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I was fascinated to see that this 1913 "Venus" - in life, the popular singer Raquel Meller - is depicted with underarm and pubic hair.

This prompted my interest for two reasons.

In the first place, I find it attractive when women have not removed all of their underarm and pubic hair. This body hair to me is a sign of sexual maturity and of a certain animal physicality.

Secondly, I would like to know more about the history of depilation. The internetish history usually tells the story of underarm hair only becoming taboo amongst western women in the early decades of the twentieth century as a result of changing fashions and concomitant advertising by the manufacturers of razors.

I suspect, however, there is more to the story. I wonder if depilation practices have a longer history and have varied in Europe and the Americas according to socioeconomic class, ethnicity, and religion.

There is also, of course, the gap between bodies and pictorial representations of bodies. I remember being struck at Avignon's Musée Calvet by the underarm hair depicted in Théodore Chassériau's "Baigneuse endormie près d'une source".

#Art #BodyHair #UnderarmHair
#MuséeCalvet
#ThéodoreChassériau
#Depilation
#HistoryOfTheBody