The toilet. The birth of intimacy. The invention of privacy.
Hazan| N° d'inventaire | 19080 |
| Format | 22 x 28.5 |
| Détails | 200 p., color and black and white illustrations, paperback. |
| Publication | Paris, 2015 |
| Etat | Nine |
| ISBN | |
A hundred paintings, sculptures, some exceptional pieces of furniture, prints, and photographs make it possible to present an exceptional work. Engravings by Dürer, Primaticcio, paintings from the Fontainebleau school, including a Clouet, the exceptional Woman with a Flea by Georges de La Tour, and a unique and astonishing collection by François Boucher, demonstrate the invention of specific toilet gestures and places in Europe under the Ancien Régime. The 19th century saw a profound renewal of the tools and methods of cleanliness. The appearance of the bathroom, and the more diversified and abundant use of water, inspired Manet, Berthe Morisot, Degas, Toulouse Lautrec, and other artists—not the least—to paint original scenes of women washing themselves in a tub or makeshift basin. The gestures were disrupted, and the space was definitively closed off and reserved for total privacy; a form of conversation between oneself and oneself can be read in these works, from which emerges a profound impression of intimacy and modernity. The book then presents the reader with the image, both familiar and disconcerting, of modern and "functional" bathrooms which are also, with Pierre Bonnard, spaces where it is permitted, away from the gaze of others and the noise of the city, to abandon oneself and dream. This is the first time that such a unique and unavoidable subject has been approached in this way. In these works, which reflect daily practices that one might believe to be banal, one will be able to discover pleasures and surprises of an unexpected depth.
A hundred paintings, sculptures, some exceptional pieces of furniture, prints, and photographs make it possible to present an exceptional work. Engravings by Dürer, Primaticcio, paintings from the Fontainebleau school, including a Clouet, the exceptional Woman with a Flea by Georges de La Tour, and a unique and astonishing collection by François Boucher, demonstrate the invention of specific toilet gestures and places in Europe under the Ancien Régime. The 19th century saw a profound renewal of the tools and methods of cleanliness. The appearance of the bathroom, and the more diversified and abundant use of water, inspired Manet, Berthe Morisot, Degas, Toulouse Lautrec, and other artists—not the least—to paint original scenes of women washing themselves in a tub or makeshift basin. The gestures were disrupted, and the space was definitively closed off and reserved for total privacy; a form of conversation between oneself and oneself can be read in these works, from which emerges a profound impression of intimacy and modernity. The book then presents the reader with the image, both familiar and disconcerting, of modern and "functional" bathrooms which are also, with Pierre Bonnard, spaces where it is permitted, away from the gaze of others and the noise of the city, to abandon oneself and dream. This is the first time that such a unique and unavoidable subject has been approached in this way. In these works, which reflect daily practices that one might believe to be banal, one will be able to discover pleasures and surprises of an unexpected depth.