La Cigale 1898

Frank Eugene created this photogravure titled 'La Cigale.' The image presents a nude female figure, her face obscured by shadow and her own hand. She is posed within a dark, indistinct natural setting. Here, Eugene is playing with the conventions of classical art while also engaging with the emerging aesthetic of pictorialism, a movement which advocated for photography as a fine art. Consider the complex history of the nude in art. Traditionally, the nude female form has been a subject of male artistic and, arguably, social control. Often, the women are figures of myth, or objects of desire. Here, Eugene attempts to challenge those established notions. While he does not fully subvert the traditional male gaze, the figure's obscured face and melancholic posture invite empathy. The figure almost seems to recede into the shadows of the background, presenting an alternative narrative of vulnerability and introspection.