COLLECTION NAME:
Undergraduate Thesis Collection
Record
Title:
Seeing the Prostitute: The Gaze in Manet's Olympia
Creator:
Patterson, Savannah M.
Subject:
Thesis (B.F.A.) -- Art History
Subject:
Savannah College of Art and Design -- Department of Art History
Rights:
Copyright is retained by the authors or artists of items in this collection, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.
Abstract:
"This thesis considers Édouard Manet's Olympia, a notorious representation of a prostitute, to understand how patriarchal standards defined art practices in 19th century France. This study addresses how the theory of the male gaze can be applied to Manet's painting, a product of patriarchal constructions in art practice and display. Despite the potential for subversion with Manet's subject, the work continues the established trope of a male viewer consuming a female subject. Reviewing similar works by Manet affords insight into the use of the gaze in his modern subjects, as his work subverts the conventional nude painting methods and subjects that appeared over the years in the Paris Salon. The spectacle surrounding Olympia provides insight into the contemporary opinions on class, society, and prostitution. Manet's paintings center around spaces of modernity that instilled gendered restraints and expectations upon women, especially prostitutes. The application of feminist scholarship provides nuanced insight into the gendered spaces in which Olympia was developed and consumed in. Overall, the restrictions and judgments placed on women's bodies in the nineteenth century have a lasting impact into society today: the study of the past has the potential to identify and dissolve current patriarchal restraints." -- Abstract
Publisher:
Savannah, Georgia: Savannah College of Art and Design
Date:
2021-02
Date Submitted:
1 online resource: 1 PDF (Thesis, 44 pages, color illustrations)