Review of Delacroix, Art and Patrimony in Post-Revolutionary France by Elisabeth A. Fraser
Keywords
artistic lineage, political legitimacy, Restoration France, history painting, cultural inheritance
Abstract
In her excellent book, Delacroix, Art and Patrimony in Post-Revolutionary France, Elisabeth A. Fraser joins the ranks of scholars attending to the complex relationships between history and painting in the early nineteenth century.[1] This text frames Eugène Delacroix’s early work in terms of the family metaphor, a conceit which is used to articulate how these paintings were bound up intimately in issues of inheritance, lineage, and authority. Because one of the defining characteristics of the artist’s development and of Restoration culture was this anxiety over legitimacy, the author contends, this concern saturated his output during the 1820s, as manifest in works such as his Dante and Virgil, Massacres at Chios, and Death of Sardanapalus. Moving from Delacroix’s personal quest to establish an appropriate artistic genealogy to the nation’s concern over rightful political authority, Fraser builds a convincing case for the significance of patrimonial issues in the formation and reception of Delacroix’s early history paintings.
Original Publication Citation
Review of Delacroix, Art and Patrimony in Post-Revolutionary France by Elisabeth A. Fraser (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2004). For H-France, online reviews for the Society of French Historical Studies, vol.4, issue 11 (November 2004).
BYU ScholarsArchive Citation
Belnap Jensen, Heather, "Review of Delacroix, Art and Patrimony in Post-Revolutionary France by Elisabeth A. Fraser" (2004). Faculty Publications. 9542.
https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/facpub/9542
Document Type
Other
Publication Date
2004
Publisher
H-France, online reviews for the Society of French Historical Studies
Language
English
College
Humanities
Department
Art History
Copyright Status
Copyright © 2004 by the Society for French Historical Studies, all rights reserved. The Society for French Historical Studies permits the electronic distribution for nonprofit educational purposes, provided that full and accurate credit is given to the author, the date of publication, and its location on the H-France website. No republication or distribution by print media will be permitted without permission. For any other proposed uses, contact the Editor-in-Chief of H-France.
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