I then moved on to explore this topic during the 19th and 20th century. I mainly focused on artists working in Paris at the time; which was a hub for prostitution.
“Prostitution caused the end of the French empire; as men lost their minds because there were too many whores into which the fortunes of Paris diminished” – Zola, French Literary
The Medical Inspection by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
Collage of research imaged
Here’s a small pictorial essay I did on these artists; Picasso, Marcel Duchamp, Yves Klein, Courbet, Klimt, Egon Schiele. I think these images get the point across well. In each one the woman is treated or portrayed as a sexual object. It also shows the different ways that the artists tackled their subject: performance, photography, rough sketch, drawing, realistic and abstracted oil paintings.
Degas, Prostitute seated in an armchair (1876-1877)
Balthus as photographed by Man Ray
Yves Klein
Duchamp with Eve Babitz, in preparation for an exhibition at the Pasadena Museum of Art in 1963.
Paris being it’s ultra sophisticated self in the 1960′s.
Lara Manara 