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From the European revolutions of 1848 through the Italian independence movement, the American Civil War, and the French Commune, the era Albert Boime explores in this fourth volume of his epic series was, in a word, transformative. The period, which gave rise to such luminaries as Karl Marx and Charles Darwin, was also characterized by civic upheaval, quantum leaps in science and technology, and the increasing secularization of intellectual pursuits and ordinary life. In a sweeping narrative that adds critical depth to a key epoch in modern art’s history, Art in an Age of Civil Struggle shows how this turbulent social environment served as an incubator for the mid-nineteenth century’s most important artists and writers.Tracing the various movements of realism through the major metropolitan centers of Europe and America, Boime strikingly evokes the milieus that shaped the lives and works of Gustave Courbet, Edouard Manet, ?mile Zola, Honor? Daumier, Walt Whitman, Abraham Lincoln, and the earliest photographers, among countless others. In doing so, he spearheads a powerful new way of reassessing how art emerges from the welter of cultural and political events and the artist’s struggle to interpret his surroundings. Boime supports this multifaceted approach with a wealth of illustrations and written sources that demonstrate the intimate links between visual culture and social change. Culminating at the transition to impressionism, Art in an Age of Civil Struggle makes historical sense of a movement that paved the way for avant-garde aesthetics and, more broadly, of how a particular style emerges at a particular moment.
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Art in an Age of Civil Struggle, 1848–1871
a social history of modern art volume 4
Art in an Age of
Civil Struggle
1848–1871
Albert Boime
The University of Chicago Press Chicago & London
Albert Boime is professor of art history at the University of California, Los Angeles. The author is grateful to the Brockthorne Foundation for its support of this project. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637 The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London © 2007 by The University of Chicago All rights reserved. Published 2007 Printed in the United States of America 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 1 2 3 4 5 isbn-13: 978-0-226-06328-7 isbn-10: 0-226-06328-3
(cloth) (cloth)
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Boime, Albert. Art in an age of civil struggle, 1848–1871 / Albert Boime. p. cm.—(A social history of modern art; v. 4) Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn-13: 978-0-226-06328-7 (cloth : alk. paper) isbn-10: 0-226-06328-3 (cloth: alk. paper) 1. Art, European—19th century. 2. Art and society—Europe—History—19th century. 3. Art and revolutions—Europe—History—19th century. 4. Realism in art—Europe. I. Title. N6757.B63 2008 709.03'4—dc22 2007009848 ∞ The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992.
For Robert Rosenblum
Contents
Illustrations ix
Introduction 1
1
Springtime and Winter of the People in France, 1848–1852 5
2
Radical Realism and Its Offspring 77
3
Radical Realism Continued 139
4
The Pre-Raphaelites and the 1848 Revolutions 225
5
The Macchia and the Risorgimento 365
6 Cultural Inflections of Slavery and Manifest Destiny in America 403
7
Biedermeier Culture and the Revolutions of 1848 471
8
The Second Em