Project 7: The flâneur

Leisure time and Consumerism – The flâneur

The latter half of the 19^th Century brought about the democratisation of art. This was through an increase in leisure time, an increase in disposable income, the genesis of the mass-produced image and the increasing availability, due to falling prices, of technology. This affected all classes, except only the poorest; allowing most the opportunity to view, buy and produce art e.g. photography.

This cultural change was held in conjunction with the development of the department store and shopping as a leisure activity; the beginning of consumerism. With this was the start of a new urban phenomenon, first theorised by French essayist and critic Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867): the ‘flâneur’.

What effect do you think this phenomenon had on the world of the artist in Western society from the latter part of the 19^th Century?

In think this emerging phenomenon (the flâneur) had a great effect on artists in Western society from the latter part of the 19^th Century, especially in their understanding of urban phenomenon and modernity.

Baudelaire described the flâneur as a “person who walks (strolls) the city in order to experience it”. This inclusive philosophical way of both living and thinking, is key for the artist to understand and portray urban life. It also permits the artist the dual role of participating in the urban experience and theoretically remaining a detached observer; while exploring the relationship between the individual and the rest of society.

After the 1848 French revolution, with the Empire being re-established, the bourgeois reasserted order through morals. Baudelaire reacted against this by writing that traditional art was inadequate for the new dynamic complications of modern life; a result of industrialisation.  It was now the artists’ responsibility to be a part and react to this world. The flâneur is both an active participant and has a critical attitude towards the conformity and anonymity of modern life. Now, instead of art being the reserve of the wealthy, the bourgeois had the opportunity to view, buy and produce their own art.

This phenomenon is important to the idea of modernity. Baudelaire’s aesthetic and critical assessment of the flâneur was later developed by Georg Simmel in regards to sociology and psychology. More importantly, the previous paragraph can better understood through Marxist discourse as the concept was adopted by Walter Benjamin. Benjamin saw the flâneur as an urban observer who both experiences the lifestyle and uses their distance as an analytical tool. A product of the industrial revolution, the flâneur is an uninvolved bourgeois dilettante.

With my reading of Sontag last week, I have come to understand that the phenomenon of the flâneur can be applied to photography. Sontag states In ‘Melancholy Objects’ (Sontag, On Photography: 1977) that the photographer is detached but aesthetically attuned to observation and this has its origins in Baudelaire’s middle class flâneur. Thus, a parallel can be drawn between the development of the flâneur and the mass-produced image. Sontag provides evidence for this by drawing attention to the street photography of Paul Martin, Arnold Genthe, Atget and Brassaï.


Bibliography

2010. Flâneur. [online] Available at: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fl%C3%A2neur> [Accessed 03 October 2010]
Sontag, Susan. (1977) ‘Melancholy Objects’ In:  On Photography  London: Penguin Books.


- I am disappointed that not only is there a lack of sources this week, but also that I had resort to Wikipedia for information on the concept of the flâneur.