Gender and Genre in Impressionist Portraiture In the nineteenth century, the portrait form explored and celebrated the individual as a unique and dynamic identity. By isolating a person on the canvas, the artist recognized him as a subject with a character and will of his own. Genre, on the other hand, was the painting of social scene, a sketch of the modern metropolis, where characters represent static social 'types', rather than unique personalities. Tamar Garr's …
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showed last 75 words of 693 total
… would be interesting to enrich her analysis by widening the net of her study to other 'unsuitable' subjects of portraiture at the time (i.e. the Parisian working class) and not be confined strictly within gender. More than viewing these paintings as social commentary and the liberation of women on the canvas, they perhaps say more about the Impressionists' fascination with the construction of identity and subjectivity more generally during the late nineteenth century.