THE OLDEST PROFESSION IN THE WORLD…………
« Splendeurs et Misères », Images of prostitution from 1850 to 1910 had to be another blockbuster. I had read a lot about it. Many of the paintings I knew, had not represented prostitutes for me, but more jaunty young ladies. I was certainly wrong. There was no queue when I arrived at opening hours at Orsay. That cannot be said for inside the exhibition nor outside when I left. The crowds were horrendous. I managed to go back and forwards from one room to another. Perhaps it was not the best way to follow such and exhibition which was after all done by themes, but at least paintings could be looked at easily or relatively so. The verb “to prostitute oneself” literally means “to display or to expose oneself publicly” so it is hardly surprising to see that the worlds of art and prostitution are somehow linked in the 19th and early 20th century imagination. The metamorphosis of the body of the prostitute – “an object of public pleasure” – into a work of art to be viewed by all was effe