Why Is This Woman Pinching the Nipple of the Other?
Decoding a painting of two sisters in a bathtub
It is hard not to be intrigued by a painting like this. It shows two women sitting unclothed in a bathtub. The one on the right is named Gabrielle d’Estrées. Beside her is another woman — thought to be her sister — who is unambiguously pinching her nipple.
Given their coiffured hair and sparkling pearl drop earrings, it is fairly clear that they belong to the aristocracy — which is all the more reason to be surprised at their nude depiction.
This fascinating painting remains one of the most famous works of French art, and yet very little is known about its making: the artist behind the work can only be guessed at, and the commissioning patron is unknown.
As for its meaning, historians have long questioned the gesture of the nipple pinch, and have come to some surprising conclusions.
The Setting and Background
Both women are shown naked from the waist up. They are sat inside a bathtub that is covered in cloth or silk. Bathtubs of old were typically made of metal or wood, and were often lined with fabric to prevent the heat of the metal from burning or a rogue splinter from the wood. It was all about comfort.
Gabrielle d’Estrées was a French duchess and a mistress, confidante and adviser of King Henry IV of France. She was a noblewoman with contacts in high places.
In fact, the union between Henry and the Duchess was more than just passing: they intended to marry, but only after Henry could apply to the Pope for an annulment of his present marriage to Marguerite de Valois, better known as Queen Margot, and given permission to remarry.
In anticipation of their hoped-for nuptials, Gabrielle d’Estrées is shown in the painting holding a ring in her left hand. This detail should alert us to the idea that the painting is about Gabrielle’s relationship with the king.
(Some years after this painting was made, in March 1599, Henry did indeed give his mistress his coronation ring.)
And yet the union was not to be. Gabrielle, pregnant with what is thought to have been the couple’s fourth illegitimate child, suffered an attack of eclampsia and gave birth to a stillborn son. A day later, on 10 April 1599, while Henry was rushing to visit her in Paris, Gabrielle died.
The Tweaked Nipple
The bizarre element of this painting that seems to demand attention is the gesture that acts as the centrepiece of the image.
Also unclothed in the bath, the other woman alongside the Duchess is assumed to be her sister, Julienne-Hippolyte-Joséphine, Duchess of Villars. She reaches forward assuredly and pinches Gabrielle’s right nipple.
So what’s going on here?
Whilst we might instinctively imagine the painting to have erotic connotations or even to depict a licentious piece of homoeroticism, it is highly unlikely that this was its intended purpose. Even if the pink silk curtains that hang above the scene seem to further suggest a titillating tableau — as if we are an audience looking at a private performance — such a reading would be inappropriate.
The painting was made around 1594, some five years before Gabrielle’s death, perhaps a few months prior to her giving birth to Caesar of Bourbon, the couple’s first child. Gabrielle in fact had three children by Henry before her death in her late twenties while pregnant with her fourth child.
The touching of the Duchess’ nipple should be read as a sign of her pregnancy. In other words, the pinching of a nipple was an allegory of fertility, perhaps as an evocation of expressing milk.
This explanation would seem to be reinforced by the background of the scene, which shows a young woman sewing, perhaps preparing clothing or bedclothes for the coming child.
The artist behind the work is unknown, although some attribute it to the French Renaissance miniaturist and painter Francois Clouet, who had painted several other works that use a similar layering of foreground and background details.
On safer ground is the attribution of the painting to the School of Fontainebleau — a gathering of artists that centred on the Royal Palace of Fontainebleau near Paris.
The school began in 1528, during the reign of Francis I, and became an important centre for the Northern Mannerists — who painted figures with elongated or exaggerated forms, often in crowded compositions.
Since this painting dates from around 1594, it is more appropriately placed in the “second school of Fontainebleau” when Henri IV undertook a renovation of the Fontainebleau buildings after the Wars of Religion had forced the château to be abandoned.
What can be said for certain is that the painting remains an enigmatic and absorbing image. It should perhaps also teach us that first impressions can be deceptive: for when it comes to looking at old paintings like this, history can be full of surprises.
Christopher P Jones is the author of What Great Artworks Say, an examination of some of art’s most enthralling images.
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