Women Walking: Freedom, Adventure, Independence

Art historian and writer Sagner (Beautiful Women) pursues a subtle social theme in 19th- and 20th-century Western art: women walking. The evolution of women's mobility is one way to read history itself, Sagner argues: before the development of the public park in the 19th century, women were unable to walk outdoors%E2%80%94unless they were aristocrats with access to private gardens. The expansion of public space parallels the rise of the middle class and with it changes in the status and roles of women. Women gradually came to be seen as less fragile and more capable. Over time, women walking urban streets were no longer suspected of prostitution and instead became part of the crowd. Sagner selects paintings that persuasively illustrate the evolution of women's freedom. Her selections range throughout Western Europe and America with works by John Singer Sargent and Charles Courtney Curran and a slew of lesser-known artists. Woven into Sagner's analysis are texts from major women writers, including Jane Austen, Simone de Beauvoir, and Virginia Woolf, testifying to women's experience of increasing mobility and social power. Color illus. (Sept.)