Moments et Follies de la Femme Fatale

Whitford and Hughes.

"It will be the characteristic mark of this century that it has approached contemporary life through woman" - Fernand Khnopff

The latter half of the Nineteenth Century in Europe saw the birth of the great epoch of the Femme Fatale. After years of the triumph of the masculine ideal - of the Byronic Hero whose counterpart was seen as a frail, subservient female, the concept of woman as a strong, dangerous creature emerged from the mid Nineteenth Century cocoon of blissful Victorian domesticity.

This new interest in the spirit as well as the face and figure of woman was reflected in art. Whitford and Hughes have had a long-standing interest in the Fin de Siècle and have always considered the Femme Fatale to have been one of the most significant preoccupations of the period. In the light of this, the Directors felt that at last the time had come to devote an exhibition entirely to her caprices, moments et follies.

Caroline Simon M.A