Dead Mannequins in Art History – Fashion, an Artist's Fetish, or an Extra Tool?

When most of us picture a painter working on a portrait, a romantic image comes to mind – the artist, and before him, a sitter posing. Yet, as research into art history, paintings and studios reveals, artists did not limit themselves to living models alone. The lifeless mannequin held an important place in the art world, and not merely as the painter's "tool" and the subject of a painting. The making of mannequins itself became a distinct craft, if not an art form in its own right, and their creators were highly esteemed.

Take, for example, Gustave Courbet, one of the best-known representatives of French Realism, who claimed to paint only "real and existing things." Yet a photograph of his studio taken in 1864 tells a different story. In it, we see a life-size female mannequin propped against the wall in a seated pose. So even a painter of such astonishing ability and skill as Courbet – who painted the French aristocracy with such realism – could not do without a small "trick": a mannequin, which today can be seen alongside other artists' mannequins in various exhibitions.

Photograph by Eugène Feyen, showing Gustave Courbet's studio with a lifeless mannequin, 1864.

Historical research traces the use of such mannequins in art from the 16th century, when they were an invisible but essential painting tool, through to the 20th century, when in modern art the mannequin evolved from a merely functional tool into a subject of the painting in its own right.

As the mannequin's significance grew, so did its complexity. While the 16th century shows mostly carved figurines and images, by the approach of the 20th century mannequins increasingly resembled human beings: in size, appearance, movement, and even in materials that mimicked human skin.

Artists sought to acquire ever-better mannequins, often paying large sums of money for them and waiting in line, while mannequin makers competed with one another, constantly devising new production techniques and even patenting their inventions. Take, for example, Paul Huot, who in the 18th–19th centuries was the star of mannequin craftsmanship – from Paris to St Petersburg, European artists coveted his work. The German painter August von der Embde paid an incredibly large sum for his time – 1,000 francs – for a Paul Huot mannequin, while the British painter William Etty waited an entire year to acquire one of Huot's mannequins.

One of Paul Huot's female mannequins, also known as the "mannequin perfectionné." They had an internal skeleton with movable joints, horsehair, and a cotton exterior resembling human skin.

In 1849, five years after the discovery of rubber, mannequin maker Jean Désiré Leblond patented this life-size mannequin made of rubber.

A bust created by Pierre Imans. He made his mannequins from wax, and they were so lifelike that Imans himself avoided using the word "mannequin," calling his creations "Pierre Imans waxes" instead.

It is difficult to grasp how and why this elevation of the mannequin's role in art came about, and what inner or outer motivations led painters who were already highly skilled to use them as auxiliary or supplementary tools, or as subjects of the painting itself. It may be that mannequins genuinely eased the painting process, standing in for a live sitter unable to attend every day, but eventually it became a "matter of fashion" and, over time, acquired a certain symbolic significance in art, depicting the lifeless mannequin alongside living subjects. It is indeed fascinating and puzzling to consider the psychological meaning of a figure that is realistic yet fake – lifelike yet lifeless. This undoubtedly shapes the overall mood and atmosphere of a painting, lending it a touch of eerie paradox, in which the "living" merges with the "lifeless."

Edgar Degas's painting "Portrait of Henri Michel-Lévy," 1878. In the painting we see a female mannequin slumped at the man's feet. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

"The Farmer in the Artist's Studio," a painting by Heinrich von Rustige from 1839, depicting a farmer and his child who have wandered into the studio and been startled by a dressed mannequin.

A 1888 painting by the German realist Wilhelm Trübner, in which a painted mannequin can be seen among living figures in the left-hand corner. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

Based on https://hyperallergic.com/151307/artists-mannequins-through-the-centuries/