Evanescence of an Artist's Model: Jules Lefebvre's *Chloé*
The nude *Chloé* (1875), by French artist Jules Joseph Lefebvre (1836–1911), is a much-loved Melbourne cultural icon, which has hung in the Young and Jackson Hotel since 1909. From that time on *Chloé* has been the subject of controversy and mythologising, particularly in relation to the identity of...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Index Journal
2020-03-01
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| Series: | Index Journal |
| Online Access: | https://index-journal.org/issues/identity/evanescence-of-an-artist-s-model-by-katrina-kell |
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| Summary: | The nude *Chloé* (1875), by French artist Jules Joseph Lefebvre (1836–1911), is a much-loved Melbourne cultural icon, which has hung in the Young and Jackson Hotel since 1909. From that time on *Chloé* has been the subject of controversy and mythologising, particularly in relation to the identity of the Parisian model who sat for the painting. This paper explores the untold past of *Chloé* and the reductive identities that have been inscribed on Lefebvre's artistic rendering of a nude female body. There are interesting echoes between class warfare in Paris antecedent to the artwork's creation, and *Chloé's* manifestation as mythic war maiden to generations of Australian servicemen. In 1875, France was still reverberating from its humiliating capitulation in the Franco-Prussian War, and the ensuing rise and brutal repression of the revolutionary Paris Commune by Versailles government troops that resulted in the deaths of up to 25,000 Parisians. Tensions between the bourgeois population of Paris and the proletariat, who had pinned their hopes on the Commune's egalitarian principles, festered during the period of post-war rebuilding and renewal. By interrogating the inter-class tensions in late-nineteenth-century Paris and how they may have influenced the details Lefebvre chose to reveal, and possibly conceal, this paper contributes new interpretations and understandings to one of Melbourne's most celebrated cultural icons. |
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| ISSN: | 2652-4740 |