Introduction: ‘What’s she like?’

Abstract

The introduction provides an overview of the origins of the Parisienne type in nineteenth-century French art and culture. It traces these origins to specific works of art and literature, including the novels of Balzac, Flaubert, Zola and Dumas fils; the paintings of Renoir, James Tissot, Toulouse-Lautrec; and the numerous physiognomies written on the type. The origin of the term la Parisienne is examined and two key features of her mythology are identified: visibility and mobility. A provisional definition of la Parisienne as ‘a figure of French modernity’ and ‘more than just a female inhabitant of Paris’ is then offered. Both the technological (railways, printing press, fashion plates, photography) and cultural (art, literature, advertising, print media) developments in nineteenth-century France which provided the basis for the emergence of la Parisienne as a dominant cultural figure are then discussed. Also introduced here is the main theoretical approach of the book: iconography.The iconography of la Parisienne can be categorised according to the following concepts: visibility and mobility (both social and spatial); style and fashionability, including self-fashioning; artist and muse; cosmopolitanism; prostitution; danger; consumption (the consumer and the consumed); and transformation.