Modern Women and Parisian Consumer Culture in Impressionist Painting

This book examines the encounter between Impressionist painting and nineteenth-century consumer culture. Ruth E. Iskin explores the representation of feminine fashions, consumers and sales-women in Parisian boutiques. She revises our understanding of the representation of women in Impressionist painting by refocusing the exploration of gender, from women's exclusion from the public spaces of modernity to their inclusion; and from the privileging of the male gaze to a plurality of gazes that includes women. Iskin also analyzes how paintings represent women as objects of display, and how they address women as spectators in active roles - as consumers, producers or sellers - in a range of sites, such as the millinery boutique, the theatre, opera, café-concert and market stall. Considering a wide range of sources from nineteenth-century literature and visual culture, Iskin re-situates Impressionist painting in the context of the culture of consumption.