It is the most famous female sex in the world.
It is immortalized by Courbet in his painting: The Origin of the World. This sex has a face today; that of Constance Quéniaux; “The origin of the world, life of the model”, Claude Schopp’s book to be published by Éditions Phébus reveals the name of the model that Gustave Courbet would have used for his famous painting. A major discovery for the history of art that was made in part thanks to the collections of the BnF and the expertise of Sylvie Aubenas, director of the department of Prints and Photography who signs the postface of the book .
It was while working on the correspondence of Alexandre Dumas fils that the researcher pulled the thread of the enigma of “The origin of the world”. The name Constance Quéniaux appears indeed in a letter of Dumas son to George Sand kept in the Department of Manuscripts of the. A a face that the public will be able to discover on the occasion of the great exhibition that the BnF devotes to the three Nadars since the photography of Constance Quéniaux by Félix Nadar will be presented there from October 16, 2018.
Jean-Jacques Naudet
Exhibition
The Nadar, a photographic legend
October 16, 2018 I February 3, 2019
BnF I François-Mitterrand
Quai François Mauriac, Paris XIII
