Félix-Jacques Antoine Moulin (1802-1875)

Félix-Jacques Antoine Moulin (1802-1875), French photographer.

Félix-Jacques Antoine Moulin, Nude woman in colored daguerreotype, circa 1851–1854

Félix-Jacques Antoine Moulin, Recumbent female nude, Amélie, 1852–1853

Julien Mandel (1893–1961)

Julien Mandel (1893-1961), photographer.

Julien Mandel, Alice Prin AKA Kiki de Montparnasse

Julien Mandel, Alice Prin AKA Kiki de Montparnasse

Julien Mandel, Alice Prin AKA Kiki de Montparnasse

Julien Mandel, Akt mit Schuhen

Marcel Châtelain (active 1898-1930)

Marcel Châtelain (known as Eugène, active 1898-1930)

Marcel Châtelain, Femmes nues, dans un riad

Marcel Châtelain, Jeune femme à la cigarette, vers 1904

Marcel Châtelain, Nu au jasmin, vers 1904

orientalist photography

Orientalism was one of the more interesting artistic manifestations of the late 19th century. I have no desire to rehash any of the political arguments on this subject since I dislike the politicisation of art. Suffice to say that in the late 19th century European, British and American artists were obsessed by the exotic.

They were also obsessed by the erotic. The combination of the exotic and the erotic always makes for a heady brew.

Artists who flocked to North Africa and the Middle East (and sometimes further east) did not just take canvasses and their paintbrushes with them. They also took cameras.

Algérie, Jeunes Femmes Photochrome originale d'époque, Circa 1890

Algérie, Bédouines du Sud, Photochrome originale d'époque, Circa 1890

Algérie, Femmes Mauresques, Photochrome originale d'époque, Circa 1890

Algérie, Jeune Fille du Sud, Photochrome originale d'époque, Circa 1890

Algérie. Jeunes Femmes Mauresques. Photochrome originale d'époque. Circa 1891

Nu au jasmin, vers 1904

Afrique du nord au repos

Une belle fille du sud

Jeune mauresque nue

Types d'Orien

Jean Agélou (1878-1921)

Jean Agélou (1878-1921), French photographer.

Jean Agélou, Fernande

Jean Agélou, Fernande

Jean Agélou, Serie 034 No 2

Jean Agélou, Serie 034 No 3

Jean Agélou, Seated nude smoking

Jean Agélou, Seated nude female, circa 1920

Jean Agélou, Female nude posed under a garden arch

Gaudenzio Marconi (1841-1885)

Gaudenzio Marconi (1841-1885), Italian photographer. His photographs were intended to be used by art students. From the start photography’s status as an art form was a subject of debate and disagreement but there were major artists who used such photographic studies as supplements to the use of live models. Whether these photographic studies qualify as art works is perhaps also debatable but clearly they were very much in the style of fashionable painting of the era.

Are they art or erotica? It’s fair to say that they were intended as art, and function as well in that capacity as the paintings of the average second-tier painter. There is of course something about photography that makes nudity seem more graphic. Partly it’s because photographs showed things that painters tended to be coy about showing, such as female pubic hair. Which made nude photographs more shocking, especially to those who were uncomfortable with the idea that women had genitals. So photography did have a tendency to make nudity seem somehow less respectable.

And when you look at a painting of a nude you can perhaps convince yourself that you’re looking at an allegorical figure or the goddess Venus. Photographs make it a bit more obvious that one is looking at an actual nude woman. Naked goddesses are one thing, but a photograph of an actual naked woman is something else.

Photography forced people to ask themselves whether they really thought that the naked female body was obscene. For some people the answer was yes.

Gaudenzio Marconi, Female nude with pictorial backdrop 1870-1879

Gaudenzio Marconi, Nude Study

Gaudenzio Marconi, Nudo accademico femminile con violino

Gaudenzio Marconi, Nudo femminile, circa 1870

Gaudenzio Marconi, Nudes and cherubs (putti)

Gaudenzio Marconi, Nude Study

Alexandre Jacques Chantron (1842-1918)

Alexandre Jacques Chantron, French painter and photographer.

Alexandre Jacques Chantron, Danae, 1891

Alexandre Jacques Chantron, Femme au bilboquet, 1895

Alexandre Jacques Chantron, The Echo

Alexandre Jacques Chantron, Diana At Her Bath

Alexandre Jacques Chantron, Apres la faute

Alexandre Jacques Chantron, Le premier miroir, 1906

La Sylphe

La Sylphe. Date unknown, source unknown, but a photograph I'm quite fond of.