Art, Honor, and Money

Painting, Living, and Gaining Recognition in 19th France

By Anne CHALARD-FILLAUDEAU

Thursday March 18 - 4PM 

Rice University French Department 6100 Main Street Houston, TX 77005

Humanities Building, Room 119

A lecture about the material and symbolic conditions of production, reception, diffusion, appreciation, and consecration of art works, and their impact on the life and fate of French painters.

The purpose of this lecture is to cast light on the material and symbolic conditions of production, reception, diffusion, appreciation, and consecration of art works, and to show how structural changes in 19th century France would impact the life, work, and creativity of many French painters. The first part, which is dedicated to the socio-historical context, seeks to assess the rise of the speculative art market as well as to present the key players in the appreciation and consecration of paintings: the older, relatively controversial ones (State, Académie, and Salons) and the new dynamic ones (critics, dealers, and the Bourgeoisie), which somehow stir up controversy too. The second part focuses on the artists themselves, their careers and strategies. Given the variety of individual situations and the number of painters in 19th century France (more than 4000 around 1863!), this is but an overview of the challenging state of play in the field of art and painting - and yet, thanks to the writings of Emile Zola, a forceful and vivid overview that shall enable us to grasp the decline of the Academy and the rise of the commercial gallery system sustained by the press, to give insight into the genesis of the modern art market and to illuminate what it meant to be a painter at that time.

Organized by The Department of French Studies, Rice University: