Woman Combing Her Hair : Rossetti and Courbet

TANITA Hiroyuki

doi:10.20631/bigaku.36.1_55

Bibliographic Information

Other Title

髪を梳く女たち : ロセッティの「レイディ・リリス」とクールベの「ジョーの肖像」をめぐって
カミオスクオンナタチロセッティノレイディリリストクールベ

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Description

With the intention of revealing artistic exchange between England and France in the late 19th century, the resemblances between Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Gustave Courbet have long been the subject of discussion among interested scholars, based on the similarity of composition found in Rossetti's "Lady Lilith" (1864-73) and Courbet's "Portrait of Jo" (1865-66). To give some examples, Mario Praz refers to the influence of the latter to the former, and Alastair Grieve expands his study from the opposite point of view. The author intends to add some more contribution to this point. Overlooking the activities of Rossetti from late 1850s to 1865, we find several works concentrating on the image of 'a woman combing her hair'. Moreover, his pencil esquisse for "Lady Lilith" shows, evidently, the elaboration of the final composition. Therefore, this work should be considered as the result of artist's own achievement. As for the Courbet's, with the knowledge of his staying in Trouville with James M. Whistler, a good friend of Rossetti, and Jo, Whistler's mistress, in the autumn of 1865, it is quite natural to conclude that the similarity in question cannot be a mere coincidence. Thus, our conclusion : the influence was from Rossetti to Courbet.

Journal

Aesthetics

Aesthetics 36 (1), 55-67, 1985

The Japanese Society for Aesthetics