Threatening Women

In the late nineteenth century male artists frequently chose themes involving threatening females. Salome, whose sexual dance led to the beheading of John the Baptist, and Orpheus, who was torn to pieces by maddened followers of Dionysus, were particular favorites, but such works were not restricted to these topics. Many students of this period suspect that the presence of these works reflects a broader fear of women among men of the era.

Death of Orpheus by Émile Lévy, 1866

Paul Jacques Aime, Charlotte Corday, 1860

Gustave Moreau, Orpheus (1865)

Gustave Moreau, Salome (1874-76)

Gustave Moreau, Oedipus and the Sphinx (1864)

Félicien Rops, Pornocrates (1878]

Regnault Henri, Judith and Holfrenes (1869)

Thomas Couture, The Modern Courtisan (1873)

A cartoon presenting what was probably the most threatening image of women of the era -- the women actively involved in the Commune