Full Description
The French Revolution had a marked impact on the ways in which citizens saw the newly liberated spaces in which they now lived. Painting, gardening, cinematic displays of landscape, travel guides, public festivals, and tales of space flight and devilabduction each shaped citizens' understanding of space. Through an exploration of landscape painting over some 40 years, Steven Adams examines the work of artists, critics and contemporary observers who have largely escaped art historical attention to show the importance of landscape as a means of crystallising national identity in a period of unprecedented political and social change.
Contents
Introduction: Landscape and landscape painting in Revolutionary France; Chapter One: Landscape painting and the pastoral vision: art and spatiality during the ancien régime; Chapter Two: Making space for the Revolution; Chapter Three: 'The passive instrument of the First Consul's will': painting landscapes for Napoléon Bonaparte; Chapter Four: Blindness, amnesia and consumption: painting landscapes in Restoration France; Chapter Five: 'Comment cela finira-t-il?' - a post script
