av福利社

As the French Empire collapsed between 1812 and 1815, artists throughout Europe were left uncertain and adrift. The final abdication of Emperor Napoleon, clearing the way for a restored monarchy, profoundly unsettled prevailing national, religious, and social boundaries. In Restoration, Thomas Crow combines a sweeping view of European art centers鈥擱ome, Paris, London, Madrid, Brussels, and Vienna鈥攚ith a close-up look at pivotal artists, including Antonio Canova, Jacques-Louis David, Th茅odore G茅ricault, Francisco Goya, Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, Thomas Lawrence, and forgotten but meteoric painters Fran莽ois-Joseph Navez and Antoine Jean-Baptiste Thomas. Whether directly or indirectly, all were joined in a newly international network, from which changing artistic priorities and possibilities emerged out of the ruins of the old.

Crow examines how artists of this period faced dramatic circumstances, from political condemnation and difficult diplomatic missions to a catastrophic episode of climate change. Navigating ever-changing pressures, they invented creative ways of incorporating critical events and significant historical actors into fresh artistic works. Crow discusses, among many topics, David鈥檚 art and influence during exile, G茅ricault鈥檚 odyssey through outcast Rome, Ingres鈥檚 drive to reconcile religious art with contemporary mentalities, the titled victors over Napoleon all sitting for portraits by Lawrence, and the campaign to restore art objects expropriated by the French from Italy, prefiguring the restitution controversies of our own time.

Beautifully illustrated, Restoration explores how cataclysmic social and political transformations in nineteenth-century Europe reshaped artists鈥� lives and careers with far-reaching consequences.

Published in association with the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

Awards and Recognition

• Winner of the Silver Medal, Laura Shannon Prize in Contemporary European Studies, Nanovic Institute, University of Notre Dame