скандал был
The romantic appeal of her story was enough to cement her reputation within the French memory as a woman whose charisma and beauty was something to be admired. Of course, what the story conveniently leaves out are the many political intricacies that led to the
Thermidorian Reaction and the desires of the Jacobin leaders to save their own necks. Also not mentioned are the private problems between Cabarrus and Jean-Lambert Tallien, with the latter losing interest in her quickly until his realization that associating with her softened the harsh public opinion of him. Undoubtedly, they were both clever opportunists. The romantic legend was, in any case, instilled in the public’s mind, and Cabarrus recognized that her relevance was dependent upon maintaining it. As a ci-devant woman with a politically murky past, Cabarrus’s agency beyond her looks and charm was limited and precarious. Notre-Dame de Thermidor was not about to
risk losing the momentum of her fame. In 1796, two years after her release from La Force, she commissioned a portrait by Jean-Louis Laneuville (Figure 28).
Laneuville was a portrait painter who had been a student of David and, like his mentor, was highly political. Laneuville’s portraits conform to a similar format: the sitter is presented alone in his or her setting; several objects are present which indicate the sitter’s reason for prominence; and the sitter confidently meets the viewer’s gaze (Figure 29).
Cabarrus seems to have been the only woman to commission a portrait from Laneuville. The choice of a political artist like Laneuville seem san odd choice for a woman known for her beauty and fashion; the commission speaks to a certain confidence in the figuring of her self-representation. In her delving examination of this portrait, art historian Amy Freund points out that, had Cabarrus truly wished for a painting which highlighted her feminine and patriotic virtue, she would not have had to look far. There were a number of portraitists who were particularly popular with women seeking sophisticated renderings, as well as thirteen female artists who had been exhibited in the Salon of 1795.115Instead, Thérésa Cabarrus opted for a portraitist whose clientele had almost exclusively been radical Jacobin men. Cabarrus’s commission of this portrait, titled The Citoyenne Tallien in a Prison Cell at La Force, Holding Her Hair Which Has Just Been Cut, was scandalous and assertive enough solely for the fact that it depicted a woman inserting herself into the patriarchal narrative of the Revolution. Doubly unseemly was the nature of the prison portrait, a genre considered so shocking in the years following the Reign of Terror that the portrait had to be removed from the Salon of 1796 due to the hysteria it apparently provoked.
The focal point of the painting is the shorn hair; a condemned citizen’s hair was a lasting reminder of the Terror. Following in the same tradition as Catholic saint relics, the hair of those guillotined was often preserved in mourning jewelry or embroideries, when it was not, less sentimentally, sold to hairdressers and wigmakers. The tress Cabarrus clutches served not only as a signifier of the feminine corporeality that had made her famous, but also as a recollection of her impending execution - the audience could fill in the rest of the story them selves.The Salon of 1796 coincided with the first accounts of Cabarrus wearing the coiffure à la Titus, along with more revealing dresses.
Opprobrious and gossipy pamphlets circulated around Paris, asserting a believed connection between the risqué fashion of Cabarrus and what was perceived as the moral decay of France following the Thermidorian Reaction.118Her self-professed claims to have been a factor in the overthrow of Robespierre did not win her any points with loyal Republicans, although she was similarly accused of extreme Jacobinism from the right.119 In reality, Cabarrus’s political convictions were never too radical on either end of the spectrum. As the Laneuville portrait demonstrates, elevating her visibility was more important to Cabarrus then adhering to a political agenda. No specific political message is conveyed in her prison portrait, though an anti-Robespierre statement is clear enough. In Directory France, declaring oneself in opposition to the politics of Robespierre was not a risky move after Thermidor. Paralleling this noncommittal - yet pronounced - approach, Cabarrus had composed several public addresses in 1794 while in Bordeaux. In a public speech, then in two letters she addressed to the Committee for Public Safety and the National Convention, she had asked for more inclusion of women in the affairs of the Republic. This position was safe, and certainly not radical enough to have her sent to the guillotine like Olympe de Gouges. Rather, Cabarrus’s speech was a public announcement of her Republican beliefs, just in case she should ever be accused otherwise. The Laneuville painting echoes the same middle-of-the-road approach. Both the public address and the prison portrait could only have been considered “radical” by those who opposed any political expressions from women regardless of the content, of whom there were many.
Usurping Masculinity:
The Gender Dynamics of the coiffure à la Titus in Revolutionary France
Jessica Larson
Advised by Professor Susan Siegfried
A thesis submitted to fulfill therequirement for the degree of
BACHELOR OF ARTS WITH HONORS
THE DEPARTMENT OF THE HISTORY OF ART
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
April 20, 2013
#ВеликаяФранцузскаяРеволюция