Pinups and Erotica

This series will reproduce in 12 volumes approximately 5000 19th-century lithographs from the collections of the Bibliotheque Nationale. In this volume, Beatrice Farwell has collected more than 300 lithographs showing women as passive, erotic objects. Inexpensive and ephemeral, these "sujets gracieux" decorated the walls of brothels and were sold to a large bachelor market free from the strictures of family values. While numerous fantasies from this genre have been enshrined in modernist painting, Professor Farwell's effort to catalogue everyday representations demonstrates the large degree to which these powerful images circulated in popular culture.