Jacques-Louis David and Jean-Louis Prieur, Revolutionary Artists: The Public, the Populace and Images of the French Revolution [Paperback]

Warren Roberts (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1999

A comparative study of the French Revolution's most famous artist and a little-known illustrator.

By offering a comparative study of Jacques-Louis David, the most famous artist of the French Revolution, and Jean-Louis Prieur, a little-known illustrator, this book tracks the political careers of the two artists and offers new insights to the relationship between the arts and the politics of the French Revolution.

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Focusing on the period after the fall of Robespierre, Lajer-Burcharth (humanities, Harvard) reframes David's art in relation to gender tensions within French society at the time and within the artist's vision of himself. The methodologies of gender studies and semiotics are the focus of her argument, which sacrifices traditional art historical analysis. The author demonstrates how revolutionary dress and the stresses and losses it implied were reflected in the instability of David's art and his place as a revolutionary artist in French society. While trying to offer a new perspective on David and on visual representation during this period of French history, Lajer-Burcharth often looses her focus by cloaking David and his art in literary theory and opaque jargon. Recommended only for art libraries that support graduate programs in art history. While concentrating on the same time period, Roberts examines David and Jean-Louis Prieur, the most popular illustrator of the period, within a post-Marxist framework. Roberts first defines the Revolution in the theoretical terms of J?rgen Habermas's bourgeois public sphere, which is separate from the political sphere of the state. He also discusses Roger Chartier's idea of the division of the educated elite from the masses during the French Revolution. With these theoretical underpinnings, the author examines Prieur and David, who in their art reflected the concerns of both the plebeian "peuple" and the educated "public" of the salons. A detailed historical account of the key moments of the Revolution is included and related to the works of both men. This scholarly study is recommended only for libraries that support graduate programs in art or French history.
-Sandra Rothenberg, Framingham State Coll. Lib., MA
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Warren Roberts is Distinguished Teaching Professor in the Department of History at The University at Albany, State University of New York. He is the author of Morality and Social Class in Eighteenth-Century French Literature and Painting; Jane Austen and the French Revolution; and Jacques-Louis David, Revolutionary Artist: Art, Politics, and the French Revolution. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 370 pages
• Publisher: State University of New York Press (December 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0791442888
• ISBN-13: 978-0791442883
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,077,208 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful book on the French Revolution, October 29, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Jacques-Louis David and Jean-Louis Prieur, Revolutionary Artists: The Public, the Populace and Images of the French Revolution (Paperback)

The first part of the editorial review is definitely about another book by Uwe Lajer-Burcharth (Necklines) and is not about this book. Only the second part of the review refers to this book but I disagree that this book is recommended only for libraries. I found this book to be quite an intoxicating read as the other reader reviewer has stated.
Here, Warren Roberts display a very lucid understanding of the chronological events of the French revolution as it unfolded and has written a key account, linking it specifically to the lives of two artists who were inextricably linked up with the key events.
The book is divided into 5 sections. An introduction outlines the situation that France found herself in shortly before the French revolution took place. Then the next section focuses in on the key events of the revolution, linking them up to practically all of the chronological engravings of J Prieur. The true value of this book really is in the 60-odd historical tableaus drawn by Prieur and the marrying of the somewhat confusing chronological events of the French revolution to these tableaus. The author gives a thorough description of each historical tableau within the text, not in the captions, and this is what makes the book so readable. With hindsight, Prieur apparently recorded quite faithfully all the key events iand this contemporary visual evidence is the closest that we have to unbiased visual documentation of the period. The third section gives a very comprehensive essay on Roberspierre and the various factions within the French republic. This is then followed by a section on J.L. David and his accomplishments. Most readers will probably be familiar with David's biography and there are no surprises here. A concluding section brings all the threads together.
The two artists selected and contrasted here are J.L. David and J. Prieur, both Jacobin members and the contrasts in their abilities and fortunes could not have been more dramatic. Both artists worked for the revolution and recorded them, David in a painterly academic style which created the classical movement in art whilst Prieur was an unremarkable jobber, whose 60-odd historical engravings are now housed in the present Carnavalet museum, Paris, and has been rescued from relative obscurity by Roberts in this enlightening and entertaining book. While David survived the revolution, Prieur was beheaded shortly after completing his last scene.
I came away with a good understanding of the French revolution due to the complete empathy that Roberts gives to the period.
The only complaint that I have is that the book is physically quite small and hence, the reproduced engravings are small, too, hence 4 stars.
Highly recommended even for the layperson.

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wow!, May 8, 2000

By 

Debbie Lefner - See all my reviews

This review is from: Jacques-Louis David and Jean-Louis Prieur, Revolutionary Artists: The Public, the Populace, and Images of the French Revolution (Hardcover)

As a student of both art and art history, I found Dr. Robert's book intoxicating. From beginning to end this impecccably researched book provides the facts in a stunning and original way. There is no better book telling the story Of the Revolution and the effect it had on art.