French Realist Painting and the Critique of American Society, 1865-1900 [Hardcover]

Laura L. Meixner (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 30, 1995 | ISBN-10: 0521461030 | ISBN-13: 978-0521461030

This book examines public reception of contemporary French painting in post-Civil War American society. Analyzed from class and regional perspectives, popular responses to Realist and Impressionist painting are shown to articulate conflicting attitudes toward equality and doubts about the fate of democracy in an industrialized society. The methods of art history, reception theory, and social history merge in this study to explain how Americans came to see themselves in foreign art, and how the public gave these images meaning independent of official art criticism and their original French contexts.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Laura L. Meixner has accomplished an impressive piece of research in this volume that will prove to be a central resource for the student of late-nineteenth-century American culture." Journal of American History

"A valuable addition to undergraduate and graduate collections in art history, government, and sociology." Choice

Book Description

This book examines public reception of contemporary French painting in post-Civil War American society and demonstrates how a variety of audiences used foreign images to politicize their claims to cultural lives. Analyzed from class and regional perspectives, popular responses to Realist and Impressionist painting, recorded in the daily press and radical journals, are shown to articulate conflicting attitudes toward equality and doubts about the fate of democracy in an industrialized society. The methods of art history, reception theory, and social history merge in this study to explain how Americans came to see themselves in foreign art, and how the public gave these images meaning independent of official art criticism and their original French contexts.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press (June 30, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521461030
• ISBN-13: 978-0521461030
• Product Dimensions: 10.2 x 8.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,774,319 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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