Femme Fatale

Femme Fatale Since the beginning of recorded history we have been held to witness the influence of women and their sexuality on mankind. As sexual creatures, humans desire each other; generally men are more inclined to be seen as the ones who “need” the physical sexual act. This “need” that men have gives women an important power and opportunity over men. By controlling sex women can basically rule the world. This idea tends to scare men because men like to be the ones in control, but at the same time this thought of powerful dominating women is a sexual turn on. These natural curiosities we all have with our bodies, and fantasies we create, led to the eventual naming of this phenomenon as the Femme Fatale, coined by the French. Prior to the term being used, the actual idea of the Femme Fatale has been around since basically the beginning of time even seen in the mythology of cultures, such as the Greek sirens. In all cases of the Femme Fatale, she is seen as being a seductive trickster whom is solely responsible for the downfall of the men she preys upon. When this theme became consciously popular in art works it was given a name. My main purpose is to eventually describe how three artists took different approaches to their own depiction of the iconic Femme Fatale and how they compare to each other. The three artists and their works I will focus on are Ernst Ludwig Kirchner with his painting Street, Berlin, Aubrey Beardsley with his illustration Salome with the Head of John the Baptist, and Edvard Munch with his painting Vampire. I will start by first giving a comprehensive overview of the meaning of the term Femme Fatale. Next, I will give a general explanation of the use of the formal elements for each artists work selected, finally, I will compare and contrast how each artist approached the same theme of the Femme Fatale through the formal elements. The term Femme Fatale was originally coined by the French to describe a trend occurring in the art world.

Cited: Virginia M. Allen, The Femme Fatale: A Study of the Early Development of the concept in Mid- Nineteenth Century Poetry and Painting. Boston: Boston University, 1979. Virginia M. Allen, The Femme Fatale: Erotic Icon. New York: The Whitston Publishing Company, 1983.