Distinguished Images
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Prints and the Visual Economy in Nineteenth-Century France
Stephen Bann
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Format: ClothPrice: $55.00
This multifaceted book reviews the vast range of types of printmaking that flourished in France during the 19th century. Studies of this period’s printmaking tend to be confined to histories of individual processes, such as lithography or steel engraving. This study surveys the field as a whole and discusses the relationships between the various media in the context of an overall “visual economy.”
Lithography, etching, and engraving are all examined through new research on noteworthy artists of the period, including Hyacinthe Aubry-Lecomte, Léopold Flameng, Ferdinand Gaillard, Aimé de Lemud, Nadar, and Charles Waltner. Rather than simply tracing the rise of Modernism in the 19th century, Distinguished Images reconstitutes the period’s cultural milieu through a series of case studies written with an eye to overarching forces at play. The result is the most original analysis of printmaking to appear in many years—a striking new account of a system in which printmaking, printmakers, and art critics played heretofore unrecognized or misunderstood roles.
Stephen Bann is emeritus professor and senior research fellow, Bristol University, United Kingdom.
'This is. . .an invigorating book, intelligently and attractively realised by the Yale editorial team. It is in every sense a work of distinction, enabling us to see the particular strengths and challenges of printmaking more clearly, touching on everything from the minute cuts and hatchings to the widest cultural ambitions.'—Tom Stammers, Apollo
'Stephen Bann opens up a world of competitive endeavour and achievement, which . . . will certainly be warmly received by anyone with an existing knowledge and appreciation of the history of printmaking, particularly in terms of the wider visual culture, but its array of carefully reproduced images and thoughtful but accessible text might also entice others, less familiar with this material, to engage in the pleasures of connoisseurship enjoyed by earlier generations of print consumers.'—Robert Radford, Cassone
Publication Date: June 11, 2013
10 color + 95 b/w illus.
