The City of Light. For many, these four words instantly conjure
late nineteenth-century Paris and the garish colors of
Toulouse-Lautrec's iconic posters. More recently, the Eiffel
Tower's nightly show of sparkling electric lights has come to
exemplify our fantasies of Parisian nightlife. Though we reflect
longingly on such scenes, in Illuminated Paris, Hollis Clayson
shows that there's more to these clich s than meets the eye. In
this richly illustrated book, she traces the dramatic evolution of
lighting in Paris and how artists responded to the shifting visual
and cultural scenes that resulted from these technologies. While
older gas lighting produced a haze of orange, new electric lighting
was hardly an improvement: the glare of experimental arc
lights--themselves dangerous--left figures looking pale and
ghoulish. As Clayson shows, artists' representations of these new
colors and shapes reveal turn-of-the-century concerns about
modernization as electric lighting came to represent the harsh
glare of rapidly accelerating social change. At the same time, in
part thanks to American artists visiting the city, these works of
art also produced our enduring romantic view of Parisian glamour
and its Belle poque.
General
Imprint: |
University of Chicago Press
|
Country of origin: |
United States |
Release date: |
May 2019 |
Authors: |
Hollis Clayson
|
Dimensions: |
254 x 216 x 23mm (L x W x T) |
Format: |
Hardcover - Cloth over boards
|
Pages: |
320 |
ISBN-13: |
978-0-226-59386-9 |
Categories: |
Books
|
LSN: |
0-226-59386-X |
Barcode: |
9780226593869 |
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