A Companion to French Art

A comprehensive exploration of the evolutions, innovations, and legacies of French art from the late eighteenth-century to the present Charting the artistic eras from the transformative upheavals of the French Revolution to the dynamic global intersections of contemporary art in the 21st century, A Companion to French Art, provides an unparalleled analysis of French art. Edited by Richard Taws and Natalie Adamson, this authoritative volume offers new ways to consider the broad history of French art through critical attention to diverse objects, mediums, and practices that have shaped French art across centuries. Shedding new light on how art has interacted with and challenged established narratives, this volume features 30 essays by leading and emerging scholars, offering insights into a wide range of topics, including revolutionary iconography, modernist movements, colonial legacies, and contemporary art's engagement with global issues. Going beyond traditional frameworks, these chapters present new methodologies and innovative interpretations that reflect the evolving questions and challenges in art history. Addressing essential themes while expanding the boundaries of how French art is understood today, A Companion to French Art: Offers comprehensive coverage of French art with a uniquely wide topical and temporal scope Examines diverse media and materials including painting, sculpture, photography, film, ceramics, industrial design, and fashion Engages with cutting-edge methodologies such as post-colonial critique and feminist theory Draws on in-depth archival research and previously unexplored materials for fresh insights Essential for undergraduate and postgraduate courses in French art history, A Companion to French Art, is also an invaluable resource for academics, museum professionals, and researchers worldwide.

List of Figures ix About the Editors xv Notes on Contributors xvii Series Editor's Preface xxiii Acknowledgments xxv Introduction 1 Natalie Adamson and Richard Taws Part 1 Post- Revolutionary Visions 19 1 The Smiling Face of Terror: Étienne Béricourt's French Revolution 21 Richard Taws 2 After the Terror, Passing Scenes: Historical Experience in Robertson's Paris Phantasmagoria 39 Jillian Lerner 3 Portraits and Pathologies: Clinical Pictures in Early Nineteenth-Century France 59 Mechthild Fend Copyrighted Material 4 Costuming in History Painting 77 Susan L. Siegfried 5 The Déjeuner Culture et récolte du cacao: Staging Fantasies of Regression in Nineteenth-Century French Porcelain 95 Iris Moon 6 The Album des Deux Frontières: Lithography at the Nation's Limit 113 Kelly Presutti Part 2 Materialising Modernity 129 7 The Ground of Painting: Modernism and Materiality in Gustave Courbet's L'atelier du peintre (1855) 131 Veronica Peselmann 8 Designing with Iron in Mid- Nineteenth- Century France 149 Amy F. Ogata 9 Camille Pissarro at the Crossroad of the Plantation 167 Helene Engnes Birkeli 10 Gloomy Renoir 189 Hollis Clayson 11 Playing Doctor with Toulouse- Lautrec: Male Friendship, Medicine, and Identity 205 Mary Hunter 12 Monet's Series Reconsidered: Instantaneity in Standard Time 223 André Dombrowski Part 3 Media, Publics, Subjects 241 13 In the Tradition: Grappling with the Past in the Long Nineteenth Century 243 Neil McWilliam 14 Precious Works of Art: Rodin's Hanakos and Hanako's Rodins 261 Juliet Bellow 15 L'Inhumaine (1924), the "Plastic" Arts, and Cinematic Specificity 281 Malcolm Turvey 16 The Public Turn in French Art during the 1930s 299 Toby Norris 17 Surrealism: Revolution of the "Never Seen" 317 Susan Laxton 18 The Film Photo- Novel "Made in France" 335 Jan Baetens Part 4 Contesting the Nation 349 19 Entangled Modernisms: Vietnamese Modern Art in Paris 351 Phoebe Scott 20 "What the Black Man Contributes": Présence Africaine, l'art nègre, and Modernism in Post- War Paris 373 Alastair Wright and Kathleen Rawlings 21 Bidonville Aesthetics and Genealogies of Modernity from Algiers, 1953/1963 393 Sheila Crane 22 Universality as a Radical Form: The Philips Pavilion at Expo 58 411 Noit Banai 23 The World in Question: Post-Imperial Solidarities in Narrative Figuration 429 Ming Tiampo 24 The "École de Paris" in Dakar 449 Maureen Murphy Part 5 Archives of the Present 467 25 Building the "Museum Without Walls": Innovations in Photographic Art Reproduction in France, 1860-1960 469 Kim Timby 26 Unlearning at the École des Beaux- Arts de Paris 491 Déborah Laks 27 Seeing the Dark Continent in the City of Light: Women's Transnational Networks in 1970s Paris, Capital of the Arts 509 Rakhee Balaram 28 Art and Fashion in the 1980s 529 Sophie Cras 29 Photographic Investigations: Between Art, Human Sciences, and Investigative Journalism 545 Danièle Méaux 30 Unsunk Archives: The Resurfacing of Colonial Historical Records in Contemporary Art 563 Katarzyna Falęcka Index 581