Pen Vs. Paintbrush: Girodet, Balzac, and the Myth of Pygmalion in Post-Revolutionary France [Hardcover]

Alexandra K. Wettlaufer (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0312236417 | ISBN-13: 978-0312236410 | Publication Date: June 23, 2001

Pen vs. Paintbrush explores the sibling rivalry between the sister arts from 1789-1830, focusing on the anxieties of aesthetics, artistic selfhood, and masculinity as they are brought forth in a competition between painters and authors for ascendancy during a period when definitions of gender and genre had been radically destabilized. The works of Anne-Louis Girodet and Honore de Balzac manifest the two-fold rivalry of gender and genre in their compulsive reworkings of the myth of Pygmalion. Pen vs. Paintbrush documents the ways in which this emblematic pair of artists responded to and represented the anxieties of artistic production, identity, and gender that confronted an entire generation.

Editorial Reviews

Review

...a significant contribution to the study of artistic and political culture in late eighteenth and early nineteenth-century France.
-Nineteenth Century French Studies

About the Author

Alexandra K. Wettlaufer is Associate Professor of French and Comparative Literature at the University of Texas at Austin. She specializes in 19th-century European literature and painting.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan (June 23, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312236417
• ISBN-13: 978-0312236410
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,836,870 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Groundbreaking Work on Artistic Rivalries in France, August 16, 2001

By 

Catherine McKeever (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pen Vs. Paintbrush: Girodet, Balzac, and the Myth of Pygmalion in Post-Revolutionary France (Hardcover)

A wonderful and insightful examination of the competition between painters and authors in France after the revolution. This book gives a thorough reading of the social and aesthetic roots of artistic production in a period that is not often afforded adequate attention and her interpretations of Girodet's paintings and Balzac's stories are lively and illuminating. The focus on portrayals of the female body [via variations on the Pygmalion myth] plays out contemporary anxieties of gender in fascinating ways. Highly recommended for scholars of art, literature, culture and women's studies.