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

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.

Product Description

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



Review

“By using the contrast between David and Prieur as a vehicle for the development of the distinction between public and populace, the author’s formidable and sure-footed talents of artistic analysis are employed for ‘historical’ as well as ‘art-historical’ purposes, thereby allowing him to make an important contribution to current French revolutionary historiographical debates.” ― Barry Shapiro, Allegheny College

“A thorough and insightful analysis of the tableaux by the artist Jean-Louis Prieur whose work has not received the attention it deserves. It also provides a comparison of his work with that of Jacques-Louis David which is much better known, a comparison which brings out aspects of David’s painting which otherwise may be overlooked. The treatment of these two artists is linked to a brilliant analysis of the French Revolution.” ― James A. Leith, Queen’s University

“This in an outstanding book written by a seasoned, knowledgeable scholar in the field who uses to great advantage his expertise in both history and art history. It constitutes a significant contribution to cultural history.” ― Gita May, Columbia University

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.