Degas' brothel
and were affected by subjective manipulation.
monotypes, where the artist's sexuality, latent or lived, is considered in relation
If the monotypes were created as social documents or political
to his brothel prints. James H. Rubin has suggested that the numerous images of
statements, then the issue of where they were displayed comes to the fore. Both
"frontal nudity, onanistic gestures and grotesque postures" naturally raise
Jean Sutherland Boggs and Richard Kendall have asserted that a few select
monotypes may have been exhibited in the 1877 Impressionist Exhibition, 34 but questions about Degas' sexuality. 38 The artist Vincent van Gogh attributed the
realistic style of the monotypes to Degas' sexual inadequacy. 39 In the summer of
this is by no means a consensus, and lack of detailed catalogues of these
exhibits make it impossible to prove one way or the other. The only proven 1888, while in Aries, van Gogh sent a letter to his brother, in which he mentions
public display of the monotypes occurs in a 1934 edition of. Guys de the monotypes. He wrote: "[Degas] looks on while the human animals, stronger
Maupassant's story La Maison Tellier, in which images such as The Madame's than himself, get excited and fuck... he paints them well, exactly because he
Birthday and The Customer were included. 35 However, this book was published doesn't have the pretension to get excited himself."40 The artist Pablo Picasso,
after Degas' death, and it is therefore presumptuous to conclude that these who owned several of Degas' monotypes, also viewed Degas' voyeur status as a
monotypes were reproduced with Degas' permission. Due to the fact that there reflection of his sexual dysfunction. This is exemplified in one of the forty
is a good chance that these monotypes were never publicly exhibited, Hollis etchings based on Degas' monotypes that Picasso made, entitled March 16,
Clayson and Richard Thomson have stressed that the brothel monotypes were 1971. In this image Picassio depicts Degas as an outsider in the brothel,
not political documents at all, but rather private images, shown only to Degas' watching, but not participating. Roy McMullen, Jean Adhemar and Francoise
close friends. 36 Eunice Lipton agrees, proposing that Degas' brothel monotypes Cachin have similarly interpreted Degas as a voyeur, often identifying the male-
served a more personal function, as preliminary sketches for Degas' publicly customer in the brothel monotypes as the artist himself. 41 Therefore, in the
exhibited images of women bathing or at their toilette. 37 Jean Sutherland Boggs opinion of Pablo Picasso and Vincent van Gogh, as well as Roy McMullen, Jean
and Richard Kendall's assertion that Degas was making a public statement Adhemar and Francoise Cachin, the brothel monotypes functioned as a kind of
through these monotypes is highly contested by Clayson, Thomson and Upton, substitute for the performance itself. Richard Thomson supports this reading by
citing that, by 1890, gossip was already circulating within the Parisian art world
who all agree that these images were more private, personal studies that Degas
about Degas' inadequacies as a lover. However, Thomson claims that Degas
showed only to a few friends, possibly using them as studies for more
deliberately public pieces.
38
Rubin 209.
39
James H. Rubin suggests that Degas may have been celibate. Rubin, 209. Jean
~utherland Boggs has quoted Roy McMullen as speculatively concluding that Degas was
Impotent. Boggs 296. While, B. Nicholson proposes that Degas was a homosexual. B.
34 Nicholson, "Degas as a Human Being, "Burlington Magazine vol. 5 no. 723 (June 1963)·
Boggs 296. Kendall 6-9. 239, I '
35
Kendall 6-9. 40
36 Quoted in: Clayson, Prostitution 164.
Thomson 117. Clayson, Prostitution 35. 41
37 McMullen 279-83. Jean Adhemar and Francoise Cachin, Degas: The Complete Etchings,
Eunice Lipton, Looking into Degas: Uneasy Images of Women and Modern Life
Lithographs and Monotypes(London: Thames and Hudson, 1974) 84.
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986) 168-171.
118 119
vwas, in fact, not merely an observer at the brothel, but that he relied on brothels scholars, such as Jean Sutherland Boggs and Benedict Nicolson, attempted to re-
as a comfortable outlet for his "fragile sexuality." 42 Whether Degas experienced examine Degas' view of women. However, the feminist critic Norma Broude feels
sex at the brothels directly, or merely vicariously through his drawings, the that these studies lacked conviction, sincerity, and persuasion, and this is why
brothels appear to have served as an outlet for Degas' rumored sexual the argument that maintained Degas' misogyny prevailed in the 1970s.
inadequacies. Norma Broude's 1982 study on Degas' alleged misogyny marks a pivotal
Another popular issue in scholarship regarding Degas' brothel point in the history of this debate. In her essay, Broude revealed that not all of
monotypes has been the influence of his alleged misogyny in his art. The notion Degas' contemporaries felt that Degas hated women, yet their comments have
been largely ignored in the twentieth century. 47 Broude also suggested that
of Degas' misogyny was first put forth in the late nineteenth-century by writers
Degas' depictions of women, which had for so long been considered cruel and
like Joris-Karl Huysmans, 43 and became widely accepted and rarely disputed. In
the late 1940s and 1950s, studies by scholars such as Denis Rouart and Camille unflattering, were actually active challenges to the period's artificial codes and
"cherished myths" regarding the role and position of women in society. 48
Mouclair emphasized the beast-like qualities of Degas' prostitutes and saw them
Similarly, Lillian Schacher! states that, by depicting women of the brothel without
as evidence of Degas' supposed misogyny.44 Before Norma Broude's study on
flattery, Degas was stripping away stifling, stereotyped, and idealized
Degas' misogyny in the early 1980s, most critics agreed with these claims,
conventions. She believes that, by showing women with swollen thick bodies and
accepting Degas' alleged hatred of women as an established fact. Few critics
drooping breasts, Degas was directly challenging the smooth, proportional nudes
expressed discomfort with this assertion, nor did they thoroughly evaluate its
source or validity. This belief is particularly evident in the work of Theodore Reff, of the academic Salon, favouring a more realistic, but by no means disparaging,
who, in 1976, wrote, "Degas' monotypes of houses of prostitution ... express a depiction of women. 49 Eunice Lipton also notes a feminist quality to the
monotypes that she considers unique to the nineteenth century. She reads the
profoundly cynical attitude towards women." 45 We can see modern examples of
this school of thought in the writings of Richard Thomson, published as recently images of women lying "indolently" on couches and masturbating, such as
as 1988, in which Thomson maintains that Degas' brothel monotypes "convey Relaxation, not as misogynistic, but rather as positive images of women
disgust, as if the artist wanted to distance himself from the unappealing "experiencing intense physical pleasure." 50 Linda Nochlin similarly sees
women." 46 This school of thought began to change in the early 1960s, as some monotypes, such as The Madame's Name Day, as positive depictions of homes
full of warmth and intimacy, a stark contrast to some of Degas' other works,
such as The Bellelli Family which feature a lack of interaction and affection
42
Thomson 101.
43
In riposte to a series of nudes exhibited by Degas at the 8th Impressionist Exhibition in
1886, the contemporary novelist and critic Joris-Karl Huysmans maintained that Degas had
personally intended to depict the women with "attentive cruelty and a patient hatred." If 47
Huysmans saw these images as debased and humiliated, we can only imagine what his For example, Georges Riviere wrote: "Degas enjoyed the company of women! He, who
reaction would have been to Degas' brothel monotypes. Carol M. Armstrong, Odd Man Out: often depicted them with real cruelty, derived great pleasure from being with them
Readings of the Work and Reputation of Edgar Degas (Chicago: Chicago University Press enjoyed their conversation and produced pleasing praises for them." Quoted in Broude:
1991), I Degas' Misogyny 226.
48
44
Quoted in: Janis xx. Broude, Degas' Misogyny230-45.
49
45
Reff 180-83. lillian Schacher!, Edgar Degas: Dancer and Nudes(Munich: Prestel, 1997) 74-78.
50
46
Thomson 117. Lipton 178.
120
... 121among the family members. 51 Therefore, despite the fact that Degas' monotypes
depict a house of scandal and debasement, some critics have seen these images
as more positive reflections of women, featuring a tender, warm, and decidedly
feminist perspective, rather than the misogynistic attitude so often prescribed to
Degas.
The scholarship on Degas' brothel monotypes covers a wide spectrum
of beliefs. There are opposing and irreconcilable differences in opinion on
whether the drawings are pro- or anti-regulationist, political or personal,
displayed or withheld, influenced or original, objective or subjective, latently or
blatantly sexual, and misogynist or feminist. In the midst of all this controversy
remains one solid, and unchanging fact: Degas' brothel monotypes, while
nebulous in meaning and intent, are fascinating and provocative images,
portraying the underbelly of Degas' contemporary society. Whether the portrayal
figure 1: Relaxation, Edgar Degas, c.1876-85.
is supportive, critical, or purely aesthetic is unclear, but it is clear that these
images have incited thought and debate in critics for well over a century, and, as
long as they are observed and addressed, they will remain provocative, elusive,
and stimulating.
figure 2: The Madame's Name Day, Edgar Degas, c.1879-80.
51
Nochlin 172.
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