Design for a Firescreen with a Table with a Vase of Flowers, Books, and Teapot 1750 - 1800

Eugène Charpentier designed this firescreen with watercolor and graphite around 1780. In 18th century France, domestic life, particularly that of the bourgeois, was being idealized. Fire screens protected a woman’s face from the heat of the fire, preserving her complexion. We can understand this design, then, as both a signifier of domesticity, but also a protector of the feminine ideal. Here, we see objects associated with a comfortable, middle-class life: books, fine china, fresh flowers, and needlework. These items tell us about the values placed on education, beauty, and domestic skills. Though seemingly benign, the firescreen, and Charpentier’s design, speak to the constraints placed on women. While this design is lovely, it also evokes questions about the limitations of gender roles and expectations during this period. How do such objects and designs reinforce societal norms, and what is lost when one is confined to these spaces?