Femina: Publication Bi-Mensuelle Illustree, Tome I, 1901: Numero 1, 1st Fevrier 1901 - Numero 22, 15 Decembre 1901 [Magazine Issues 1-22]

Leather spine and corners, gilt titles and decorations, marbled boards and endpapers. Color plates, black-and-white, monochrome, and colorized photographs, photogravure illustrations throughout text, including many images of contemporary fashions. A collection of twenty-two issues of this 24-page French magazine, representing the entire first year run. Femina was a French bi-monthly women's magazine, created in 1901 by Pierre Lafitte and it continued publication in various forms until 1964. The publication gave its name to the Prix Femina. The title of the publication is taken from the Latin word femina for "woman". It was subtitled "La revue ideale de la femme et de la jeune fille" ("The ideal magazine for women and girls") and targeted the female bourgeoisie. efore the First World War its editorial coverage was broader than other magazines aimed at women. It presented a balanced mix of reportage on fashion, the arts and current events, with generous coverage of leisure activities, especially sports (the cover of April 1, 1902, shows the photograph of two women playing ping pong and another magazine published by Lafitte, La Vie au vent, catered to women sports enthusiasts), and professional advice on interior decoration. Advertising from luxury retailers and manufacturers covered at least five pages of each issue. Leading journalists contributed articles, including women writers with a serious commitment to women's issues, among them being poet Jane Catulle-Mendes, and established novelists Gabrielle Reval, Jeanne Lapauze and Marcelle Tinayre. Amongst its male writers were allies of feminism: Marcel Prevost, Jules Claretie (director of the Comedie Francaise which staged several progressive plays about women), Maurice Donnay (who wrote the 1913 feminist play L'eclaireuses), Paul Margueritte (who supported divorce and the decriminalization of adultery), and literary critic Emile Faguet, sympathetic to women writers. It profiled celebrated women, including those working in the professions; as an example of its contents and inclusion of female celebrities of the day, the May 1, 1903 issue entitled "Women Artists at the Salon of 1903", devoted three illustrated pages to Louise Abbema, Louise Catherine Breslau, Camille Claudel, Maximilian Guyon, Louise Clement-Carpeaux (cover), Laure Coutan-Montorgueil, and Juana Romani. Femina projected a strong visual appeal. Current fashion in clothing and interiors was illustrated with photographs made, in the case of garments, in the studio or at social events (such as those taken at the races by the Seeberger Brothers)[5] and hand-drawn illustrations, including instructions on fitting garments; on the correct way to remove gloves, for example. Photographic portraits played a role in engaging readers with elite society figures and unpeopled pictures of their prestige home interiors appealed to aspirational readers' curiosity. After a few years, the cover of the magazine, which was in most cases a photograph, was alternated with a bi-chrome comic illustration. In 1906, the cover of the November 1 number displayed a drawing of a woman breastfeeding her child, signed by Paul Cesar Helleu.