Editing September Morn (section)

===Nudity and art===
{{main article|Nude (art)|Depictions of nudity#Nudity in art}}
Female nudes were the dominant subject of painting in French Salons at the end of the 19th century.{{sfn|Rosenfeld}} Female models had become more common than male ones beginning in the early 19th century, first serving allegorical roles or as [[muse]]s, but eventually becoming individuals "who could be classified and whose history could be written".{{sfn|Lathers|2001|p=24}} In academic art&nbsp;– such as that of Chabas&nbsp;– the models were not portrayed as they were, but as idealized nudes, based on classical ideals; the body hair of women models, for instance, would not be shown, and the pubic area was rendered smoothly.{{sfn|Failing|2003|p=175}} The hostess [[Suzanne Delvé|Suzanne Delve]], who later claimed to have stood for ''September Morn'', said that models were willing to provide "service to art" by posing nude for such works.{{sfn|Salt Lake Tribune 1937}}

Not all forms of nude imagery were acceptable in France. The end of the 19th century had seen the introduction of various laws against pornography, images of adults and [[child pornography|children]] meant to "provoke, incite, or stimulate debauchery".{{sfn|Brauer|2011|p=128}} Works targeted were initially those meant for wide distribution (and thus, the lower class).{{sfn|Failing|2003|p=176}} However, the Australian art historian Fae Brauer writes that the line between art and pornography was blurred by the early 1910s; even tighter laws, introduced in 1908, had resulted in censorship of modernist works. For instance, three paintings by [[Kees van Dongen]] (including two of his daughter) were rejected from the [[Salon d'Automne]] between 1911 and 1913 on grounds of indecency.{{sfn|Brauer|2011|p=128}}

The United States had, since colonial times, generally been more puritan in terms of art than Europe. In the mid- and late-19th century the country's government implemented [[United States obscenity law|laws against obscenity]], such as the [[Tariff of 1842]] which banned the importing of foreign works of art deemed obscene. By the end of the 19th century, an uneasy understanding had been reached: museums could hold works depicting nudity, but commercial works (including photographs of artwork) could be&nbsp;– and were&nbsp;– confiscated.{{sfn|Cornog|Perper|1994|pp=98–99}}{{sfn|Beisel|1998|p=109}} Tensions remained over the issue of whether nudes represented European-style sophistication (a trait important to the upper-class) or encouraged behaviors which threatened families and encouraged "impure imaginations".{{sfn|Beisel|1998|pp=112, 119}}