Cécile Douard and the women of the mines [NO AI]

Cécile Douard was a French-born artist who came to Belgium as a child and spent her whole career there. This film is about her depictions of the female workers in the Belgian coalmining industry, and particularly her painting 'La Hiercheuse' (1896). 'La hiercheuse' is in the collection of the Province of Hainaut, Belgium, at BPS22 (Musée d'art de la Province de Hainaut). The image of the painting used in this film is public domain from Wikimedia Commons - many thanks to user Jmh2o (Jean-Marie Hoornaert) who created and uploaded this image. Chapters 00:00 Background: the Belgian coal industry 02:22 Women in Belgian coal mines 05:58 The work of the 'hiercheuse' 07:03 Cultural and artistic significance of the hiercheuse 10:22 Cécile Douard: life and career 13:34 Mons and the Borinage 14:47 Cécile Douard, the mines, and their workers 19:04 Analysis of Douard's 'La hiercheuse' 26:18 Conclusions [2308] Published 13 April 2023. SOURCES & FURTHER READING Oscar Ghilain, 'Le fin de la "hiercheuse"', Wallonia, vol. 13 (1905), pp. 563-9. Stephen H. Goddard (ed.), Les XX and the Belgian Avant-Garde: Prints, Drawings, and Books, ca. 1890 (Lawrence, Kansas: Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas, 1992). Patricia J. Hilden, The Rhetoric and Iconography of Reform: Women Coal Miners in Belgium, 1840-1914, The Historical Journal, vol. 34, no. 2 (June 1991), pp. 411-436. Patricia Penn Hilden, Women, Work, and Politics: Belgium 1830-1914 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993). Jeffrey Howe (ed.), Nature’s Mirror: Reality and Symbol in Belgian Landscape (McMullen School of Art, Boston College, 2017). Bruno Liesen, 'Cécile Douard: Artiste, philanthrope et femme de lettres française (1866-1941)', Voir, November 2009, pp. 243-248. Rossana Barragán and Leda Papastefanaki, 'Women and gender in the mines: challenging masculinity through history: and introduction', International Review of Social History, 65 (2020), pp. 191-230. Jeanne de la Ruwière, 'Cecile Douard', And There Was Light (American Braille Press), vol. 4 no. 16, December 1935, p. 17-22. Suzanne Van Rokeghem, Jeanne Vercheval-Vervoort and Jacqueline Aubenas, Des femmes dans l'histoire en Belgique depuis 1830 (Brussels: Luc Pire, 2006). Wendy Wiertz, ‘From artist to charitable cause: the financial aid to the Belgian painter Cécile Douard (1866-1941) after losing her sight’, Revue Belge d’Archéologie et d’Histoire de l’Art, 88 (2019), pp. 177-8.