Sage comme une image ? L'enfance dans l'oeil des artistes, 1790-1850

Description

The aim of this book is to shed light on the roles assigned to children and their artistic representations in French society from 1790 to 1850. The discussion is based on a fruitful dialogue between the academic arts (painting and sculpture) and the then-new medium of photography.

This half-century of French history, which has been little studied and was very turbulent in political and philosophical terms, was also a period of tremendous artistic ferment. How did the painters, sculptors and photographers of the time represent childhood? How do these images reflect the spirit of their time, and how do they differ from certain social realities? And today: do we still recognise ourselves in them? Are we able to accept and understand them all?

The chronological and thematic journey takes the reader from the myth of innocence inherited from the Enlightenment to child soldiers, from cursed princes to orphans, from workers to geniuses, via a large gallery of painted, sculpted and photographed portraits.

Alongside the great names of the period - Eugène Delacroix, Théodore Géricault, Anne-Louis Girodet, Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, Camille Corot, Pierre-Jean David d'Angers, James Pradier and Honoré Daumier - the book highlights artists who are often overlooked because they are women or because they are far removed from Parisian circles - Auguste de Châtillon, Jeanne-Elisabeth Chaudet, Sophie Feytaud-Tavel -, as well as unpublished or rarely exhibited works.