3-098-887 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

The Human Beast, 1897. A depiction of female prostitution that denounces human exploitation and the personal degradation of the victim. The young woman could be the daughter or widow of a respectable middle-class family. The setting is stark and cold: a nearly empty house with minimal furnishings. The brazier is unlit, its cover crooked; a straw chair bears the visitor's hat; the table holds a bottle of liquor and pastries, presumably brought by the client. On the wall are images connected to bullfighting. The young woman weeps with her face buried in her hands, ashamed of the path she has taken - or been offered - as a desperate solution. Dressed in fashionable black, she is nevertheless, without resources, and lacking the courage to confront her condition. The procuress is crude and unscrupulous. One hand urges the girl to stop crying and fulfil the agreement, while the other is raised in a gesture of irritation and disbelief. The man is dull and expressionless, worn and disenchanted, thin and sickly in appearance - a bourgeois figure who remains unmoved by the situation he has provoked.