Publication Date
6-1-2022
Abstract
This Pride Month, University Marketing and Communications is highlighting some of the work faculty is doing in the LGBTQ+ space.
Dr. Michael Fowler, Assistant Professor of Art History, recently returned from teaching an ETSU study abroad course in Greece. While in Athens, he took a moment to revisit the Parthenon sculptures and especially the west frieze representing a procession of men on horseback. These sculptures figure prominently into his current research on the acclaimed 19th-century French artist, cross-dressing lesbian, and proto-feminist Rosa Bonheur.
As a fellow queer person, Dr. Fowler has long admired Bonheur for achieving international success in the male-dominated field of academic painting, all while bravely defying the gender norms of her time. While lecturing on her most famous painting, the "Horse Fair" (1852–1855), for his course Women and Queers in the Arts, Dr. Fowler was intrigued to learn that the artist reportedly said that her composition was modeled after the Parthenon frieze.
Yet, he could find no scholarship on this aspect of the artwork. The gap in the literature was the start of an interesting research journey into queer and feminist art history.
One of the most remarkable elements of the "Horse Fair" is the very probable inclusion of the artist’s self-portrait at the geometric center of the painting, clad in masculine clothing and riding with legs astride her mount. In the article that Dr. Fowler is now preparing for submission to a special edition of the “Journal of Lesbian Studies,” he explores the sartorial and equestrian significance of this self-portrait.
Taking seriously Bonheur's claim to have been inspired by the Parthenon frieze, Dr. Fowler argues that Bonheur's classical reference was part of an effort to subtly cast herself as a modern-day, horse-riding Amazon and to claim for herself a space and a standing in the public sphere equal to those of men.
Dr. Fowler gave a talk on Rosa Bonheur this past spring in the Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Lecture Series. The talk was recorded and can be viewed below.
Document Type
News Article
