Liberty Leading the People: Women as Objects in 19 th Century France Callin Cherry AT 310: Art & Architecture of Paris Dr. Amanda Lahikainen 9 May, 2014
Cherry 1 In art depicting women, there is a disturbing link between being sensual -- or sexual -- and holding power; if the female subject is powerful, she must also appeal to the viewer sexually. In being visually appetizing, the subject loses her power as an individual and becomes an object. She is fetishized for her sexuality rather than respected for the talents that made her powerful. This phenomenon is clearly illustrated in Eugène Delacroix s 1830 painting, Liberty Leading the People. This history painting, created at the peak of the July Monarchy in France, features as its key subject Liberty. As a sexualized democratic value, she is the sole female form in a group of French rebels, motivating the represented men toward victory. Reduced to only an icon, Delacroix s Liberty illustrates the fetishization of women in power that lay in 19th century European culture and in the artist s specific desires as well. Western art of all mediums has been created and viewed from a widely male perspective for hundreds of years. In fact, this male gaze has been criticized by many recent art historians for its sexualization of women and the female form. Laura Mulvey, a film theorist, argues that the male gaze is a response to men being threatened by women and their lack of a penis. 1 Thus, men acting as society portray women in imagery in two ways: by fetishizing their image, or by devaluing their character. 2 According to Mulvey, this objectification forces women into the role 1 Laura Mulvey, Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema, Screen 16 (1975): 8 2 Ibid., 14
Cherry 2 of bearer of meaning, not maker of meaning. 3 Delacroix s Liberty is a prime target for the male gaze; she bears meaning, but she creates nothing new. Standing in a pose meant to be a step in a triumphant march, Liberty s empowering nature is weakened by her exposed breasts, seductively revealed by a blouse that either slipped from her shoulders or was torn away in the fervor of battle. Mary Wiseman in analyzing Liberty Leading the People suggests that the primary figure s nude anatomy does not illustrate an identity to Liberty, but rather denotes her status as an object of male desire -- not just as a female body but also as the tangible form of liberty and freedom. 4 Much like Mulvey, Wiseman s theory that audiences tend to interpret-as-a-man plays into this idea of fetishizing women and their roles in society. 5 In fetishizing, society turns women into objects, purely designed to be looked at using the male gaze of sexual desire. It is this act of objectification that displaces women from the realm of the real and everyday. 6 Liberty is not necessarily a fetishized woman, however -- she is a fetishized idea. Her female silhouette and her breasts, when interpreting-as-a-man, create a carnal wanting that mirrors the human wanting men hold for liberty itself. Despite Liberty s first impression as a feminist symbol, she in reality poses a dual meaning that is equally oppressive to her female audience. 3 Ibid., 7 4 Mary Wiseman, Gendered Symbols, Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 53, no. 3 (1998): 245 5 Ibid., 244 6 Ibid., 242
Cherry 3 She is not a powerful woman, but a symbol of men s sexual and intellectual desires. She is, disappointingly to the female observer, only an object. Delacroix himself fetishized the idea of powerful women in his life. In his journal, he describes the dynamics in his ideal marriage: A wife who is one s equal must be the greatest blessing on earth, and I would rather she were my superior in every way than the reverse. 7 This contrasts heavily with the concept marriage in his lifetime, where men were considered superior. Despite this desire to have a dominant woman in his life, Delacroix contradicts himself by acting as a sexual predator in several cases that he chronicles in detail. In one such instance, he waits until his female friend, Lisette, is alone and presses his advances on her. When she rejects his kisses, Delacroix is really hurt, and pushes her away before storming off. 8 Liberty s possiblytorn blouse implies violence that mirrors Delacroix s predatory tendencies toward women. He wants a wife who is his superior, and yet expects women to yield to his propositions. In a draft of a letter to another lover, he confesses, I shall not feel guilty in possessing you. I should like to monopolize you entirely. 9 This idea of ownership, or to use his own term, monopoly, over an individual does not imply any sense of respect or reverence for a superior. One can see these contradictory sentiments of the opposite sex in Liberty Leading the People. Depicted as a 7 Eugène Delacroix, The Journal of Eugene Delacroix, trans. Lucy Norton (London: Phaidon, 2001), 15 8 Ibid., 2 9 Ibid., 9
Cherry 4 powerful woman, a superior femme, Liberty is still reduced to an object. She is still nothing more than a vehicle for the ideas represented previously. While superficially Delacroix desired a woman who was his superior, in reality, he only desired that object, that vehicle for his sexuality. In nineteenth-century France, the role of women in society fluctuated with the political atmosphere. As Delacroix worked and, specifically, as he created Liberty Leading the People, women held a contradictory position that praised them for their motherhood but refused them equality with their male peers. As Michèle Riot-Sarcey explains in an article, as the Virgin Mary and Immaculate Conception began to gain respect in Catholic dogma, there was a slight reconstruction of gender roles throughout Europe. The Church encouraged the image of women as saviors those who would rehabilitate the world morally. 10 Decades earlier, a movement of republican motherhood had reinforced the role of women as mothers whose sole responsibility was raising respectable, Christian children, specifically in the Puritan faith. In the nineteenth century, Catholicism adopted these beliefs to suit their purposes. The Saint-Simonians of France saw this as a chance to spread their utopian socialist beliefs. The group s women, however, found the chance to move their society toward gender equality. In a letter written by Angélique Arnaud to Caroline Simon, the Saint-Simonian women agree that this was the time to be 10 Michèle Riot-Sarcey, La Démocratie à 1 épreuve des femmes: Trois figures critiques du pouvoir 1830-1848 (Paris: Albin Michele, 1994), 155
Cherry 5 invested with a mission of social regeneration. 11 This movement was unfortunately unsuccessful; despite being portrayed as heroines for their femininity, women were forced away from gender equality, their demands rejected in French government and society. 12 This heroism is illustrated in Liberty, who acts as a symbol of patriotism and victory as she carries the French flag. She, like the women of the time in which she was painted, is given a superficial strength that only serves to entertain the viewer. Liberty Leading the People was intended to illustrate every level of French society fighting for liberation from their monarchy. Central in a crowd that includes children, former slaves, and aristocratic students marches Liberty, seminude and motivating the charge. She represents women in a way that is honest to the time and to Delacroix s desires: hypersexualized for her heroism, without identity or humanity. Her pose, while dominant, is graceful and ladylike, and her face is calm despite the clamor of battle. 13 Her bare breasts only act to further the fetishization of her character, creating a sexual desire in the male gaze bestowed to her. This depletes her intensity as a leader, purposefully depicting her in a graceful, feminine pose rather than imitating the gestures of a true charge into the barricades. 11 Angélique Arnaud, Une Correspondence Saint-Simonienne, ed. Bernadette Louis (Paris : côté-femmes, 1990), 35 12 Karen Offen, Women s History as French History, Journal of Women s History 8, no. 1 (1996): 153 13 Eugene Delacroix, Liberty Leading the People, 1830, oil on canvas, Musée du Louvre, Paris.
Cherry 6 Soon after Delacroix s Liberty came to life, François Rude depicted the same patriotic scene in a very different way. A stone relief on the Arc de Triomphe, Rude s Le Départ des Volontaires, also known as La Marseillaise, depicts a masculinized Liberty. Fully clad in armor, the winged woman leads the volunteer army to victory 14. Her pose is fierce as she flies above them, her facial expression lacking the silence and grace of Delacroix s Liberty, instead exclaiming a battle cry. Without a flag, she holds a sword in a combat position while the more feminine model by Delacroix holds her musket by the barrel, unprepared for attack. Rude s Liberty is the bold soldier to Delacroix s republican mother, creating a stark contrast in leadership and femininity. However, this archetype of bold and empowered women as national symbols is rare. France s Liberty, nicknamed Marianne, was partly inspired by the United States own Lady Liberty, also known as Columbia, whose persona first appeared in political cartoons of the early eighteenth century. Both American and French art clearly take inspiration from Delacroix s Liberty after the mid-nineteenth century, as seen in Bartholdi s iconic Statue of Liberty. Bartholdi, preferring to dress Liberty modestly, borrowed Delacroix s pose, but with the goal of 14 François Rude, Le Départ des Volontaires, 1836, stone relief, Arc de Triomphe d Étoile, Paris.
Cherry 7 celebrating peace between France and the United States, replaced the patriotic and wartime items in her hands with a universal flame of liberty and a book of law. 15 Howard Chandler Christy, on the other hand, embraces Delacroix s sexuality and pulls the aesthetic into the twentieth century for compelling World War I propaganda in his poster, Fight or Buy Bonds. Also borrowing Delacroix s pose, Christy s Liberty carries her nation s flag as well. Her gown follows the Classical wet-drapery style, clinging to her form in sheer layers, creating a subtle, Victorian sensuality. With the wind in her hair and her breasts thrust out, the passion of this Liberty is obvious and adds to the sensual, sexual tone of her characterization. 16 Any man would gladly volunteer to serve this version of America. Christy, like Delacroix, used sex to inspire his peers. Delacroix s Liberty is just as beautiful and carries an equivalent level of seduction as Christy s. They are, in many ways, parallels, nearly a century apart. Liberty Leading the People is a thrilling propagandist piece from a tumultuous period of French history. Liberty, the personification of France, rallies a volunteer army on the Parisian barricades with the cathedral of Notre Dame standing in the smoky background. She is iconic in her semi-nude form, carrying the French flag as it waves in the wind. Yet she is only an icon, 15 Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, The Statue of Liberty, 1875, copper and wrought iron, Statue of Liberty National Monument, New York. 16 Howard Chandler Christy, Fight or Buy Bonds Third Liberty Loan, 1917, lithograph, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C..
Cherry 8 exposed to the audience to signify men s desire for her as an idea and given little identity in her pose and facial expression. She reflects the fetishized ideals of the artist who rendered her, powerful yet anonymous, unlike male characters in the scene that carry identities such as bluecollar laborers and students. As an object, she lacks identity and she lacks true power, as is visible in the non-combative way she holds her musket despite standing in the midst of violence. Compared to other modern interpretations of Liberty, Delacroix s deliberate choices leave his Liberty passive and anonymous, a sexualized object rather than a character in a scene. Depictions from the same era and onward from separate continents all show figures who hold more personality and identity than Delacroix s rendition. Delacroix s Liberty lacks so much identity, in fact, that her peers do not even look at her as she leads them, but rather past her. Her leadership is worthless and superficial even to the other characters in the painting. Furthermore, Liberty Leading the People is a well-known work. Throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, it was used as a model for many art pieces, such as the Statue of Liberty and propagandist lithographs. In portraying his iconic woman in such a passive way, Delacroix continued sexist precedents in the way nations and ideas are personified in art. By reflecting nineteenth-century values and personal opinions in his Liberty, he also perpetuated those ideas in his world.
Figure 1: Liberty Leading the People, Eugène Delacroix (Wikipedia) Cherry 9
Figure 2: Le Départ des Volontaires, François Rude (Wikipedia) Cherry 10
Figure 3: Statue of Liberty, Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi (Wikipedia) Cherry 11
Figure 4: Fight or Buy Bonds -- Third Liberty Loan, Howard Chandler Christy (Library of Congress) Cherry 12
Cherry 13 Works Cited Arnaud, Angélique. Une Correspondance Saint-Simonienne. Edited by Bernadette Louis. Paris: côté-femmes, 1990. Bartholdi, Frédéric Auguste. The Statue of Liberty, copper and wrought iron, 1875 (Statue of Liberty National Monument, New York). Christy, Howard Chandler. Fight or Buy Bonds Third Liberty Loan, lithograph, 1917 (Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.). Delacroix, Eugène. The Journal of Eugène Delacroix. Translated by Lucy Norton. London: Phaidon, 2001. Delacroix, Eugène. Liberty Leading the People, oil on canvas, 1830 (Musée du Louvre, Paris). Mulvey, Laura. Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema. Screen 16 (1975): 6-18. Offen, Karen. Women s History as French History. Journal of Women s History 8, no. 1 (1996): 147-154. Riot-Sarcey, Michèle. La Démocratie à 1 épreuve des femmes: Trois figures critiques du pouvoir 1830-1848. Paris: Albin Michele, 1994. Rude, François. Le Départ des Volontaires, stone relief, 1836 (Arc de Triomphe d Étoile, Paris). Wiseman, Mary. Gendered Symbols. Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 53, no. 3 (1998): 241-249.