The Femme Fatale in Symbolist Art

Osher Lifelong Learning Institute presents The Femme Fatale in Symbolist Art 

$55

As an archetype of female seduction, the femme fatale – beautiful, beguiling, dangerous – appears across different cultures and mythologies. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, she becomes an iconographic obsession found in various artistic movements, especially in Symbolism. Artists were drawn to characters from Old Testament and mythical stories or conjured their own.

Using examples of prominent artworks, the seminar explores the various depictions of the femme fatale and attempts to explain why such imagery became embedded in the Western psyche in fin-de-sie`cle culture.