Daria Modrzanska's second post
Inconsistent with the conventional representation of
female savants as excessively sexual or as sickly, barren women during the
Victorian era, artists affiliated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood turned to
a more controversial mode of their portrayal. This was explored by Beverly
Taylor in her article, Female Savants and
the Erotics of Knowledge in Pre-Raphaelite Art. She explained how the femme
fatale- an alluringly beautiful and dangerously knowledgeable woman-
encapsulates the Pre-Raphaelite notion of a female with both pelvic and brain
power. Artistic representations of the femme fatale, such as Frederick Sandys’s
Medea and Edward Burne-Jones’s The Beguiling of Merlin include mystic
elements into their portrayals of dangerous women. This reflected what Taylor
notes as “the excitement of discovery and experimentation, the erotic charge of
mystery”. As a result, Pre-Raphaelite femme fatales often took the form of
enchanting sorceresses and tempting sirens by luring men with their knowledge
of magic and ultimately leading them to their demise.
Over
time, the femme fatale motif entered the scope of contemporary artwork,
accumulating in the 2012 exhibit of the same name. Put on by the Cella Gallery
in Los Angeles, Femme Fatale explored
the female allure through thirty-five individual artists and their respective
approaches. Although painted in very different social contexts, the artwork of
Nom Kinnear King and Chrystal Chan strongly echoes the Pre-Raphaelite notion of
the “deadly woman”.
Nom Kinnear King concentrates her art as oil paintings of
fantastic female figures. Her half-length compositions and two-dimensional
backgrounds, which often incorporate floral and vegetal motifs, are reminiscent
of many Pre-Raphaelite compositions. Like the Brotherhood, King displays her
femme fatales as mystical creatures. With their large, mesmerizing eyes and
entrancing stares, the figures enchant the viewer, luring him into their
magical worlds. Their parted lips supply sensuousness while fantastic body
modifications evoke power and threat. Chrystal Chan’s work is, in this regard
very similar to King’s. Although not consistent in half-length compositions,
Chan’s femme fatales evoke spirituality and otherworldliness through a “storybook”
manner. While bringing about a sense of the mystical, the female figures
enchant the viewer with their universal beauty and allure. Compared to other
artists in the exhibition, it is noteworthy that both King and Chan decided to evoke
a sense of the mystical in their depictions of the femme fatale, mirroring the
sorceresses and sirens painted by the Pre-Raphaelites.
For more information on the Femme Fatale exhibition:
For more information on Nom
Kinnear King:
For more information on
Chrystal Chan:
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| Nom Kinnear King |
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| Nom Kinnear King |
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| Chrystal Chan |
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| Chrystal Chan |
It is really interesting to see how Pre-raphalites' way to represent female fatale been used in the contemporary art. Especially the third one reminds me of William John Waterhouse's the Magical Circle, in which the witch wears a similar fur hat. Also the dark brown background echoes with the one on the Magical Circle, which creates a sense of mystery. However, I also find that in pre-Raphaelites work, female’s direct gaze toward the viewers was rarely depicted as a way to enchant, because in the Victoria Period, women were supposed to be looked at instead of actively looking at men. However, here, in contemporary art, female fatale ‘s direct gaze toward viewers becomes a reasonable and popular way to represent their sensuality, which may reveals that in the contemporary, woman is not as passive as before.
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