Hélène Valance
Hélène Valance is assistant professor at the Université de Franche-Comté, Besançon, France.
Valance, Hélène
Valance, Hélène
United States of America
Subscribed to the newsletter
Send me site notifications emails
Description: Circulation
Late in the month of October 1871, Maggie, a model for James McNeill Whistler (1834–1903), fell ill and told the artist she could not sit for the portrait he intended to make of her. The weather being too bad for him to continue working outdoors on the Thames landscapes project he had recently started, Whistler, who was then living in Chelsea with his mother, asked her to pose for...
PublisherTerra Foundation for American Art
Related print edition pages: pp.114-143
https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00191.004
Description: Nocturne: Night in American Art, 1890–1917
https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00087
The turn of the 20th century witnessed a surge in the creation and popularity of nocturnes and night landscapes in American art. In this original and thought-provoking book, Hélène Valance investigates why artists and viewers of the era were so captivated by the night. Nocturne examines works by artists such as James McNeill Whistler, Childe Hassam, Winslow Homer, Frederic Remington, Edward Steichen, and Henry Ossawa Tanner through the lens of the scientific developments and social issues that dominated the period. Valance argues that the success of the genre is connected to the resonance between the night and the many forces that affected the era, including technological advances that expanded the realm of the visible, such as electric lighting and photography; Jim Crow–era race relations; America's closing frontier and imperialism abroad; and growing anxiety about identity and social values amid rapid urbanization. This absorbing study features 150 illustrations encompassing paintings, photographs, prints, scientific illustration, advertising, and popular media to explore the predilection for night imagery as a sign of the times.
Author
Print publication date June 2018 (in print)
Print ISBN 9780300223996
EISBN 9780300245943
Illustrations 152
Print Status in print