Lecture: Female Models in the “Century of Women”: From Fiction to Reality in Chardin, Boucher and Greuze

David Pullins, Assistant Curator, The Frick Collection
Saturday, June 15, 2019

Focusing on three important paintings from The Frick Collection lent to the Museum, this lecture explores the status of female models in 18th-century France, especially how they were torn between their identification as faithful wives, professional models and disreputable courtesans. Considering the realities, myths and apocryphal stories of these women, it delves in particular into our desire to read identifiable, historical personalities into paintings by Chardin, Boucher and Greuze.

Presented in conjunction with The Sweetness of Life: Three 18th-Century French Paintings from The Frick Collection, on view June 14–September 9, 2019.