Women Across the Globe & the Centuries: 19C Women Relaxing Together

Monday, January 15, 2024

19C Women Relaxing Together - The Belle Epoque

Rupert Charles Wulsten Bunny (Australian artist, 1864–1947) The Distant Song

In 1895, Bunny met his future wife Jeanne Morel a fellow art student. She became the subject of many paintings, which increasingly depicted groupings of languid, dreamy female figures. These paintings reflect the leisured spirit of the belle époque, elegantly capturing voluptuous women, often holding fans; lounging inside homes; on porches & balconies; & in a bathhouse, often inhaling the intoxicating scent of freshly plucked summer flowers. Bunny modeled most of the figures on his wife Jeanne Morel, who sat for numerous paintings from this period. Bunny’s depictions of his wife Jeanne & her friends typified the elegance, fashionable frills, & glamour of the seemingly endless summer that was the belle époque.