Misère : the visual representation of misery in the 19th century /
The arrival of the industrial revolution in the early nineteenth century witnessed unprecedented changes in society: rapid economic progress went hand-in-hand with appalling working conditions, displacement, squalor, and destitution for those at the bottom of the social scale. These new circumstance...
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| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Book |
| Language: | English |
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New York, New York :
Thames & Hudson,
[2018]
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| Summary: | The arrival of the industrial revolution in the early nineteenth century witnessed unprecedented changes in society: rapid economic progress went hand-in-hand with appalling working conditions, displacement, squalor, and destitution for those at the bottom of the social scale. These new circumstances presented a challenge to contemporary image-makers, who wished to capture the effects of hunger, poverty, and alienation in Britain, Ireland, and France in the era before documentary photography. In this book, the author examines the styles and expressive strategies that were used by artists and illustrators to capture this misère, roughly characterized as poverty that afflicts both the body and soul. She investigates images of the Irish Famine in the period 1846-51; the gendered representation of misery, particularly of poor women and prostitutes; and the work of three very different artists: Théodore Géricault, Gustave Courbet, and Fernand Pelez. These artists' desire to depict the poor and the outcast accurately and convincingly is still a pertinent issue, though now, as the author observes, the question has a moral and ethical dimension--does the documentary style belittle its subjects and degrade their condition?-- |
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| Physical Description: | 176 pages : illustrations (some color) ; 24 cm |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references (pages 164-170) and index. |
| ISBN: | 9780500239698 050023969X |