ABSTRACT
The discursive explosion of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries what came under scrutiny was the sexuality of children, mad men and women, and criminals; the sensuality of those who did not like the opposite sex; reveries, obsessions, or petty manias. It was time for all these figures, scarcely noticed in the past, to step forward and speak, to make the difficult confession of what they were. No doubt they were condemned all the same; but they were listened to; and if regular sexuality happened to be questioned once again, it was through a reflux movement, originating in these peripheral sexualities. The link between this picture and The Maids is class, and specifically the working or underclass, as constituted in the former painting by the seamstress, and in the latter by the eponymous servants. The pictures are dominated by religious and diasporic themes connected to the imperatives of the maritime enterprise: a praying woman, an angel and a St Sebastian.
