Emmanuel Benner
Girl from Capri, around 1874
Oil on Canvas, 185,5 x 116 cm
Kunstmuseum Bern, Gift from Frédéric de Rutte, Bern
Emmanuel Benner (1836–1896)
Emmanuel Benner studies at Parisian academies and specialises in female nudes in landscapes and allegories shaped by a male, European gaze. On Capri, he paints locals – works such as Mädchen von Capri are celebrated by the Paris Salon as 'picturesque folklore'. There was a socio-economic and gender-based power imbalance between painter and models, probably including minors.