The Aesthetics of Reaction: Tradition, Identity and the Visual Arts in France, 1900-1914

FAIN: FA-55937-11

Neil Finlay McWilliam
Duke University (Durham, NC 27705-4677)

This study examines the impact of conservative politics and cultural commentary on the visual arts in France before World War One. Exploring critical and historical writing, as well as the ideas and output of painters and sculptors during the period, it re-frames debates around modernity, national identity, and the role of tradition to offer a new reading of the issues at stake in artistic innovation--and resistance to it--during a period of resurgent nationalism in France. Drawing on wide-ranging analysis of right-wing journals and reviews, as well as archival material, the study focuses on artists and intellectuals close to the royalist movement Action française, as well as nationalist republicans and conservative Catholics. It examines artists' response to traditionalist ideas and analyzes the theoretical importance of cultural critique in the formulation of reactionary thought around 1900.

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Emile Bernard: Les Lettres d’un artiste, 1884-1941 (Book)
Title: Emile Bernard: Les Lettres d’un artiste, 1884-1941
Editor: Neil McWilliam
Abstract: The selected correspondence of French painter, poet and critic Émile Bernard (1884-1941)
Year: 2012
Primary URL: https://www.worldcat.org/title/emile-bernard-les-lettres-dun-artiste-1884-1941/oclc/798389801&referer=brief_results
Primary URL Description: Worldcat
Access Model: Open access
Publisher: Les Presses du réel
Type: Edited Volume
ISBN: 978-2-84066-49
Copy sent to NEH?: No

The Aesthetics of Reaction: Tradition, Faith, Identity and the Visual Arts in France, c. 1900-1914 (Book)
Title: The Aesthetics of Reaction: Tradition, Faith, Identity and the Visual Arts in France, c. 1900-1914
Author: Neil McWilliam
Abstract: This study focuses on anti-modernist artists, critics and political theorists in Belle Époque France hostile to secular democracy and its allegedly decadent culture of individualism. It examines their reassertion of social and artistic values which, they claimed, had been distorted and repressed by the 1789 revolution. Exploring the cultural implications of the Catholic revival, the impact of the royalist movement Action française and nationalist calls for a 'Renaissance française', it challenges previous assessments of nationalists' artistic agenda and recasts ways of thinking about classicism and the notion of a 'return to order' in pre- and post-war French cultural discourse. The book offers the first comprehensive overview of nationalism's impact on pre-war French art, which it complements with synthetic studies of three figures affected by these political and artistic debates: the painters Maurice Denis (Catholic revival) and Emile Bernard ('Renaissance francaise), as well as the critic Joachim Gasquet (Action française). In such a way, the book goes beyond previous accounts to highlight contradictions and complexities in pre-war artistic discourse that enrich our understanding of the ideological stakes involved in clashes over modernity, tradition and identity in pre-war France.
Year: 2021
Primary URL: hthttps://www.worldcat.org/title/aesthetics-of-reaction-tradition-faith-identity-the-visual-arts-in-france-1900-1914/oclc/1268210783&referer=brief_results
Primary URL Description: Worldcat
Secondary URL: http://www.brepols.net/Pages/ShowProduct.aspx?prod_id=IS-9782503591575-1
Secondary URL Description: Brepols website
Access Model: Open access
Publisher: Brepols
Type: Single author monograph
ISBN: 978-2-503-5915
Copy sent to NEH?: No

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Primary URL Description: Worldcat
Secondary URL: https://www.lespressesdureel.com/EN/ouvrage.php?id=3569&menu=0
Secondary URL Description: Presses du réel website
Access Model: Open access
Publisher: Les Presses du réel
Type: Single author monograph
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Copy sent to NEH?: No

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Primary URL: https://web.p.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail/detail?vid=3&sid=086f3fb7-61e9-4edc-bd78-5367936972b1%40redis&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#AN=124751543&db=a9h
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