While Honoré de Balzac was not particularly renowned for being a feminist, he was one of the only writers of his time to be empathetic in his works for women, evoking themes such as marital rape with modernity. In an exhibition running from November 20, 2024 to March 30, 2025, the Maison de Balzac highlights the theme of marriage and its disillusions in the 19th century, through his works and those of his contemporary designers, and even a wedding dress on loan from the Palais Galliera.
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In his time, marriage was most often an arranged union, a convention determined by social and financial considerations, which generally had an austere impact on women. In La Comédie Humaine, women fall into four categories: wives or young girls to be married off, young women whose precarious status forces them to seek a protector, prostitutes or women too old/work-worn.
Like other cartoonists of the period, including Victor Adam, Honoré Daumier and Émile-Charles Wattier, he criticizes marriage with irony, evoking the imbalance of this union, couples with often significant age differences, marriages that resemble contracts more than a love affair, but also adultery and the inequality between men and women before the law. A wide range of subjects that give authors and cartoonists plenty of grist for their mill!
While the tone adopted is humorous, it unambiguously denounces patriarchal authority and the suffering of marriage for women through domestic conflicts.
Dates and Opening Time
From November 20, 2024 to March 30, 2025
Location
House of Balzac
47, rue Raynouard
75116 Paris 16
Prices
Tarif réduit: €5
Tarif plein: €7
Official website
www.maisondebalzac.paris.fr
