courtesans

25 Oct

Posted at 03:16h in art history, courtesans, Metropolitan Museum, Shady Ladies, Women's History by
This is Mme. Du Barry--one of the most famous courtesans and royal mistresses of all time! Du Barry was the last of Louis XV's official mistresses. Louis (it seems) adored her because she was so beautiful that she revived his flagging sex life. She ended her life on the guillotine, but here she is long before, dressed in the 18th century's version of 'casual Friday': a simple gingham dress and straw hat--a style favored by Marie Antoinette, who famously loathed Mme. Du Barry and the racy side of French court life that she represented.

12 Sep

Posted at 23:58h in art history, courtesans, Metropolitan Museum, Shady Ladies, Women's History by
People often ask me how I came up with the idea of giving art history tours about courtesans. There is a short version of that story and a long one. The short one would start with the fact that I have given art history tours of the Metropolitan Museum for a long time. I gave them for students when I was teaching at Columbia and NYU. Last spring I started giving a gay history tour of the Met, which we call "Gay Secrets of the Metropolitan."  And as I gave it, I started noticing how many paintings of courtesans there are in the museum.

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