Pierre Puvis de Chavannes (1824-1898) was a towering figure in late-19th-century France. Arguably the country's greatest public painter, he created murals that decorated museums in Amiens, Rouen and Lyons as well as major buildings in Paris - most notably the Pantheon, the Sorbonne and the city hall. Critics from the political right, left and centre, the avant-garde, the Academy, and the state all agreed on the importance of Puvis's murals. Avant-garde artists greatly admired and drew from his work. There was much controversy, however, over the meaning of these murals. This illustrated work is a full-length examination of Puvis's murals and their critical reception during the artist's lifetime. Jennifer Shaw explains that Puvis's paintings were imagined to embody a vision of France. Although his regional images, allegories of the French heritage, and evocations of the nation as an embracing motherland were all part of a grand tradition of public art, Puvis's painting style was more closely aligned with the avant-garde. Rather than providing a specific narrative or allegory of France, Puvis's murals provoked viewers to experience their own fantasies of Frenchness; rather than using the close brushwork favoured by most of his contemporaries, Puvis used large flat areas of colour to render his subjects. Shaw argues that Puvis was the only painter of the period to unite the traditions of public art and modernist form. Her analysis of Puvis's art underlines his importance to the history of modernism; and her examination of the public response to his art should illuminate debates about art, subjectivity and national identity in fin de siecle France.
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Editorial Reviews
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"Elegantly written, original and provocative, this book is a useful contribution to discourses on the historical origins of modernism in the arts and nationalism in international politics." Steven Z. Levine, Bryn Mawr College
From the Back Cover
"Elegantly written, original and provocative, this book is a useful contribution to discourses on the historical origins of modernism in the arts and nationalism in international politics."— Steven Z. Levine, Bryn Mawr College
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
An very interesting book for scholars. Poor illustrations,
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This review is from: Dream States: Puvis de Chavannes, Modernism, and the Fantasy of France (Hardcover)
This can be a worthwhile book to purchase if you are very interested in this period, this artist and all that came after in the evolution of french painting. It is a PhD thesis and it would be fairer if this was noted in the description. The illustrations have a dullness to them and the book should not be purchased to have something beautiful to look at. However, used copies are available from $2.99 and at that price this book is a great value. At $60 it isn't.
6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
PhD Stuff,
By Duke of Kansas City (Kansas) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Dream States: Puvis de Chavannes, Modernism, and the Fantasy of France (Hardcover)
I was disappointed in the few and small formatted images and I wouldn't have bought this book had I reviewed it in a book store. When there are more footnotes than images you know you've been "had" by the world of academia. Too many dissertations have been been masqueraded as art books by throwing in a few illustrations and unfortunately this is another such example. There are so many great art books published such as The Ultimate Picasso, to waste your money on Dream States, just have your local library find you a copy through interlibrary loan to read. This book didn't even have an image of one of his most famous paintings, Hope.
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