The Courtesans (Les Courtisanes)

Discussion

FROM THE BARNES FOUNDATION’S CATALOG

This intensely colored and rapidly executed painting depicts four courtesans in an ambiguous setting. The demimonde was a popular subject in 19th-century art and literature, as artists and writers found in the subject a ready means to express their ideas about modernity. This painting's unusual square format and size suggest that it was trimmed or cut from a larger canvas. Despite the small size, the figures' wild gesticulations infuse the composition with a rhythmic energy that is barely contained by the boundaries of the canvas.

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