The Portrayal of Woman in Fin-de-Siecle Vienna

We cannot begin to understand the response towards the contemporary patriarchal attitudes and theories toward women that the artists of the Vienna Secession manifested without discussing the men whose eyes interpreted the women of fin-de-siècle Vienna. During fin-de-siècle Vienna women were beginning to gain ground towards emancipation from oppressive patriarchal order of the Viennese society. The manifestation of these contemporary patriarchal attitudes is a complex one and rather difficult to define for many of the artists of the Secession had different ways of manifesting their personal attitudes toward women of the time. It could be argued that the artists of the time responded with a split image of women; the split between love and admiration and the threat that an independent woman could create within the identity of men (Natter 74). We could also argue that they created images of emancipated women in their works. To engage us on these concepts we can look at secessionist artists such as Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele and how they engaged in representing women through their personal vision as men and why feminists did not necessarily accept them. We can also look how the secessionist engaged themselves with the female enterprise and visual responses to female emancipation attempts. The men of fin-de-siècle Vienna also created a resurge of the femme fatale image and created a link of psychological hysteria with femininity as a way to retaliate toward women’s rights movement. These protection mechanisms that men produced were a way to control women and give reason for their actions. Needless to say men of the time had plenty to express through actions and art. Women were finally beginning to assert themselves in fin-de-siècle Vienna. They were now permitted to attend the University of Vienna in1897 despite the fact they could not take a degree (Sengoopta 32). They were also gaining control of their own lives such as owning property, smoking, riding

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