Vagina Museum

"La Blanche et La Noire" by Félix Vallotton, 1913. In far too many historic paintings featuring Black women, the woman appears as a servant attending a white woman. Here, the relationship between the two women is ambiguous.

Courtesy of Metropolitan Museum of Art

Jan 25, 2023 at 4:29pmWeb
Show threadVagina MuseumJan 25, 2023
In Vallotton's painting, the Black woman is not attending, she is witnessing. She is not in the background, but she is at the front of the scene, quietly smoking her cigarette. The Black woman takes the position of the viewer of the painting, looking on at a scene which would otherwise look like a conventional scene for a white male gaze.
Show threadVagina MuseumJan 25, 2023
Vallotton's "La Blanche et La Noire" is frequently interpreted as a retort to artists such as Manet and Ingres. We're not going to show you Manet's or Ingres's scenes depicting a nude white woman and a Black woman because they clearly and unambiguously depict a racist dynamic of a Black servant or slave attending her white mistress.
Show threadVagina MuseumJan 25, 2023
Vallotton's "La Blanche et La Noire" challenges us to think about these dynamics and take the perspective of the Black woman in the painting. What do you think she is thinking about as she observes?
Show threadVegetable Gremlin ⍼​👻Jan 25, 2023
@vagina_museum come on i can tell you arent sleeping. are we getting breakfast or what
Show threadAlisonW ♿🏳️‍🌈♾️Jan 25, 2023
@vagina_museum
Post-sex ciggie, clearly.
Show threadDer Entgegner (Aka Ratatöskr)Jan 25, 2023
@AlisonW @vagina_museum telling from the flush
Show threadAlex O’NealJan 25, 2023
@vagina_museum I think the white woman’s blush reveals a whiff of what she’s thinking :-)