Bridgerton and the Gender Binary of Neoclassical Art

Words by Cara Lee

Since its release on Christmas Day, Netflix’s new series Bridgerton has been watched by over 63 million households.  It scratches an itch we were unaware we had, to place the lives of Blair Waldorf and Serena van der Woodsen within the society of Elizabeth Bennet and Mr Darcy, with a continual nod towards an Instagram-filtered and deeply aestheticized world.

Watching Bridgerton is like watching a painting come to life.  The minutia of each setting is intricately delicate, coloured with sugary flower tones; idyllic lakes and rivers shimmering in the sun are the norm in this recreation of London, and fantastic silk dresses are in abundance.  Set in 1813, we follow the lives of several upper-class London families, focusing particularly on Daphne Bridgerton and her quest for a husband, basking in the simplicity of form and embracing the aesthetics of Neoclassicism.

Daphne and the Duke in Bridgerton

While art is not a major part of Bridgerton, it’s interesting to look at how art would have influenced the London Daphne Bridgerton and co were acquainted with.  At one point in the series, the Bridgertons and Featheringtons, along with many other prosperous guests, attend a grand opening of an art gallery in Somerset House.  Examining one of the works, Eloise and Penelope discuss its importance, relevance, and inextricably, its familiarity. 

Eloise: Quite dull, would you not agree?

Penelope: It is terribly familiar, yet I am sure this is the first time I have seen it.

Eloise: That is because, like all of these paintings, it was done by a man who sees a woman as nothing other than a decorative object.

In this, Eloise draws attention to the fact that most of the art produced in this period, and throughout the history of art, was created by men, noting the superficiality of roles assigned to women in art and in society which likens women to ornaments.  Whilst the painting they observe is a prop and not a real painting, its depiction of several naked children and women in a pastoral setting is reminiscent of many archetypal paintings from this period.

Daphne and Marina in Bridgerton

The Neoclassical movement in art began in the 1760s, succeeding the Rococo and Baroque periods and spanning nearly a century, before its gradual demise in the 1850s. Drawing inspiration from the classical artistic styles of Greece and Rome, Neoclassical works are very aesthetics-based, smoothly painted with defined forms.

Coinciding with the Enlightenment, a purity of style and form prevails, and with this, art was seen as potentially transformative to society along with literature, in the wake of a broader rejection of religion. Light and shadow are utilised powerfully, with the subjects – sometimes from the myths and history of Ancient Rome and Greece – bathing in often grand and noble expanses, whilst maintaining an air of antiquity.

Whilst a large aspect of Neoclassicism was rooted in classical Greece and Rome, contemporary context also influenced artists highly and usually, as Eloise points out, to the virtue of the male.   To look very briefly at a few key Neoclassical artists, we can see the status of women as lesser; male heroism tends to be amplified, with women being presented as weak, or mere aesthetic objects of desire and beauty. 

‘Oath of the Horatii’ by Jacques-Louis David

For instance, several of Jacques-Louis David’s works set up a distinct binary between male and female. Part of the French Neoclassical era, David’s works couple classical themes and antiquity with his feelings towards the French Revolution. The Oath of the Horatii is an interesting place to look at the politics and gender positions within his work. It has been viewed as an invitation and encouragement of the French Revolution, and centrally places a trio of brothers preparing to fight, with their father celebrating their heroism.

Very much side-lined sit two women, reluctantly grieving for the inevitable losses: they create the perfect picture of submissive domestic life. His Madame Récamier explores the traditional but passive beauty of women, again focusing on the aesthetic. Juliette Récamier sits, resignedly smiling, with her hair in a classical Greek style and bare feet.

This belief that women were “decorative objects” resulted in fewer opportunities for women, for fear of scandal or a slight in morality.  In Bridgerton, a culmination of scandals exposes how not only the course of a woman’s life, but also her status (and accordingly, her family’s status) was utterly dependent on her marriage.  A woman was expected to live a pure, moral life and as a result, women artists were few in numbers, an obvious trend throughout the history of art.  This isn’t to say however that there were no women artists at the time; history (or perhaps more accurately, life) has a way of orienting itself to the benefit and memory of men, after all.  

‘Diana and her Nymphs Bathing’ by Angelica Kauffman

Indeed, Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun and Angelica Kauffman produced numerous acclaimed works, to name just two artists, with both tending to focus on domestic portraits of women.  Kauffman’s Diana and her Nymphs Bathing is similar in tone to many paintings by men; her allusion to Diana - the Roman goddess of wild animals, hunting and importantly, fertility - highlights how deeply entrenched the status of women was, as reproductive and aesthetic vessels.

Well, dearest reader, in the words of Lady Whistledown, shockingly prolific was the focus on a woman’s “decorative” purpose in art history, and as Bridgerton shows, in society. In 1750, Johann Joachim Winckelmann declared that the secret to becoming a successful artist was by “imitating the ancients”, and this idea of modernising and manipulating history and antiquity plays out in interesting ways through art history, perpetuating ideologies that are not beneficial or of value to women.

Bridgerton, in all its aesthetic glory, demonstrates the steps feminism has made through Eloise’s refusal to meet the societal demands placed on a woman, and through the framework of archetypally familiar art and society’s traditional conventions, Eloise Bridgerton seeks to highlight and overcome previous conceptions of genders as a binary, and their subsequent enforced gender roles