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Community and nation: the representation of the village in French landscape painting 1870-1890

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CoweAL_2006redux.pdf (55.62Mb)
Date
2006
Author
Cowe, Anne L.
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Abstract
 
 
The thesis considers the motif of the village and the significance of its role amid the profusion of rural landscape paintings in France during the period 1870-1890. Its aim is to determine the extent to which the popularity of the motif among both artists and audiences articulated contemporary artistic, social and political conditions. The subject is treated thematically with each chapter presenting a contextual argument and followed by a corresponding case study.
 
After establishing the topic and methodology of the thesis, the introduction distinguishes the type of painting to be considered. It clarifies firstly what was considered a 'village' by the nineteenth century audience, and subsequently what can be termed a 'village landscape'. The second chapter then examines reasons for the appeal of the village landscape both from the standpoint of aesthetic theory and contextual influences. Particular attention is paid to the marketing of the village landscape in the Parisian art world. The following case study contrasts the differing success of Claude Monet and Henri Harpignies in painting similar types of village iconography.
 
The following three chapters consider specific components of the motif. Beginning with the significance of geographical location, chapter three contemplates the characteristics which different regions lent to the iconography. The particularly popular Breton village of PontAven is developed as an example. Chapter four looks at depictions of the generalised French village as an idealised working community, contrasting it with the more immediate concerns affecting rural France at that time. This is followed by an analysis of Alfred Sisley's paintings of Saint-Mammes and its canal activity. Chapter five then complements this theme by examining the significance of the village at rest. It focuses on images where the village is represented as a place of respite and shelter for the worker, but also where it indicates inactivity, closing and even death. Jean-Charles Cazin's paintings of villages at twilight serve to demonstrate the loaded nature of such imagery.
 
The final chapter concludes by attempting to define the archetypal village, and summarising the variety of values and associations that even the most simplified motif could encapsulate for the nineteenth-century French artist and his audience.
 
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/1842/29074
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