At first glance, Horst’s oeuvre appears to exemplify the artistic conventions characteristic of antiquity. Specifically, Horst’s work seems to draw upon the line, form, space, and treatment of light that is typical of... [ view full abstract ]
At first glance, Horst’s oeuvre appears to exemplify the artistic conventions characteristic of antiquity. Specifically, Horst’s work seems to draw upon the line, form, space, and treatment of light that is typical of Classical Greek sculpture and French Neoclassical painting. However, upon closer inspection I believe Horst’s works tell a much more involved story and indeed reveals a much darker world.
His most famous photograph, The Mainbocher Corset, c.1939, published as an advertisement in the 1939 September issue of American Vogue, may seem to simply recall an antique sculpture, however, it provides a shining example of Horst’s early work’s often violent undertones. Fueled by the intellectual movements surfacing in western Europe at this time, Horst produced images that “chronicled the interwoven worlds” of Paris and, in turn, were truly of his time.
Previous scholarship on Horst and his Mainbocher Corset emphasizes the model’s likeness to icons such as Venus or Aphrodite and often claims that Horst was solely inspired by stylistic conventions and ideologies that are deeply rooted in the classical ideal. I believe these scholars take The Mainbocher Corset at face value, ignoring certain iconographical clues which root this photograph within another more contemporary movement: Surrealism. Throughout my thesis, I have critically reexamined The Mainbocher Corset in order to unpack the motivations behind Horst’s compositional choices and show how this photograph was of a piece with the social and political atmosphere of Europe on the eve of WWII.
