How social upheavals after the collapse of the French Empire shaped
the lives and work of artists in early nineteenth-century Europe As
the French Empire collapsed between 1812 and 1815, artists
throughout Europe were left uncertain and adrift. The final
abdication of Emperor Napoleon, clearing the way for a restored
monarchy, profoundly unsettled prevailing national, religious, and
social boundaries. In Restoration, Thomas Crow combines a sweeping
view of European art centers-Rome, Paris, London, Madrid, Brussels,
and Vienna-with a close-up look at pivotal artists, including
Antonio Canova, Jacques-Louis David, Theodore Gericault, Francisco
Goya, Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, Thomas Lawrence, and forgotten
but meteoric painters Francois-Joseph Navez and Antoine
Jean-Baptiste Thomas. Whether directly or indirectly, all were
joined in a newly international network, from which changing
artistic priorities and possibilities emerged out of the ruins of
the old. Crow examines how artists of this period faced dramatic
circumstances, from political condemnation and difficult diplomatic
missions to a catastrophic episode of climate change. Navigating
ever-changing pressures, they invented creative ways of
incorporating critical events and significant historical actors
into fresh artistic works. Crow discusses, among many topics,
David's art and influence during exile, Gericault's odyssey through
outcast Rome, Ingres's drive to reconcile religious art with
contemporary mentalities, the titled victors over Napoleon all
sitting for portraits by Lawrence, and the campaign to restore art
objects expropriated by the French from Italy, prefiguring the
restitution controversies of our own time. Beautifully illustrated,
Restoration explores how cataclysmic social and political
transformations in nineteenth-century Europe reshaped artists'
lives and careers with far-reaching consequences. Published in
association with the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts,
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
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