The Gamma in Art

"The Irritating Gentleman" 1864

An analysis of The Irritating Gentleman, an 1864 genre painting in the realist style by German artist Berthold Woltze, at Art History:

Berthold Woltze has made his irritating gentleman exquisitely irritating by making him rich as well as important. His effusive smile shines with self-regard, but it has no convivial note in which the young lady could partake. That is because his satisfaction is all for himself. We can well imagine that he would be pleased with his exploit even if absolutely nothing positive came of it and the young lady stood up and left at her earliest convenience.

The young woman captivates us at once for she makes us realize that nothing about this situation is amusing, quite to the contrary. Her expression of dignified, and therefore restrained; her suffering encompasses the entire gravity of the irritating gentleman’s disrespect. In no part of her person except for her face does the young woman communicate her grief. Lending pathos to that sentiment, and incidentally a new kind of beauty to her proud visage, the tears that have begun showing also make her blue eyes shine.

The Irritating Gentleman is a snapshot of vainglorious self-regard asserting itself for a moment over proud innocence, just enough to cause hurt. It is a depiction of politeness violated in an act that exploits its assumption for an essentially impotent kind of sexual assault conducted by means of words and physical proximity. By the immediate reaction of disquiet and contempt that it manifests in the average viewer, Berthold Woltze’s painting may be said to have a strong moralistic value.

I’ve said many, many times that the Socio-Sexual Hiearchy is a taxonomy, not a construction or a new creation. The fact that there are literally famous works of art dedicated to portraying the Gamma Male in action from 160 years ago tend to lend support to this particular perspective.

Great art, in any form, speaks to the human condition. And what woman cannot relate to the pained look in the young blonde woman’s eyes, as she realizes that there is no easy escape from the irritating gentleman’s unwanted importunities.