Changing the roles of women as seen through art

Extract

[...] The brush strokes used to form the woman in the foreground of the painting are somewhat loose, but not as painterly as Monet's work. The railing that she leans on is painted with long, visible strokes which also lends to its two dimensionality. Often times, Impressionist paintings featured aspects of Japanese prints such as large areas of flat color. The black of the woman's dress seems to be just a large blotch of black, which flattens the woman and contrasts her modeled face. [...]

[...] This is significant for the time, the last quarter of the nineteenth century, because women were not viewed as having an intellectual role in the world. The woman portrayed in this picture, however, is taking an active role in watching the performance. She is so enthralled in the play that she seems not to notice the viewer who, from the point of view given, seems to be sitting directly beside her. Additionally, the choice of this tight point of view conveys two things. [...]

[...] There are, however, dashes of other tones like yellow, green and light pink as in the woodwork of the front of the booths and orange as in one of the women's hats. The use of such subdued hues creates an intimate space, as if the viewer was in the theater booth with the woman. Also, her left hand, which holds a folded fan, is shrouded in darkness suggesting the closeness between the viewer and the subject. There does not seem to be one prominent light source, but rather a universal illumination comes from outside the theater booth hence the shadow on her left hand and the back of her right wrist. [...]