Fotoreproductie van Meisje aan haar opschik door Antoine Wiertz before 1868

Edmond Fierlants made this photograph of Antoine Wiertz’s painting, “Meisje aan haar opschik,” or “Girl at her toilet” sometime in the mid-19th century. This was a period when photography was still in its relative infancy and was often used to document other artworks. Fierlants’s photograph captures a painting that revels in the female nude, a common subject in academic painting, which often depicted women in private, intimate moments. We see a woman, her back to us, presumably attending to her toilette. Although this image might strike us now as an objectifying or even voyeuristic, it is worth considering how the experience of viewing such an image might have differed in the 19th century when representations of the nude body were less prevalent in everyday life. The woman’s body is smooth, unblemished, idealized, and, ultimately, presented for our gaze. The male gaze, as it were. While we might critique this today, it is crucial to recognize how such images have shaped our understanding of beauty, gender, and representation.