The Nude in French Art and Culture, 1870-1910

by Heather Dawkins

Overview

This study examines the forces that made the nude a contentious image in the early Third Republic. Analyzing the evolving relationship between the fine art nude, print culture, and censorship, Heather Dawkins explores how artists, art critics, politicians, bureaucrats, lawyers, and judges evaluated the nude. She reveals how spectatorship of the nude was refracted through the ideals of art, femininity, republican liberty, and public decency. Dawkins also investigates how women reshaped private perception of the nude to accommodate their own experience and subjectivity.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521807555
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	02/11/2002
Pages:	244
Product dimensions:	7.01(w) x 10.00(h) x 0.55(d)

Table of Contents

Introduction; 1. Decency in dispute: viewing the nude; 2. Modelling another view: posing for the nude; 3. Improper appreciation: women and the fine art of the nude; 4. A defiant imagination: Marie de Montifaud, censorship, and the nude; Epilogue.

Editorial Reviews

"This valuable book on the nude in French art and culture, which offers fascinating new material and careful analysis, will be richly rewarding for art historians and scholars in the humanities." CAA Reviews

"In an era of deep political and cultural conservatism in which gender roles are being steadily remapped, layered over familiar, traditional, and seemingly safe ones, Dawkins's examination of the female nude is a welcome addition to an already substantial corpus."
John Potvin

From the Publisher