Craft is a Feminist Issue: The British Textile Biennial

I like cross-stitch. I have posted many images of my work here. I particularly like subversive images that challenge expectations. Last year I saw an exhibition of the British Textile Biennial, which appeared to have been curated by Mr X Stitch.  He opened with a quote from Wikipedia (sure, we can be snobby about that, but we all use it as a common source).

"Cross-stitch is the oldest form of embroidery and can be found all over the world. Many folk museums show examples of clothing decorated with cross-stitch, especially from continental Europe, Asia, and Eastern and Central Europe."

He continued that those who do cross-stitch are taking part in a cultural craft that spans generations and continents. In 2009 at the Kostyonki evacuation site in Russia, they found ivory needles that were dated to 30,000 years ago. Embroidery has been around for millennia. Some of the world's most precious historical events are immortalised in stitch, from the Bayeux Tapestry to the Great Tapestry of Scotland. 

Cross-stitch samplers were commonly used as a way of teaching embroidery, and the crafter would literally pinpoint their place in space and time among the flowery borders and earnest phrases. A cross-stitch sampler, however, was not only a way of learning stitches, but also promoted workmanship, and for the professional embroiderers of the eighteenth century, it was a mobile CV that could be shared with potential clients. 

The industrial revolution transformed the mass production of embroidery; however, the basic cross stitch remains an important practice for embroidery students and professionals as the samples from Royal School of Needlework Degree apprentices from the twentieth century will attest.

Heartfelt and You See Food, I See Numbers by Caren Garfen

The title of Caren Garen's artwork, You See Food, I See Numbers, and the hand-stitched text on the fabric bag come directly from a tweet on the Twitter account of a young woman with anorexia nervosa. The words read 'You see tomato I see 24; You see Coke I see 454; You see noodles I see 307; You see chicken pie I see 654; You see food I see numbers'.

An innocent bag of sweets becomes a disturbing vessel for medicine capsules which spill out over a worktop. The viewer is drawn in by the miniature sweets, chocolate, fruit and vegetables, only to find text and numbers are part of the mix. A person with disordered eating will lose sight of actual food and will concentrate on its calorific value - food becomes numbers rather than an ingredient for health or pleasure. 

Detail from Heartfelt

In Heartfelt, above, the stethoscope takes on a new meaning when the hand-stitched text disc replaces the chest-piece's diaphragm. It reads, 'The mirror, in which she examines every inch of herself for hours reflects the bulges and blemishes no one else sees'.

Identity Crisis and That's How the Cookie Crumbles by Caren Garfen

In another couple of works, Caren Garfen continues this theme. The five hospital identity wristbands in Identity Crisis shrink sequentially in size as the eating disorder takes hold of the malnourished body. The text is drawn from a conversation had with a young woman who suffered from anorexia nervosa. She was admitted into emergency care on numerous occasions.  Each bracelet is stitched with the motif of a cannula. 

Detail from That's How the Cookie Crumbles

It is known that people with anorexia nervosa view their bodies as much larger than they actually are. Hand-stitched cookie motifs, each with their own text, are enlarged under an LED magnifier. The words such as 'self hate', 'restrict', 'fat' and 'struggle' obsessively turn inside the minds of those with eating disorders. 

Mr X Stitch asks if cross stitch is an art form, and immediately answers his own question; 'You bet your life it is'. He continues,

"There's a debate about art vs craft that has been going on for centuries, and it's intrinsically connected to the concept of a patriarchally dominant social paradigm. It goes something like this: 'Men are great and they make art and are powerful and strong, whereas women are meek and should sit at home crafting things like embroidered homewares.'

"It'is all a bit ridiculous, but that storyline, which I have somewhat paraphrased, has led to the idea that only certain media (painting and sculpture for example) should be labelled as art, and that crafts like cross stitch cannot achieve such spiritually lofty goals. Suffice to say, this is not the case. Just believe me when I say that any medium can be used for art as it's the creative expression that makes the difference."

Images by Crapestry

Clockwise from top left the above images are: Tourists from the Tourists collection; Gary Just Wants to Be a Real Cow from the Livestock collection; Gerberas from the Bad Kitty collection; Elwood from the Big Cats in Shades collection.

Crapestry claims to invented the word, 'a rather obvious contraction of the words crap and tapestry'. They continue,

"Contemporary commercial tapestries might be argued to be the exemplification of superficial chintz; spectacularly vapid, vividly dull, unquestioningly conformist, gaudily bourgeois, and at the same time unyieldingly time-consuming. The subject matter is often romanticised, uncritical and both exploits and reinforces established stereotypes. The outcome? Standardised 'precious things' cherished by the softly smiling, callous fingered Grandmas of the world, harmless old dears who quietly revel in the creation of 'cheeky terrier' and 'dewy chrysanthemum' cushions or 'God bless this house' picture frames. No mention of mortality, no depiction of suffering, nothing surprising, nothing funny.

"Crapestry capitalises on cross-stitch orthodoxies, exploiting their established themes. Some crapestries are funny, some are sad, and some may cause offence; but that's fine. Even the desperately sad crapestries make many people laugh, whether by a curious schadenfreude or simply because they are unaccustomed to encountering troubling subjects addressed through the medium of tapestry; its incongruous." 

More Images by Crapestry

The above images are (clockwise from top left) Five Meddling Sparrows Tear a Pentagular Rift in Our Realm and Briefly Glimpse an Unspeakable Evil from the Abominations collection; Sunset Barn from the War collection; Lamb from the Abominations collection; 1984 from the Wolves with Good Books collection.

On their website, Crapestry explains how they create these images, by 1. purchasing a cross stitch kit, 2. having an idea about how to modify it, 3. taking a digital photograph of the naked canvas, 4. using Photoshop to modify the photo of the canvas, 5. creating crapestry designs by adding coloured dots to the original canvas photograph to represent new stitches, 6. painting the new digitally modified design onto the canvas with acrylic paints, 7. stitching the kit to the new design. 

One could admire the mix of traditional and contemporary techniques: if we're sticking with those gender stereotypes; women do craft-work (as opposed to krafwerk) while men do I.T. (as opposed to 'it', which may not be capitalised or considered as important, but encompasses pretty much everything). Another angle which blends the metal with the material is that taken by Severija Inčirauskaitė-Kriaunevičienė. She writes,

"The gradual crackling of the Iron Wall which began in the 1980s brought refreshing gusts of the westerly wind not only to adults. The growing thirst for superior ideals and freedom of speech was accompanied by an inexorable hunger for material novelties and commodities. It was not consumerism in today's sense when we are spoiled by both the excessive supply and the possibility to buy almost anything our eyes and heart desire. Back then we, the Soviet Generation X, were hungry indeed. It was a time when we took turns chewing the same piece of bubble gum with our classmate, biting into the red wrap of basically the only available option, the Lithuanian-made Paršiukas Čiukas (Chook the Piggy) gum, to tint it red, while the Estonian Kalev gum was extremely hard to come by. Then the corroded iron wall began to erode rapidly and real Western wonders entered the world of deficit.

"Among the first arrivals were the Donald Bubble Gum, valued not only for their main pre-coloured chewable content but also the inlays with adventure comic strips. We were ready to sacrifice for these wonders as much as the Native Americans or the Aborigines had been willing to exchange the last pelt for European glass beads and add a bonus gold nugget to that. In other words, giving away all the money our parents gave us for the summer holidays for a carton of Donald Bubble Gum was seen as a fair deal.

 

Just as the dollar assumed a very important role among the adults, bubble gum inlays did the same in the parallel children's world. It was not a vain childish whim, as these pieces of paper were not less valuable than the adults' paper bills. It was the children's hard currency which could be traded, exchanged for other commodities, gambled away, and, most importantly, used to buy status, peers' respect, friendship and popularity. 

"The other Donald, who seems to surpass Donald Duck and his fellows in popularity and influence, brings out these real childhood memories, which may look like cartoons to those who were born in the post-Soviet years or who have never lived this side of the Iron Wall. The two Donalds have some traits in common. Both of them attract the masses, generate a huge income, and are excellent at blowing bubbles. Yet there is also a fundamental difference - while Donald Duck has made walls fall, the other Donald is busy building them." 

Taking corporate logos and altering them with names of controversial bands seems like a simple thing to do, but someone still has to do it. And Marina Bolmini is that someone.

"I am strongly influenced by the world of media. I work on the slip of meanings relating to highly iconic images, using diverse media and techniques. I am passionate about the art of embroidery using it to produce several cycles of works of great visual impact and subtle conceptual charm."

Equally confronting although less amusing is the work of Danish artist, Lærke Jessen. She embroiders nontraditional images including still frames from You Tube videos, close ups of faces in pornography, feminine hygiene products and more. 

Finally, I really liked this string and peg board depiction of a monochrome Elvis, which has given me ideas about possibly interpreting some of my smaller pieces into larger canvases. I couldn't see any information about the artwork or the artist so I have come to my own interpretation. Perhaps it is hung on a door because Elvis has left the building.

Friday Five(ish): Films Watched in October

1. The Big Step (Il Grande Passo) (2019) - Beautiful and gentle story about estranged brothers who find a friendship and commonality while trying to deal with abandonment, rejection and an obsession with the moon. The storytelling is simple and improbable, encouraging us to dream big and aim high.
2. Corpus Christi (2019) - Despite being bookended by brutal acts, there are moments of deep reflection in this film. A young man pretends to be a priest in a small Polish village rather than face his probationary position as a convicted criminal. As he soothes the sick and navigates toxic conflicts in the community, his actions raise questions of penance and punishment; reconciliation and redemption; atonement and absolution. The subtlety of acting, design and direction allow the themes to shine through and the questions remain unanswered long after the film has finished.
3. It Comes at Night (2017) - Some people in a house in the woods (including Joel Edgerton) are hiding out from a mystery illness and protecting their own little family unit. They are joined by another family unit (including Riley Keogh) and grief, guilt, suspicion and paranoia all ensue, leading to strange goings-on. It could well be a stage play with limited characters and settings, and an interesting sense of development, written and directed by Trey Edward Shults.
4. Love Sarah (2020) - At one point someone says, "London is the most multi-cultural city in the world", and then the film proceeds to be as stereotypically Anglocentric as possible. The mainstream middle-class (and mainly white) characters set up a cafe in a posh (litter-free) part of London (Notting Hill) and interact with the foreigners only to condescend and steal their native recipes. To suggest that the best Matcha Mille or baklava in town is made here is patronising in the extreme: cultural appropriation and colonial oppression at its zenith. The cast are good, but they have poor ingredients to work with (and any shade of realism has gone AWOL: those uncovered cakes are screaming Health and Safety risk). There are a couple of other sub-plots that go absolutely nowhere, and although it looks nice, it collapses in on itself like a failed souffle (and that simile is as tired and lazy as the film).



5. The Meg (2018) - It’s like Jaws turned up to eleventy-stupid but without any of the subplots or subtlety. The Stath doesn’t quite get to punch a giant shark, but he does stab one in the eye. The special effects are pretty good and far more convincing than the so-called ‘love interest’, which has about as much appeal as a damp squib.
6. Ready or Not (2019) - With this film, directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett have done for the humorous horror genre what Knives Out did recently for the comedy thriller. It self-knowingly exposes every trope, yet still remains fresh, fun, and highly entertaining. Samara Weaving is great as the vengeful bride who is forced to protect herself from her in-laws on her explosive wedding night, and the ending manages to be unexpected.
7. A Street Cat Named Bob (2016) - Starring Luke Treadaway and Bob the cat, this is a delightful film. Roger Spottiswoode directs an adaptation of the true story of James Bowen, who manages to rehabilitate his life of drugs with the help of a cat. No longer homeless due to the proceeds of his book, Bowen now dedicates his time to helping numerous charities that involve homelessness, literacy and animal welfare. The film is a highly-sanitised version of life on the streets of London, but it is remarkably feel-good (SPOILER ALERT: Nothing bad happens to the cat) and clearly a lot of people wanted to be involved as the minor credits are full of British regulars (Joanne Frogatt, Anthony Head, Ruth Sheen, John Henshaw, Nina Wadia).

The Sting in the (Fairy) Tale: The Bee and the Orange Tree

The Bee and the Orange Tree by Melissa Ashley

Affirm Press

P. 362

Think ‘fairy tales’, and the Brothers Grimm and Charles Perrault are probably the names that spring to mind. What about Baroness Marie Catherine D’Aulnoy, the woman who coined the term ‘fairy tale’, and who published the very first one – The Isle of Happiness – in 1690? Probably less so. She burst onto the Parisian salon scene at age forty, a fully formed writer, and during the next decade, along with holding a salon in her home on Rue Saint-Benôit, she published thirteen books comprising novels, courtly histories, travel memoirs, two volumes of fairy tales and two sentimental pamphlets. Melissa Ashley is keen to reclaim women’s stories and make them as well recognised as those of their male counterparts, so she focuses this novel on the later years of Marie Catherine.

We are welcomed into the literary world of seventeenth-century France where writers tried out their stories and poems before a receptive audience at a salon and asked for their feedback. Marie Catherine encourages female authors and, “She had wanted to create a place where women might recite their works, rejecting the cruel satirising of female writers by famous men of letters – Molière, Boileau, Perrault. She felt it her duty to lay bare the dark and piquant potential of women unafraid of their own minds.” She advises one young protégé, “An author must be brave. You can say whatever you like in your writing. It’s your opportunity to reimagine the world as you would have it turn.”

She is justifiably proud of her tales, and enjoys creating stories of fabulous kingdoms, ageing monarchs and ambitious offspring; heroic quests; magnificent palaces; miniature worlds – many containing hidden messages of daring triumph. She is principally concerned with the plight of women and fears that marriage and children do not necessarily serve their best interests. The dichotomy of a woman needing protection yet seeking freedom is explored through the character of Angelina who leaves a convent to act as a companion to Marie Catherine. There are several anachronisms, and many other sentiments seem borrowed from our own age and grafted onto a previous time, such as gender fluidity and double standards, meritocracy and fashion influencers.

A couple of subplots feature the Affair of the Poisons and the public executions surrounding the incident at the court of Louis XIV, and Angelina’s father, who is estranged from Marie Catherine after a spell in the Bastille. The novel is written as though it expects to be read aloud, perhaps in one of the salons Marie Catherine conducts. The language is rich and the sounds of the words work well together with poetic assonance and alliteration. It builds drama and tension; then deflates it with a stroke of the pen. Catherine devotes herself so much to her art, that her language becomes that of physical creation, and her struggle with writer’s block is like a fairy-tale itself: “If it were her last act, she would again seduce the gods of story to toss their net of wonders at her feet, to strew their gifts before her, and out she would pluck one starfish, one mushroom, one invisible cloak, one prince dressed as a pauper, one naked king. Oh, she would take it all and rush, her apron lifted and bulging with treasure, back to her desk to make sense of the hoard.”

The Bee and the Orange Tree is instructional and Ashley has a clear message that she wants to impart, re-instating credit to female icons where it is due. At times the narrative is rambling and strays beyond its contemporary boundaries in its need to make satirical stings, but it can be forgiven because it is well-meaning and beautifully written.

COVID 19 Friday Five: Even More ISO TV

I would watch Keeley Hawes in anything; so would Richard Madden in Bodyguard

As we have continued our strange year, I have been watching TV series in groups; trying to mix up the comedy, tragedy, period drama and police procedural. This is a snapshot of some of that.

5 TV Shows Recently Watched:

1. Bodyguard (7plus) - I think Keeley Hawes is excellent and will happily watch her in anything from Life on Mars or Line of Duty to The Missing or The Durrells, so when I saw she had a starring role in a British police political thriller, I wasn't going to miss it. The Jed Mercurio-written drama has garnered rave reviews and high ratings from critics and viewers alike. Hawes is Julia Montague, the Home Secretary battling corrupt politicians, international terrorism and secret schemes to overthrow the government. Richard Madden is David Budd, the special protection officer who is charged with keeping her safe, but he has issues of his own, including PTSD from Afghanistan, burning resentment and a tendency towards anger. Nothing is as apparent as it seems, and story arcs are not always concluded in conventional ways - sometimes irritatingly so - but it is both bright and dark, and ultimately binge-worthy.
2. Dracula (BBC One and Netflix) - sexy and hysterical; the three-part series is as if three different script-writers and directors had a go at bringing together a story. In truth, the drama-horror series was developed and written by Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat, but there is indeed a different director for each installment (Jonny Campbell; Damon Thomas; Paul McGuigan). We follow Dracula (Claes Bang) from his origins in Eastern Europe to his battles with Van Helsing (Dolly Wells) and her descendants. It's all slick and sensual, but the middle episode, confined to a boat with a claustrophobic sense of impending doom and psychological terror, is my clear favourite.
3. Sex Education (Netflix) - We binged two whole seasons of this show one wet weekend, and I'm still trying to work out why I was so invested in watching a series about teenagers and their hormones. Forays into adulthood are fraught with angst and we all remember our own with less than fondness, so to watch others deal with feelings, emotions and sexual expectations is probably better than having to relive our own experiences. Asa Butterfield stars as an insecure young lad at a highly progressive high school doling out advice he has gleaned from his sex therapist mother, Gillian Anderson, who has her own unresolved relationship conflicts. Although it is a British series (created by Laurie Nunn; a variety of British accents; filmed in Wales), the aesthetic is highly mixed with an American-style high school and education system, but beautiful British scenery and sensitivity. The time period in which it is set is also deliberately disorientating with many modern references, but fashion, decor and bicycles from the 80s. It's an intriguing and generous mash-up; sort of like The Breakfast Club meets Gregory's Girl. Strangely recommended.



Michael Sheen and David Tennant in the lockdown drama for our times



4. Staged (ABC iview) - And now, for our times, this is a lock-down comedy about actors who desperately want to act, but the theatres are closed, so they take out their frustrations and their theatrical rivalries over Zoom meetings. David Tennant and Michael Sheen play hyper-real versions of themselves which are equally irritating and fabulous. The six episodes are only fifteen minutes long (the perfect length for a Zoom call) and prove that you can pack a lot in if you know what you are doing. The pair were due to star in a production of Six Characters in Search of an Author on the West End but the pandemic has put paid to that. Not wanting to let this opportunity slip through his fingers, their director Simon Evans (who also wrote the script) attempts to get them to rehearse over the internet, if only they can overcome their distractions, boredom and egos to read the first scene. There are some brilliant cameo appearances from Samuel L. Jackson, Nina Sosanya, Adrian Lester and Dame Judi Dench, and evidence-based research (Him Outdoors and me) proves this is entertaining fare for theatre and non-theatre types alike.
5.  Vanity Fair (BBC First) - I love the novel; I love the character of Becky Sharp; and I love this adaptation by writer Gwyneth Hughes. Olivia Cooke is bold and beguiling (unlike many insipid heroines of period drama) and all her relationships, with Amelia (Claudia Jessie), Jos (David Fynn), George (Charlie Rowe), Rawdon (Tom Bateman), Martha (Sian Clifford), Sir Pitt (Martin Clunes), and Aunt Matilda (Frances de la Tour) are honest and brilliantly played. It's colourful and gaudy and breathtakingly bedazzling. The fact that each episode is opened by a top-hatted Michael Palin orchestrating the carousel at the titular carnival can't do any harm either.

Olivia Cooke is brilliant as Becky Sharp in Vanity Fair

An Age Old Question: The Devil and Miss Prym

The Devil and Miss Prym by Paulo Coelho
Thorsons
Pp. 201

Leo Tolstoy is said to have said, “All great literature is one of two stories; a man goes on a journey or a stranger comes to town.” This is the latter of those two options, and its claim to great literature is subjective, but the author has sold over 175 million of his books worldwide. One day a stranger comes to the town of Viscos (spoiler alert: he is the devil of the title) with a backpack containing twelve bars of gold. He offers one of them to Chantal (the Miss Prym of the title) on the condition that she communicates to the villagers that they will receive the other eleven if they commit a murder.

In essence it is a very simple morality tale; are people intrinsically good or evil? The basic prose may be a matter of translation from the original Portuguese (Coelho is Brazilian) but it suits the elements of fable, incorporating many parables. As it is a philosophical conceit, the narrator is omniscient, the characters are ciphers, and the events are unrealistic. It is cerebral rather than emotional; designed to make the reader think rather than feel.

The village of Viscos is remote and irrelevant, chosen deliberately by the stranger for his experiment. He wants to pit the villagers against each other, knowing that they are all in desperate financial straits and would welcome a windfall. It does not matter to the stranger whom the villagers choose to murder, only that they commit the act, and therefore, this is also an exploration of the conflict between the individual and society. “The story of one man is the story of all men. I need to know if we are good or evil.” Most cultures and religions have tales of the eternal struggle between good and evil. A Native American myth posits that we all contain two wolves; a kind and gentle one and a fierce and vicious one. The one that survives is the one we feed. This is incorporated into the metaphor of the rogue wolf which stalks the forest and terrorises the villagers, keeping them afraid. Many religions also have “a place of punishment, where the immortal soul goes after committing certain crimes against society (everything seemed to be in terms of society, rather than of the individual).”

The fundamental question is whether we are intrinsically good or bad, and what makes us this way. Coelho suggests that we are only good due to the fear of consequences. The stranger says, “I am a man who walks the earth with a devil at his side; in order to drive him away or accept him for once and for all, I need to know the answers to certain questions.” He chose Chantal because she is orphaned and searching for a way to escape her dull life in the village, but she wants someone to rescue her rather than acting for herself. She has several meetings with the stranger – as a single woman these may cause consternation but she has no one to protect her morality and can do as she please. She realises, however, that she too is bound by the fear of the future.

The metaphysical problem is described as game theory – gambling on the actions of others in order to protect yourself. It’s an old conundrum and one that doesn’t really have an answer. Chance exists and bad things happen to good people (the story of Job from the Old Testament is included along with many other myths and legends); perhaps we need the hope to carry on, like the widowed Berta, who sits outside her house every day watching the villagers and commenting on their action with her dead husband. The problem with the severely pedagogic tone is that it leaves little for the reader to do. Just as Chantal is trapped in the village, we are trapped in this narrative and will only be released when Coelho has finished with his lecture.

Friday Five: Floriade Re-Imagined

I have written about Floriade before on more than one occasion. This year, what with one thing and another, it would obviously have been irresponsible to have planted all the bulbs in one place and invited people to come and see them en masse and potentially spread disease. Instead, the Floriade Reimagined Horticultural Team, together with more than 90 community groups, planted blooms across the city in 130 different sites. 

This is a delightful way to introduce colour to the suburbs and to encourage public participation; events are not just for tourists and can be on your front door step. I really appreciated this community engagement and, while I didn't hunt down the locations that were clearly marked on the tulip trail, I did stumble across one or two sites by accident, which was a pleasant surprise. 

1. Margaret Timpson Park, Belconnen

Spot the garden gnome

2. Town Square, Woden

3. A Friend's House

Not an official location, but I did get to see Floyd (yes, he's called that because he's pink)

4. Woden Town Park, Woden

5. My Garden

Again, not an official location, but they are very pretty

Impressions of Paris: Honore-Victorin Daumier

Some time ago I went to an exhibition at the National Gallery of Australia called Impressions of Paris: Lautrec, Degas, Daumier. These men, each a generation apart, are credited with being consummate draughtsmen whose innovative compositions and embrace of modern subject matter played a significant role in artistic developments in France over the nineteenth century.

I have previously seen a lot of Lautrec and Degas, but I was not so familiar with Honoré-Victorin Daumier, although it is clear to see, looking at his prints and lithographs, how he inspired the later artists. During the 1800s Paris had witnessed the remarkable growth of the popular press. The technique of lithography, invented at the turn of the eighteenth century, was adopted by practicing artists as it was a printmaking technique conducive to drawing freely and directly.

Daumier's knowledge of the Romantic artists, including Delacroix is evident in these sometimes complex structural arrangements of figures, and the sense of movement in the compositions. His understanding and application of the lessons learnt from the study of earlier artists sets him apart from other less talented caricaturists of his era. 

Battle between the schools: Idealism vs Realism from Le Charivari, 24 April 1855

For publishers of newspapers, lithography allowed for larger print runs compared to earlier printing methods. Newspapers and journals began to include serialisation of novels by writers like Emile Zola as well as caricatures by artists such as Daumier, which were often satiric and of a contemporary social or political nature. All of these factors helped to sell newspapers and journals to a growing and appreciative audience. 

Many of Daumier's caricatures reveal his mastery of depicting the human figure, his skill in foreshortening and ability to suggest movement. Daumier created a huge pool of imagery in his many witty, sometimes acerbic, series of themes devoted to French society, produced over many years. 

The orchestra during the performance of a tragedy from Le Charivari, 5 April 1852

The generation of French artists who followed Daumier in the nineteenth century were inspired by his observations, which became an extraordinary reservoir of ideas. Both Degas and then Lautrec were enthusiastic admirers of French caricature, delighting in its animated qualities, stylistic freedoms and contemporary themes. 

Degas was much taken with Daumier's skill as a draughtsman, and held him in high regard. He was particularly inspired by his interest in physiognomy (including the theory that appearance reveals character), his expressive qualities and modern themes, many of which Degas then adapted. Lautrec also assimilated lessons from Degas, borrowing themes and compositions from his idol. Lautrec admired and emulated Degas, which is evident in his compositions of drinkers at bars, dancers on stage, cabaret scenes and courtesans. 

A queen preparing for her big speech from Le Charivari, 24 September 1856

One thing I did find interesting is that for all his innovation and political freedom, Daumier still was far from believing in granting equality to half of the human race. He did not see assertive women as seekers of liberty and equality; rather they represented an aspect of self-obsessed bourgeois behaviour. In the series, Blue Stockings, educated women and aspiring authors  appear to be oblivious to the predicament of a child in an upturned bucket or to fellow readers in a library.

The mother is in the fire of composition, the baby is in the water of the bath from Le Charivari, 26 February 1844 

Women railing for their right to divorce and justice are seen as formidable figures in the full fury of their quest, or in celebratory mode toasting their emancipation. And women smoking after attending the public baths also satirise the 'new woman' of France.

 

A toast to the emancipation of Women, being drunk by women who are already tremendously emancipated from Le Charivari, 12 October 1848 

Daumier's legacy may have a been a brilliant journalistic record of the modern capital as he contributed to an era in France ripe for a new art, but he wasn't prepared to stray too far from convention. As far as he was concerned, art, emancipation, literature and life were still clearly boys' clubs.