Before Modernism, narrative painting was one of the most acclaimed and challenging modes of picture-making in Western art, yet by the early twentieth century storytelling had all but disappeared from ambitious art. France was a key player in both the dramatic rise and the controversial demise of narrative art. This is the first book to analyse French painting in relation to narrative, from Poussin in the early seventeenth to Gauguin in the late nineteenth century. Thirteen original essays shed light on key moments and aspects of narrative and French painting through the study of artists such as Nicolas Poussin, Charles Le Brun, Jacques-Louis David, Paul Delaroche, Gustave Moreau, and Paul Gauguin. Using a range of theoretical perspectives, the authors study key issues such as temporality, theatricality, word-and-image relations, the narrative function of inanimate objects, the role played by viewers, and the ways in which visual narrative has been bound up with history painting. The book offers a fresh look at familiar material, as well as studying some little-known works of art, and reveals the centrality and complexity of narrative in French painting over the course of three centuries.
About the AuthorPeter Cooke is Senior Lecturer in French Studies at the University of Manchester, UK. His most recent book is Gustave Moreau: History Painting, Spirituality and Symbolism.
Nina Lubbren is Art Historian and Principal Lecturer in Film Studies, and Deputy Head of Department of English, Communication, Film and Media, Anglia Ruskin University, UK.
Reviews'The introduction [...] is a model of its kind; no better overview could have been written of the characteristics of narrative painting and of how critics have construed it from the time of Lessing onwards. It sparkles with ideas about the fundamental nature and complexity of narrative and will become required reading for anyone with a serious interest in French history painting. This high standard is continued in the following thirteeen essays [...].' (Simon Lee, The Burlington Magazine, September 2018)
Book InformationISBN 9780367200275
Author Peter CookeFormat Paperback
Page Count 218
Imprint RoutledgePublisher Taylor & Francis Ltd
Weight(grams) 467g
