French Art

French painting and sculpture become a subject of argument as well as description in W. C. Brownell's critical survey. Its chapters move through classic, romantic and realistic painting, then consider established sculpture and the newer work of Rodin and Dalou. Brownell opens by examining the shared habits of French artists: their concern for order, clear form, cultivated taste and technical skill. He weighs those strengths against his preference for imagination, emotion and poetic suggestion.

The discussion of Manet brings these broad judgments down to the practical business of painting. Brownell contrasts the artist's pursuit of observed light and color with the carefully coordinated tones of a palace interior by Gérôme. Such comparisons give readers a way to connect arguments about artistic schools with choices made on the canvas. The book suits anyone interested in how a critic explains the relationship between inherited standards and a new way of seeing.