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This website should only be accessed if you are at least 18 years old or of legal age to view such material in your local jurisdiction, whichever is greater. Boucher, The nymph Callisto, seduced by Jupiter in the shape of Diana (1759).ĭepictions of lesbianism are found among the erotic frescoes of Pompeii.You are about to enter a website that contains explicit material (pornography). Having all but disappeared during the Middle Ages, they made a comeback after the Renaissance. Turner were among the forerunners of 19th century artists who featured eroticism between women among their work. Like other painters (such as Jean-Honoré Fragonard), Boucher found inspiration in classical mythology. He was one of many artists to use various myths surrounding the goddess Diana, including the often-depicted story of Callisto, Diana's nymph who was seduced by Jupiter, with the god taking Diana's form since Callisto had vowed chastity. In the 19th century, lesbianism became more openly discussed and found its way into many fields of art. In France, the influence of Charles Baudelaire is considered crucial, on literature as well as on the visual arts, though according to Dorothy Kosinski it was a matter not for the high arts but mostly for popular erotica. Gustave Courbet's Le Sommeil (1866) illustrates a scene from the 1835 story "Mademoiselle de Maupin" by Théophile Gautier (though Baudelaire's "Delphine et Hippolyte" from Les fleurs is also cited as an inspiration ), depicting two women asleep after love-making.Īuguste Rodin's illustrations for Baudelaire's Les Fleurs du Mal included lesbian scenes. Īn Orientalist depiction (cunnilingus as exotica) Its lesbian subject matter was controversial enough to be the subject of a police report in 1872, but Courbet's painting is credited with inspiring others to depict "sapphic couple", which in turn led to "soften taboos by revealing love between women and forcing society to see those whom it regarded as deviants and sinners." Nonetheless, the audience for such artwork was predominantly male (Courbet's painting was commissioned by a profligate Turkish diplomat), therefore "the term lesbian should perhaps be provided with quotation marks, insofar as we are dealing with images made by men, for men, and in which the very disposition of the women's bodies declares that they are arranged more for the eyes of the viewer than for those of one another." In the twentieth century the image's sensuality would appeal to lesbian viewers as well.
In 19th century French painting, lesbianism was often depicted within the context of orientalism, and was thus apt to be affected by the era's colonialism and imperialism as a result, assumptions regarding race and class informed the images, especially when lesbianism was linked to harem and brothel scenes. Later depictions of lesbians in Western art may reflect like cultural mores, or merely borrow from formal pictorial conventions. In the second half of the 19th century, the lesbian theme was well-established, and its artists include Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Constantin Guys, Edgar Degas, and Jean-Louis Forain. Later artists include Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele, Christian Schad, Albert Marquet, Balthus, and Leonor Fini. More explicit depictions were an important part of the work of erotic illustrators such as Édouard-Henri Avril, Franz von Bayros, Martin van Maële, Rojan, Gerda Wegener, and Tom Poulton. Explicit depictions of lovemaking between women were also an important theme in Japanese erotic shunga, including the work of such masters as Utamaro, Hokusai, Katsukawa Shunchō, Utagawa Kunisada, Utagawa Kuniyoshi, Yanagawa Shigenobu, Keisai Eisen, and Kawanabe Kyōsai. In art and fetish photography, notable artists to work with lesbian themes include David Hamilton, Steve Diet Goedde and Bob Carlos Clarke.