Women in the 19C United States of America: Louisiana paintings by French-born artist Alfred Boisseau 1823

Sunday, May 3, 2020

Louisiana paintings by French-born artist Alfred Boisseau 1823–1901

Alfred Boisseau (Paris-born American painter, 1823–1901) Miss Denegre or Miss Macheca

Alfred Boisseau (Paris-born American painter, 1823–1901) A Choctaw Woman in Louisiana

Alfred Boisseau (Paris-born American painter, 1823–1901) The Photographer

Alfred Boisseau was born in Paris, & studied with French academic painter, Paul Delaroche. He showed at the Paris Salon. During the 1840s, he sailed for America. He resided in New Orleans between 1845 & 1848. He was probably drawn to the city, because his brother served as secretary to the French consul. While in New Orleans, Boisseau came into contact with the Choctaw Indians, who were eventually forced to leave Louisiana.

Alfred Boisseau (Paris-born American painter, 1823–1901) Portrait of Young Woman 1849

He exhibited 2 works at the 1849 National Academy of Design in New York, a portrait & a Creole landscape. He had traveled to Cleveland by 1852, where he advertised as a portrait & landscape painter, art teacher, & art dealer. He remained in Ohio, until 1859. He settled in Montreal in 1860, where he was known to produce portraits of local society. He died in Buffalo, New York, in 1901.

Alfred Boisseau (Paris-born American painter, 1823–1901) The Artist and Her Models

Alfred Boisseau (Paris-born American painter, 1823–1901) Julie Bruneau Papineau 1872

About this blog

In colonial America, men were considered superior to woman in all ways. In a strict patriarchal hierarchy, men controlled not only wealth & political power but also how their children were raised, religious questions, & all matters of right & wrong.

In the early part of the 19Cy, however, many Americans experienced a revolution in gender. The doctrine of “separate spheres” maintained that woman’s sphere was the world of privacy, family, & morality while man’s sphere was the public world -– economic striving, political maneuvering, & social competition. But women were interested in equality.

In 1848, New York passed the Married Woman’s Property Act. Now a woman wasn’t automatically liable for her husband’s debts; she could enter contracts on her own; she could collect rents or receive an inheritance in her own right; she could file a lawsuit on her own behalf. She became for economic purposes, an individual. By 1900, every state has passed legislation modeled after this, granting married women some control over their property and earnings.

In 1870 after the Civi War, the 15th Amendment was ratified, saying, “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” African-Americans could vote, but women could not.

But it was not until 1920, that the 19th Amendment was ratified granting women the right to vote. “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.”