Art Criticism And Its Institutions In Nineteenth Century France

This book explores a range of social, institutional and discursive conditions in and through which criticism emerged and functioned in 19th-century France, and goes on to develop broader theoretical questions drawn from historical case studies.

This book is the first sustained study of a corpus of writings by women art critics active in nineteenth-century France that have all but “vanished” from the historical record. Written by scholars in art history and in literature, the essays employ a variety of interdisciplinary approaches and methodologies to study the women’s reception of specific artworks and aesthetic movements in the nineteenth century, the intersections of aesthetics and politics in their essays, and their rhetorical strategies and literary styles.

In this innovative volume, literary critics and art historians explore the relationship between literature and the visual arts in 19th-century France. Eighteen leading scholars, including Pierre Bourdieu, Germaine Greer, Segolene Le Men, Roger Cardinal and Mary Ann Caws analyse contemporary forms of representation to reveal the rich variety of factors that link image and text.

Mining various archives and newspaper repositories, Elizabeth Robins Pennell, Nineteenth-Century Pioneer of Modern Art Criticism provides the first full-length study of a remarkable woman and heretofore neglected art critic. Pennell, a prolific 'New Art Critic', helped formulate and develop formalist methodology in Britain at the end of the nineteenth century, which she applied to her mostly anonymous or pseudonymous reviews published in numerous American and British newspapers and periodicals between 1883 and 1923. A bibliography of her art criticism is included as an appendix. In addition to advocating an advanced way in which to view art, Pennell used her platform to promote the work of ?new? artists, including ?ouard Manet and Edgar Degas, which had only recently been introduced to British audiences. In particular, Pennell championed the work of James McNeill Whistler for whom she, along with her husband, the artist Joseph Pennell, wrote a biography. Examination of her contributions to the late Victorian art world also highlights the pivotal role of criticism in the production and consumption of art in general, a point which is often ignored.

The traditional relationship between painting and literature underwent a profound change in nineteenth-century France. Painting progressively asserted its independence from literature as it liberated itself from narrative obligations whilst interrogating the concept of subject matter itself. Simultaneously the influence of art on the writing styles of authors increased and the character of the artist established itself as a recurring motif in French literature. This book offers a panoramic review of the relationship between art and literature in nineteenth-century France. By means of a series of case studies chosen from key moments throughout the nineteenth century, the aim of this study is to provide a focused analysis of specific examples of this relationship, revealing both its multifaceted nature as well as offering a panorama of the development of this on-going and increasingly complex cultural relationship. From Jacques Louis David’s irreverence for classical texts to Victor Hugo’s graphic works, from Edouard Manet’s illustrations to Vincent Van Gogh’s paintings of books, from Honoré de Balzac’s Unknown Masterpiece to Joris-Karl Huysmans’s A Rebours, this interdisciplinary investigation of the links between literature and art in France throws new light on both fields of creative endeavour during a critical phase of France’s cultural history.

The Artist as Animal in Nineteenth-Century French Literature traces the evolution of the relationship between artists and animals in fiction from the Second Empire to the fin de siècle. This book examines examples of visual literature, inspired by the struggles of artists such as Edouard Manet and Vincent van Gogh. Edmond and Jules de Goncourt’s Manette Salomon (1867), Émile Zola’s Therèse Raquin (1867), Jules Laforgue’s “At the Berlin Aquarium” (1895) and “Impressionism” (1883), Octave Mirbeau’s In the Sky (1892-1893) and Rachilde’s L’Animale (1893) depict vanguard painters and performers as being like animals, whose unique vision revolted against stifling traditions. Juxtaposing these literary works with contemporary animal theory (McHugh, Deleuze, Guattari and Derrida), zoo studies (Berger, Rothfels and Lippit) and feminism (Donovan, Adams and Haraway), Claire Nettleton explores the extent to which the nineteenth-century dissolution of the human subject contributed to a radical, modern aesthetic. Utilizing these interdisciplinary methodologies, Nettleton argues that while inducing anxiety regarding traditional humanist structures, the “artist-animal,” an embodiment of artistic liberation within an urban setting, is, at the same time, a paradigmatic trope of modernity.

As one of the most vigorous and independent of French nineteenth century art critics, Philippe Burty (1830-1890) often supported areas and issues that other critics overlooked. He was among the first to support the new renaissance in printmaking (essentially in etching) and his articles on the decorative arts, the need for reforms in the exhibition system and his support of younger painters were well known. His primary contribution was in championing Japonisme (the taste for all things Japanese) in France and in coinig the name by which this tendency was identified. He also avidly spoke up for the Impressionists in both French and English articles at a time when few did. Burty was also a creative collector whose tastes in journalistic writing were reflected in what he had in his own home. In all these ways he demonstrated an advanced attitude.

This book examines the sub-genre of prehistoric-themed paintings and how it captured the imagination of French academic painters from the 1880s to early 1900s. Its primary focus is the oeuvre of Fernand Cormon (1845–1924), one of the foremost history painters during the final quarter of the nineteenth century.