Haute Bicherie - Basse Bicherie [Fashionable Prostitution - Harlotry]
- Title:
- Haute Bicherie - Basse Bicherie [Fashionable Prostitution - Harlotry]
- Alternate Title:
- Haute Bicherie - Basse Bicherie [Fashionable Prostitution - Harlotry]
- Collection:
- Persuasive Maps: PJ Mode Collection
- Creator:
- Sahib [Lesage, Louis Ernest]
- Other Creators:
- Yves et Barret
- Date:
- 1881
- Posted Date:
- 2024-04-25
- ID Number:
- 2404.01
- File Name:
- PJM_2404_01.jpg
- Style/Period:
- 1870 - 1899
- Subject:
- Allegorical
Poverty/Prostitution/Crime
Pictorial
Romance/Love/Marriage
Satirical - Measurement:
- 31 x 49 (centimeters, height x width)
- Notes:
- This is a satirical view of prostitution - from the elegant to the disreputable - in the Paris of the 1880s. It describes two provinces of the allegorical Land of Tenderness: Haute Bicherie (fashionable prostitution) and Basse Bicherie (harlotry).
1881 was a significant year for the rights of women in France. The bi-monthly feminist journal La Citoyenne began publication in February of that year, and its advocacy of suffrage and full citizenship quickly gained recognition. Legislation advanced women’s divorce and property rights. And there was “repeal of a key law that forbade women to meet in groups of more than three.” Mix 2008, 194, 202. (This likely refers to one or both of two Jacobin decrees: October 30, 1793, prohibiting “clubs and political societies of women, under whatever denomination,” and May 23, 1795, prohibiting “women . . . found in the streets, gathered in groups of more than five.”)
“Many artists reacted . . . like prophets of doom, speculating that women would abuse their new freedoms, that male livelihood would be threatened, and the power of France would be diminished.” Mix 194. This map is one of a series that ran in issues of La Vie Parisienne in December 1881, part of “a visual campaign aimed at the trivialization of the significant and long overdue restoration of women’s rights. Artists and writers, by creating female stereotypes, . . . attempted to restore order to society, if only in imaginary and humorous ways.” Ibid. 202.
Haute Bicherie and Basse Bicherie are divided by the Bouis-Bouis (brothel) mountains and adjoin the province of Theatre; “the close proximity of the theater district . . . confirms that many women arrived at the prostitution through theatrical professions.” Mix 194. Indeed, theater is where “the musical and dramatic stars of the future, under skillful and sometimes self-interested direction, learn the price of engagements and that of virtue.” (Text quotes without citation are from lengthy descriptions in La Vie Parisienne, December 10, 17, 24, 1881.) “Most cities offer tourists luxury hotels and comfortable ground floors with exits on several streets.”
At the top of the map is the Salt Lake of Marriage, improbably adjoining both The Desert and Eternal Snows. Living together without marriage is apparently no better - at the bottom is the Marais Collage, the swamp of unwed union. (For the translation of 19th century French slang terms, see generally Barrere 1887; Farmer 1903; and http://www.russki-mat.net/argot/Argoji.php, accessed June 11, 2019.) At the top right, above Haute Bicherie, is a fashionably-dressed courtesan in her carriage, surrounded by top-hatted “angels” with wings. In contrast, the figure at the top left above Basse Bicherie is scantily-clad and playing solitaire as a disapproving old woman looks on.
“Haute Bicherie is one of the busiest and most productive provinces in the Land of the Tendre. . . . The industry is particularly active in all the arts of pleasure.” This province is traversed by the Grand Chic Railway, whose final stop is at the river Quarantine (fortyish); “women especially have a tendency to stop there.” Near the source of the river Veine (happy chance) is “the famous model farm of the Porte Bonheur . . . elegant pigsty, adorned with many gold and silver medals won . . . by the lucky pigs; stud farm, elephant breeding and other fetishes.” Nearby is the city of La Cravache (the whip), where “Tata takes Toto when she wishes to use arguments as brutal as irresistible, or vice versa.” Rastagoueres (foreign adverturers) fish in the waters of the Veine. The Plaine des Fournisseurs (providers) is full of “pitfalls and smiling or haughty extortions - a nasty place!” Surrounding areas include Toquade (amorous mania) City, the Village de la Reussite (success), Opoponax (perfume) Town, and Premieres Representations, “a city where you always go to take care of something other than what you pretend.” All these are well connected by road to the Petit Hotel, “remarkable for its high windows.” Among the “illustrious and celebrated” ladies born in Haute Bicherie are the famous courtesans “Ninon de L’Enclos, Marion Delorme, Aspasia, La Dame aux Camellias, M. DuBarry.”
Basse Bicherie is a very different place, “a country full of raw realism, which the River of Tendre does not water.” Sites include Sulfureuses waters, Le Clou (the pawnshop), the forest of Daim (stupid, rich dupes), the river of Guigne (bad luck; failure), the hill of Giffles (slap in the face), and the town of La Deche (misery, ruin). The Grand Chic Railway does not extend to Basse Bicherie, and “Most of the roads that cross this province are dirt roads.” In Basse Bicherie “all the known and other currencies” are recognized, “from the dollar to the piaster and the ruble and even the simple doubloon. . . . In the provinces of Theatre and Haute Bicherie, with cheerfulness, enthusiasm, experience, fortune and health, you will probably succeed. In the province of Basse Bicherie . . . you will succeed no matter what. Alas!”
“The government of the land of Tendre is by royalty, mixed with universal suffrage of several degrees. It is the only country where women have the right to vote, although men’s voices are preponderant.” The nation’s capital is the city of New-Cythere, named after the island where Venus came to earth. New-Cythere has the “charm” and “perfect harmony of a civilization at its height. . . . The temperature, although excessively hot, is none the less healthy and agreeable.” Near the city are numerous folded paper hats. These reflect French “double and triple entendres,” turning Spanish origami chickens into “the cocotte . . . a disposable toy, a ‘chick,’ and easy prey . . . symbols that make the connection with prostitution clear.” Mix 194, 196.
The mapmaker, “Sahib,” was Louis Ernest Lesage, a well-known French caricaturist of the time who worked for many years for La Vie Parisienne. His work in the magazine was published in black and white; this map was later hand colored.
Yves & Barret were one of the leading firms in the novel process of photoengraving. Carr 1882, 1060. Their work became known at the time as "the Yves and Barret process." (“Half-A-Hundred Pictures," New York Times, December 25, 1880, p. 3.)
The collection includes three of the firm’s satirical maps from La Vie Parisienne: ID #2082, "L'Europe en ce Moment” (1872); ID #2145, “Ou Peut Mener La Question de l'Alabama?” (1872); and ID #2404, “Haute Bicherie - Basse Bichere” (1881). Although the other two maps in the collection were unsigned, it is likely from their style that Lesage drew both of them as well.
Cornell University Library is pleased to present this digital collection of Persuasive Maps, the originals of which have been collected and described by the private collector PJ Mode. The descriptive information in the “Collector’s Notes” has been supplied by Mr. Mode and does not necessarily reflect the views of Cornell University. - Source:
- La Vie Parisienne, December 24, 1881
- Format:
- Image
- Rights:
- For important information about copyright and use, see http://persuasivemaps.library.cornell.edu/copyright.