A new interpretation of the development of artistic modernity in eighteenth-century France What can be gained from considering a painting not only as an image but also a material object? How does the painter’s own experience of the process of making matter for our understanding of both the painting and its maker? The Painter’s Touch addresses these questions to offer a radical reinterpretation of three paradigmatic French painters of the eighteenth century. In this beautifully illustrated book, Ewa Lajer-Burcharth provides close readings of the works of François Boucher, Jean-Siméon Chardin, and Jean-Honoré Fragonard, entirely recasting our understanding of these painters’ practice. Using the notion of touch, she examines the implications of their strategic investment in materiality and sheds light on the distinct contribution of painting to the culture of the Enlightenment. Lajer-Burcharth traces how the distinct logic of these painters’ work—the operation of surface in Boucher, the deep materiality of Chardin, and the dynamic morphological structure in Fragonard—contributed to the formation of artistic identity. Through the notion of touch, she repositions these painters in the artistic culture of their time, shifting attention from institutions such as the academy and the Salon to the realms of the market, the medium, and the body. Lajer-Burcharth analyzes Boucher’s commercial tact, Chardin’s interiorized craft, and Fragonard’s materialization of eros. Foregrounding the question of experience—that of the painters and of the people they represent—she shows how painting as a medium contributed to the Enlightenment’s discourse on the self in both its individual and social functions. By examining what paintings actually “say” in brushstrokes, texture, and paint, The Painter’s Touch transforms our understanding of the role of painting in the emergence of modernity and provides new readings of some of the most important and beloved works of art of the era.

Over two decades this art historical tour de force has consistently proved the classic introduction to humanity's artistic heritage. From our paleolithic past to our digitised present, every continent and culture is covered in an articulate and well-balanced discussion. In this Seventh Edition, the text has been revised to embrace developments in archaeology and art historical research, while the renowned contemporary art historian Michael Archer has greatly expanded the discussion of the past twenty years, providing a new perspective on the latest developments. The insight, elegance and fluency that the authors bring to their text are complemented by 1458 superb illustrations, half of which are now in colour. These images, together with the numerous maps and architectural plans, have been chosen to represent the most significant chronological, regional and individual styles of artistic expression.

Accompanying an exhibition at the Wallace Collection, this catalog will seek to examine relationships between these two works and their creation, focusing on establishing common threads drawn from contemporary French social and cultural history. When seen together, the two paintings acquire a new resonance, showing the imaginative and Parisian response of two very different painters to a new interest in scenes from everyday life. The paintings are examined in the context of a dozen further works by the artists, and prints, drawings, books and decorative art objects including oriental textiles and porcelain. This provides an opportunity to address undercurrent social history themes, such as the artists' attitudes to fashion, interior decoration, and even the consumption of tea - a pastime borne from the contemporary fashion in eighteenth-century France and Great Britain for anything oriental, influenced by new trade links with China.

Leading scholars shed light on the development of genre painting in this heavily illustrated volume.

Charming yet scholarly, this book explores the work of the French artist Jean Baptiste Sim̌on Chardin, who brought a breath of fresh air to 18th-century painting. His masterful sense of color and light filled his simple domestic interiors and delicate renderings of still lifes with a profound humanism. - Publisher.

The history of collecting is a topic of central importance to many academic disciplines, and shows no sign of abating in popularity. As such, scholars will welcome this collection of essays by internationally recognised experts that gathers together for the first time varied and stimulating perspectives on the nineteenth-century collector and art market for French eighteenth-century art, and ultimately the formation of collections that form part of such august institutions as the Louvre and the National Gallery in London. The book is the culmination of a successful conference organised jointly between the Wallace Collection and the Louvre, on the occasion of the acclaimed exhibition Masterpieces from the Louvre: The Collection of Louis La Caze. Exploring themes relating to collectors, critics, markets and museums from France, England and Germany, the volume will appeal to academics and students alike, and become essential reading on any course that deals with the history of collecting, the history of taste and the nineteenth-century craze for the perceived douceur de vivre of eighteenth-century France. It also provides valuable insight into the history of the art markets and the formation of museums.

"This book is the catalogue of an international exhibition of Chardin's work, timed to coincide with both the twentieth anniversary of the great 1979 Chardin exhibition and the tercentenary of the painter's birth. Beginning at the Grand Palais in Paris, the exhibition travels to the Kunstmuseum im Ehrenhof in Dusseldorf, the Royal Academy of Arts in London, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved