Point de Convention

Point de Convention

Image of a Woman and Man in Paris

This painting depicts a man mistaking a woman for a prostitute. Fantomina was intrigued by the prostitutes in the theater and chooses to explore that curiosity by pretending to be one when she returns the following day. This brings up the idea of what it was really like to be a prostitute in 18th century England. People saw prostitution as a sin, but men saw it as a necessary outlet for themselves. In a superficial sense, the women had control which contradicts the social mentality of the time, but in reality they did not. Men controlled these women hinting at a sense of cruelty, but these women as well as society became desensitized leaving the mindset to be one that sees this behavior as normal. Psychologically, this could not have been healthy for these women.

Louis-Léopold Boilly

1797

Kelsey Noonan

Painting