Frolicking nymphs by Paul-Albert Laurens

The Sea Nymphs

At at time when the portrayal of nude women as such was not permissable in public display, simply ensuring that the subject had a classical or mythological theme magically transformed them into an acceptable subject.

Perhaps the best (or worst) example of this is the painting The Sea Nymphs by Paul-Albert Laurens.  Really there is nothing even faintly classical about this painting (no chained Prometheus in evidence, for example); it is simply two naked girls at the edge of the sea.  Not that this is a bad thing!

Catching the Waves

In fact Laurens must have thought it was a good enough thing to produce a very similar painting Catching the Waves.  The fact that this painting does not rejoice in a classical sounding title and that the young ladies are physicallly in much closer contact suggests that it was painted for a gentleman collector rather than for public display although, it has to be said, that the French were rather more relaxed about such subjects than the British.

Paul-Albert Laurens, self portrait with family (1923)

Paul-Albert Laurens (1870-1934) was the son of the painter Jean-Paul Laurens (1838-1921).  His younger brother, Jean-Pierre Laurens (1875-1932) became a painter too.  Laurens, who was a friend of Andre Gide, later was professor of drawing at the Polytechnic School from 1919 until 1938.  Like a number of other Franch artists he did a lot of work on camouflage schemes during World War 1.

More pictures by Paul Emile Bécat

Here are a couple more nice illustrations by Paul Emile Bécat (1885-1960).  The picture above exudes la vie bohème as our floppy-haired and, yes, fully dressed, protaganist unveils his beautifully lit mademoiselle.  Whether he is a starving artist or a starving poet (he looks more like the latter) in a garret he has, at least tempted (or paid for) someone to join in him bed. 

This is a good illustration, too, of women's underwear at the beginning of the last century (and before) when ladies drawers were still open underneath.  This must have made them a lot more entertaining to explore!

In the second picture the couple depicted have shed all their clothes so, obviously they are in a warm environment at least!  Bécat has done a lovely job on the lady's posterior here and put it almost dead centre in the picture so that your eye goes straight there!

Bécat, although most famous for his erotic works, was a serious artist studying under Gabriel Ferrier and  François Flameng.  The latter later became famous for his controversially unheroic military paintings of the First World War and was a friend of Sargent and Gérôme.  Bécat first exhibited at the Salon de Paris in 1913 and in 1920 won the Prix de Rome.  The Prix de Rome was a prestigious award, first granted in 1663, which paid for the winner to study for three to five years at the French Academy in Rome, which from 1803 was located in the Villa Medici.

Young girl seated (goauche) (1934)

In 1932, he won a travel grant to French Equatorial Africa, visiting the Congo and Oubangui Chari.  In 1934, he returned to Africa  visiting Sudan, the Ivory Coast, Senegal, and Mauritania and produced a number of goauche or pastel paintings.  Most of his erotic illustrations, usually done in drypoint, were done between 1936 and 1959.  He is also well known for his portraits, especially of French writers.

In this rather haunting picture he combines his portraiture skills with his work featuring couples, to striking effect.

More Bécat another time.

Ready for bed

We like this anonymous French etching of a pyjama clad gentleman and his glowingly naked young lady.  She is all abandoned, with her long flowing hair and naughtily questing hand, whereas he looks like he can't believe his luck.  Somehow we don't think that they are husband and wife!

Pyjamas (or pajamas) were originally lightweight trousers worn in South Asia (from the Persian word peyjama meaning "foot garment").  The word and the garment first came to Britain from our Imperial colonies in the region in about 1870.

Triple P stopped wearing pyjamas when he went to university, where he quickly hooked up with  a lovely young redhead who he had met at interview some nine months before.  She liked Triple P not to wear anything at bedtime and we preferred her the same way.  It is amusing to see, in Triple P's current favourite TV show, Mad Men, the couples wearing pyjamas and nightdresses.  We forget, in our temperature controlled  way, how people used to dress up for bed and, indeed sex, until really quite recently.

French Drawing of two girls

Here is a nice Art Deco period pen and ink on pencil drawing of two friendly, be-stockinged ladies.  We don't know who the artist is but the picture was produced in France about 1930.

A few more French girl/girl pictures...

Agent Triple P is off to Africa for ten days or so and so won't be posting for a while.  We shall leave you with a couple of French photographs from the twenties or thirties of some young ladies appreciating themselves in each other's company.

Lesbian scenes by Achille Devéria

Illustration for the opening scene of Gamiani, ou deux nuits d'excès

In an earlier post we presented a couple of illustrations for the nineteenth century erotic novel Gamiani, ou deux nuits d'excès (1833) by twentieth century artist Suzanne Ballivet: link.   Here are a couple more illustrations for the same novel but this time they are from much earlier (around 1848) and are by Achille Devéria (1800-1857)

 Achille Jacques-Jean-Marie Devéria was a French painter and lithographer.  Devéria's paintings were mainly in watercolour but it was his lithographic illustrations and portraits that he was really famous for.   At about the time he produced these illustrations he was appointed director of the Bibliothèque Nationale's department of engravings.

He produced quite a few erotic lithographs; most of which feature men and women. However, the novel for which these illustrations were done features quite a few lesbian interludes including the opening scene where the hero spies upon two women having sex.  Erotic illustrations of lesbian activity were comparatively rare in this period; most erotica focussing on men and women.

Although the pictures are quite lively we don't think that they show any sign of having been done from life as anatomically they are rather curious!

Girl/girl French postcards from the 1920s and 1930s

Anonymous 1936

Nudity was much more acceptable in France than elsewhere in Europe in the twenties and thirties and the stages of Parisian nightclubs such as the Moulin Rouge and the Folies-Bergère and dance halls were awash with half naked and even naked dancing girls; something that wasn't seen in Britain for another thirty years or more. 

From 1936

These dancing girls often supplemented their incomes by posing for photographers producing erotic postcards. 

From 1934

 

This is not to say that these postcards were freely available but in the right (or wrong) area of Paris, such as Pigalle, Rue Saint-Dennis and the Madeleine, they could be bought easily although most were bought by mail order.  Street vendors sold them in the red light districts carefully hidden underneath their overcoats in the prototypical "dirty postcards" way.

 

In the nineteen twenties and thirties the cards got spicier, in many ways reflecting the more assertive attitudes of women themselves following the Great War. 

There was a great sapphic movement in Paris at this time as independent women experimented with relationships with each other as well as men (these bisexual flappers were known as garçonne). 

This was increasingly reflected in the cards themselves which, began to not just show a number of naked women posing together but interacting with each other to erotic effect.

 

From the point of the today's viewer the girls from nineteen thirties cards look more modern; the old style, dramatic make-up needed for the old plate cameras was replaced by a more natural look which the modern lightweight cameras could capture. 

Circa 1935

No-one has ever tried to draw up a list of the photographers, publishers or models involved in this industry.  Part of the fun for collectors is trying to identify models in different pictures and the year that the photographs were taken.  There were many different postcards and only a few of each survive today.  Collecting these postcards has become a popular hobby and, as a result, prices have rocketed.

From a series printed in 1935

Most of these cards were done as silver prints on baryte paper using gelatin-bromide plates.  They were printed by the kilometer on rotary presses on pare fed from rolls which allowed true mass production.

Circa 1935

We will return to these vintage images another time; firstly, when we look at the sub-genre of girl/girl spanking pictures in the twenties and thirties.

Girl/girl pictures from French postcards: 1890s to 1920s

Typical of the classical nudes of the 1880s and 1890s

Most French photographs of nude women, whilst "naughty" by the standards of the day look rather sweet and innocent today.  Certainly, explicit "hardcore" material was available from the very early years of photography but most of it just included naked ladies; in itself a shocking thing to most people at the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century.

A little more playful from c 1910

The only nude women most people would have seen would have been classical painting and sculpture if they lived in cities.  Initially the photographers copied this style so as to take advantage of the outraged cry of pornographers throughout history: " But its Art!"

circa 1900

Otherwise men wouldn't have seen their first naked woman until their wedding night and maybe not even then.  Going to bed naked is a comparatively recent development and most people would have worn nightclothes and had sex with the lights off; the experience would not have been a visual one. 

circa 1910

It was the huge rise in popularity of photographic postcards at the beginning of the 1900s that saw an equivalent rise in the mass production of risque pictures. 

circa 1915

Most of these cards were produced anonymously.  The fact that they were widely available didn't mean that the authorities, or the Church, approved of them and many photographers, distributors and salesmen risked getting their stocks confiscated.

circa 1918

Because of the anonymous nature and myriad publishers and editions, dating these cards is very difficult.  The best guideline is hair styles.  Long hair was popular up until the first world war.  In the 1920s much shorter hair became popular until by the thirties the styles were still short but a little looser.

1920s

The level of naughtiness, particularly with girl/girl cards is another indicator.  The older cards retain the faux classical looks and poses.  After the First World War the girls are more likely to be seen interacting with each other.  By the nineteen twenties and thirties implied or demonstrably lesbian poses were more common.

1920s

Postcards during this period were rather like e-mails today with the postal services delivering millions of postcards every year as people exchanged their news.  In 1911, for example, 123 million postcards were published in France alone. 

Late twenties

 

Picture postcards featuring naked girls first appeared at the turn of the century and created the sort of problems that the internet did a few years ago as regards "objectionable material", especially concering the transmission of this material across national borders where different standards applied. 

Part of a series from the late twenties

In France, there were few issues as regards the sending of these initial artistic nudes through the post (c.f. the issues that the publishers of Playboy and Penthouse had with the postal services in the US and Britain over fifty years later).  In reality most of the naughty Bristol board 31/2" x 51/2" cards were bought for collections rather than to post.  Many of these were produced for the use of artists who had no access to models (or at least, that was the initial justification) and they featured coy "classical" poses. 

Full length version of one from above

 

The slightly naughtier cards appeared later and thrived during the First World War when they were very popular with the soldiers on the front.  Publishers started to issue short series of five or ten cards telling a little story or showing the same model or models in different views.

These postcards continued to be made until World War Two. Next time we will look at some from the nineteen thirties.

Lesbian Images by Suzanne Ballivet

From Gamiani, ou deux nuits d'excès

Today we look at two sets of illustrations by the French artist Suzanne Ballivet. She illustrated many books but these come from her work for two erotic works Gamiani, ou deux nuits d'excès and Les Chanson de Bilitis.  The Gamiani illustrations are in red chalk the earlier Bilitis ones are the subtly coloured ones.

From Les Chanson de Bilitis

Not very many women produce erotic art; in fact Triple P can only think of a handful.  Partly this may be because women's erotic sense is more attuned to the literary but mostly, we suspect, women artists of any kind have always struggled for recognition in a creative world which, until comparatively recently, tended to be run by large male dominated art institutions. 

Partly it may be to dowith the expectations of what was appropriately feminine. Even a fine artist like Mary Cassatt felt that she had to confine herself to subjects appropriate to a woman, such as children and other domestic scenes.



So the work of Suzanne Ballivet is rare and unusual.  Today we are just going to look at some of her lesbian themed work as that will be our focus on this site for the next week or so.  In due course we will return to her other works featuring couples of the opposite sex.

She was born in the 7eme arrondissement of Paris, the daughter of a photographer from Montpellier in 1904.  She attended the Beaux Arts de Montpellier in 1922 and then began to exhibit her work in drawing shows.  She married in 1925 and had a son, Michel, in 1927. 

In 1941 she got divorced and moved to Paris but them moved to Nice in 1943 where she illustrated her first book; an edition of Pierre Louÿs  book Les Chanson de Bilitis (1894). 

This is a collection of erotic poems which purport to be about the life of Bilitis, a courtesan who is a contemporary of Sappho. 

Louÿs claimed that the poems had been found on the walls of a tomb in Cyprus but in fact they were virtually all (he re-uses some lines from Sappho herself) his creation. 

At the time many people were convinced that the poems were, indeed, the long-lost work of a classical poetess.  Debussy set some of them to music.  It would become a very popular book with lesbian readers as the second part of the book Elegies focuses very much on lesbian love.

Other illustrations for books followed including  "Les Aventures du Roi Pausole" in 1945. She returned to Paris in 1946 after the end of World War 2 and produced illustrations for many more books including: Longus's "Daphnis et Chloe" (1946), Anatole France's "Thais" (1948), Colette's "Claudine à l'école" (1950) and "Oeuvres" (1962) by Marcel Pagnol.

Most of her erotic works date from the nineteen fifties.  She produced a series of illustrations in red chalk for the novel Gamiani, ou deux nuits d'excès (1833) which, whilst anonymous is believed to have been written by Alfred de Musset. 

The lesbian heroine, Countess Gamiani, who is first seen disporting in her bed with a young girl called, appropriately, Fanny, is believed to have been based on de Musset's lover George Sand.  later they are joined by a man and spend the time describing sexual adventures from their past.

Her earlier illustrations for Bilitis are softly feminine. Her sweet-faced, smooth-pussied women are presented in poses that show them entwined with each other in a lovely entanglement of soft limbs.

Her later pictures for Gamiani are less stylised  and more explicit.  The women are drawn in the period of the book as shown by their hair styles and the background furniture and decor.  Unlike the the gentle suggestion of the Bilitis illustrations here we have visible labia being probed by  fingers and tongues.

At the age of 64 she remarried and moved to the west of Paris. Later in her life she suffered from articular rheumatism which stopped her drawing and painting. She died at St. Aunès Herault, on June 15, 1985 at the age of eighty-one.