Mary Cassatt, "In the Loge", c. 1879

A young woman clad in a white dress is sitting in a side box of a theater or opera, gazing across the balcony. Mary Cassatt's presents the young woman in typical costume of the 19th century: A high-necked, corseted dress with red highlights on the lace of both collar and sleeves, complemented by white gloves. The woman wears her hair up in the fashion of the time, suggesting that she is either married or ready to get married. Apart from the gloves, two flowers in her hair - one red and one white - as well as a big fan serve as her accessories.

Mary Cassatt, In the Loge, c. 1879, pastel and metallic paint on canvas prepared with a pastel ground, 65,1 x 81,3 cm, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.

In combination with the depiction in profil perdu (lost profile), the fan, covering part of her chin, adds to the general uncertainty of whether the woman is looking at the stage or around the theater. The loge is on the second floor and she appears to be enwrapped in the goings-on of the theater. Her eyes are turned down towards the stage, whose light reflects on her face. With her left shoulder towards the beholder, her body and face is turned away from us. She holds the fan in her right hand but across her left arm, which rests on the velvet cushion of the balony. In this gesture, the fan and her left shoulder appear to be on the same level of depiction with the beholder in front of her and the theatre room beyond. This way, by gesture and body language, the beholder is blocked out of her theatrical environment.

In a highly impressionistic manner, Mary Cassatt's limited color palette consists mainly of whites, blacks and reds in all their hues, enhanced with greens and yellows. The distinct strokes of clothes, accessories and surrounding are abandoned for a highly naturalistic depiction of the carnation of the woman's face.

Both the images of women with fans as well as the location of the theater loge or theater seat are favorites in the œuvre of Mary Cassatt. A selection of these can be found in Barbara Wells Sarudy's blog "It's about Time".

The imagery of Mary Cassatt's paintings of theaters resonate in the production design Martin Scorsese's film The Age of Innocence from 1993:

John William Waterhouse: Women and Water I - Hylas and the Nymphs

Hylas is a figure from Greek mythology and mentioned in the works of Ovid, Theocritus and Gaius Valerius Flaccus. In some sources, Hylas' father is thought to be King Theiodamas of the Dryopians, other sources state that Hylas was the son of Hercules and the nymph Melite.

Hylas was one of the Argonauts, travelling with Hercules in search of the Golden Fleece. While the Argo anchored at Cios, Hylas was sent ashore to search for water. When he discovered the spring of Pegae, the nymphs of the place, among them Dryope, fell in love with him and kidnapped him. Apollonios Rhodios, in his epic poem Argonautica, states that Hylas vanished without a trace. While Hercules searched for him, Hylas was never found. Flaccus' poem Argonautica explains that Hylas had fallen in love with these naiads, the water-nymphs, and remained with them in their watery abode.

This subject inspired Victorian painter John William Waterhouse (1849 - 1917) to his superb painting Hylas and the Nymphs from 1896, now at the Manchester Art Gallery in the UK.

John William Waterhouse, Hylas and the Nymphs, 1896

While the story of Hylas and the nymphs was not a regular subject in painting or the visual arts, Hylas, however, was mentioned in several works of literature in the English language. Hylas was a source of inspiration for both Edmund Spenser in his The Fairie Queene from 1596 and Christopher Marlowe in Edward II from 1594 as well as for Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray from 1890.

Amazingly, this masterpiece of Waterhouse's oeuvre has experienced great popularity with artists, photographers and directors of our age. Reference to Hylas and the Nymphs is evident in numberless examples of popular culture. One of these references is clearly the scene of the mermaids luring the pirates in Rob Marshall's “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides” from 2011, featuring Gemma Ward:

Both the imagery and the luring enchantment of the seductresses correspond with Waterhouse’s work. This shot from the movie "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides" also conveys this notion:

Gemma Ward and Mermaids from "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides", 2011

Apparently, the idea of the femme fatale, which fascinated painters, sculptors and writers in the 19th and early 20th century holds the same attraction to today’s artists, photographers and directors.

However, the most obvious reference of John William Waterhouse's Hylas and the Nymphs can be found in the 1993 movie "Sirens", directed by John Duigan, starring Hugh Grant, Sam Neill and Elle Macpherson. "Sirens" is a movie about an Anglican priest and his wife visiting a notorious artist about a blasphemous painting. At the artist's compound, the two meet his models, Elle Macpherson, Kate Fisher and Portia de Rossi. In the course of the movie, these three women become personifications of Waterhouse's nymphs.

The scene of the painter's models bathing in the pond and the blind man drinking from the water is an almost one-to-one quotation of Waterhouse, down to the hairdo, the lily pond and the posture of the four:

Portia de Rossi, Elle MacPherson and Kate Fisher in "Sirens", John Duigan, 1994

John William Waterhouse, Hylas and the Nymphs, 1896

For more information on the movie see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sirens_(film)