The Flâneur and The Ragpicker – Part 1
Privileged and essentially male, the flâneur was a gentleman-stroller associated with wandering at leisure along the newly built, Parisian boulevards while idly imbibing the atmosphere of the modern city. How does the flâneur appear in paintings, and how is his presence linked to notions of modern life?
By contrast, at night the capital’s streets became the ragpickers’ terrain. Scavenging through the city’s detritus, these workers sought materials to sell for recycling.
In this first lecture Jo Rhymer will explore why these largely overlooked workers interested artists, Manet and Raffaëlli, as well as the poet, Charles Baudelaire. Despite being worlds apart, what characteristics might the flâneur and ragpicker share?