Style and Art

Femme, femme, femme: Paintings of Women in French Society from Daumier to Picasso from the Museums of France. The exhibition, shown exclusively at NOMA, begins March 3, 2007 .

“The works in Femme, femme, femme are appearing together for the first and only time,” said E. John Bullard, director of the New Orleans Museum of Art. “We are extremely grateful to the nation of France for their support of NOMA and for their dedication to reviving the art community in New Orleans.”

“This exhibition represents our dedication to maintaining the New Orleans art community as it rebuilds following Hurricane Katrina,” said Ambassador Levitte. “We encourage world citizens to visit NOMA to view this one-time-only grouping of some of France’s best-known works.”

With paintings by a wide range of artists, including Manet, Degas and Toulouse-Lautrec, Femme, femme, femme celebrates the emergence of the modern woman. This evolution of women’s roles is grouped by several themes ranging from domestic duties and intellectual pursuits, from recreation to rural labor.

Femme, femme, femme begins with timeless images of domestic life in the family circle from birth to death. Opening with the quiet routines of motherhood, the domestic section includes images of maternal devotion that are both poignant and familiar. The theme of the family circle continues with celebrations of the joy and promise of courtship and marriage. The cycle is completed with the mourning of loved ones lost.

In the 19th century it became more common for women to work outside the home. Femme, femme, femme explores this modern phenomenon as it affected all social strata. Women of the lower classes worked in the cities as laundresses, café waitresses and sold vegetables and flowers in the market. In the country they harvested fruit, gleaned in the fields and helped the fishermen. This section of the exhibition includes paintings by artists such as Jean-Baptiste Corot and Honoré Daumier.

Another section of the exhibition displays images of the leisure activities enjoyed by women of all social classes. There are images of glamorous women attending balls and the opera or meeting for tea in fashionable pastry shops. Women of all classes enjoyed the new entertainments and popular diversions including cafés, the theater and dances, as well as the seashore and quiet idylls in the countryside. They attracted the attention of artists as diverse as James Tissot, Gustave Caillebotte, Kees van Dongen and Pablo Picasso.

The exhibition also explores the emergence of women in the professional spheres. There are portraits of leaders in arts and culture such as the actress Sarah Bernhardt, the painter Rosa Bonheur and writer George Sand, as well as a self-portrait by the influential female Impressionist Berthe Morisot.

Finally, modern women found an emerging independence in activities we now take for granted. They drove cars, rode bicycles and played sports. Femme, femme, femme reminds viewers that as the 20th century dawned, these were revolutionary acts.