A young woman, posing naked in a classical attitude, against a square column in a photographic studio. Photograph, ca.1890/1910.

  • Hana Studios Ltd, London
Date:
[between 1890 and 1910?]
Reference:
529642i
Part of:
The Fallaize Collection.
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About this work

Description

The model's body is entirely powdered white, to appear like a marble statue, her g-string has been retouched out of the photograph. The same model is also shown in 528638i. "Barely discernible fleshings--body stockings made of some gossamer fabric--clothes both and identified both the pose plastique artiste and Miss Viola Hamilton (clearly a celebrity in her own time). Though their erotic charge is highly diluted a hundred years later, these photographs were probably marketed and collected as prize examples of the lovely, living female form and/or mementos of the performers' stage acts. As a genre the pose plastique is related to the tableau vivant with the important difference that the performers appear to be naked, hence the other term used to describe this type of performance, "clothed nudity". On stage the pose plastique artistes would strike and hold motionless poses derived from famous sculptures or paintings. As long as the performers did not move, or only gradually shifted from one pose to another, the spectacle could be deemed Art. Audiences enjoyed the sensation of 'paintings come to life' and 'living sculptures'. Sculptural qualities were emphasised and enhanced. Any hint of naughtiness was well filtered. Fleshings covered body hair and smoothed out imperfections. Genitalia and nipples disappeared. A dusting of powder overall including the hair completed the illusion. In these examples the artistes prop themselves against a rather worn and dirty piece of studio furniture, a wooden box marbled to suggest a neoclassical plinth. The plasticising treatment is carried further, in the hairstyle of the unidentified performer and in Viola Hamilton's garland of flowers and flowing draperies. [...]"—Virginia Dodier, in Exposed, loc. cit.

Publication/Creation

London ([22 Bedford Street Strand]) : Hana Studios Ltd, [between 1890 and 1910?]

Physical description

1 photograph : photoprint ; image 18.2 x 13.5 cm

Lettering

The lettering is in a studio stamp, embossed in the lower right-hand corner

Reference

Wellcome Collection 529642i

References note

Alison Smith (ed.), Exposed: the Victorian nude, London 2001, no. 57, p. 126

Exhibitions note

Exhibited in 'Exposed: the Victorian nude' at Tate Britain, London, 1 November 2001-27 January, 2002; Haus der Kunst, Munich, 1 March-2 June, 2002; Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York, 6 September, 2002-5 January, 2003; Kobe City Museum, Kobe, February-May 2003; Geidai Museum (University Art Museum), Tokyo, June-August 2003

Notes

This work is untitled: the title has been supplied by the cataloguer.

Ownership note

Originally collected by British anthropologist Edwin Nichol Fallaize (1877-1957). Purchased by Capt. L.W.G. Malcolm in 1934, on behalf of Sir Henry Solomon Wellcome, for the price of £25. From a letter in the Wellcome archives dated 16th December 1934.

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