Acknowledgments

Chu, Petra ten-Doesschate

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Acknowledgments

Petra ten-Doesschate Chu

Description: The Most Arrogant Man in France: Gustave Courbet and the Nineteenth-Century Media...

The Most Arrogant Man in France: Gustave Courbet and the Nineteenth-Century Media Culture

~Some books are written more easily than others, and this one certainly has been slow in the making. The idea for it dates back some fifteen years, but life as well as other projects have come in its way. In addition, Courbet proved curiously resistant to interpretation. Perhaps I should not have been surprised. “Devinera qui pourra” was...

Author

Petra ten-Doesschate Chu

PublisherPrinceton University Press

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-22103

Acknowledgments

Some books are written more easily than others, and this one certainly has been slow in the making. The idea for it dates back some fifteen years, but life as well as other projects have come in its way. In addition, Courbet proved curiously resistant to interpretation. Perhaps I should not have been surprised. “Devinera qui pourra” was the challenge he posed to the viewers of his major work, The Painter’s Studio, a clear indication that he was not averse to mystifying his public.

No one is an island, and no project comes into being without the direct and indirect help of many. Support from a Jane and Morgan Whitney Art History Fellowship at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and a National Endowment for the Humanities research grant have greatly helped me with the initial research and writing of this book, which was completed thanks to two residential fellowships—at the Humanities Research Centre of the Australian National University in Canberra in the summer of 2003 and the Netherlands Institute of Advanced Study in Wassenaar in the spring of 2005. I am grateful to Seton Hall University for granting me a sabbatical and a leave of absence, respectively.

As the production of art books becomes increasingly expensive, authors and publishers come to rely on the generosity of others to offset the considerable cost of illustrations and printing. I am especially thankful for the financial assistance of Anderson Galleries (Beverly Hills, California), Salander-O’Reilly Galleries (New York), Schiller & Bodo (New York), Seton Hall University (South Orange, New Jersey), and Wildenstein & Company (New York). And although I am grateful to all the museums, libraries, and collectors that have provided me with photographs from their collections, my thanks go out especially to those who have waived the traditional reproduction charges, which are one of the main reasons for the high cost of art book production. I applaud their decision not to charge these arbitrary fees and hope that other institutions will follow suit. When it comes to images, I would also like to thank the photo researchers in some of the larger institutions, especially the Bibliothèque Nationale. Some of them have gone out of their way to find materials for me, and I am very grateful to them.

There are many people at Princeton University Press who deserve my gratitude. Elizabeth Powers, now long retired, had enough faith in me to give me a preliminary contract. Hanne Winarsky, several editors later, has adroitly shepherded the book through the final acceptance process. Meera Vaidyanathan, in charge of the production of the book, has been not only extremely efficient and helpful but also a model of patience and courtesy. Beth Gianfagna is the best copy editor with whom I have ever had the pleasure of working.

Several individuals have helped me greatly and in various ways. At the risk of forgetting someone (who should, please, forgive me for doing so), I would like to mention Mària van Berge-Gerbaud, Hsiao-Yun Chu, Marian Conrads, Laurie Dahlberg, Robert M. De Martino, Therese Dolan, Sarah Faunce, Jean-Jacques Fernier, Paul Galvez, Dario Gamboni, Ay-Whang Hsia, Patricia Mainardi, Jean-Luc Mayaud, Gabriel P. Weisberg, Yvonne Weisberg, and Jörg Zutter. My family, no matter how irritated they sometimes get with my “projects,” are nonetheless my staunchest supporters. Love and thanks to you all!

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BOOKThe Most Arrogant Man in France: Gustave Courbet and the Nineteenth-Century Media Culture

Petra ten-Doesschate Chu

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00284

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-22101

The modern artist strives to be independent of the public’s taste—and yet depends on the public for a living. Petra Chu argues that the French Realist Gustave Courbet (1819–1877) understood this dilemma perhaps better than any painter before him. In The Most Arrogant Man in France, the first comprehensive reinterpretation of Courbet in a generation, Chu tells the fascinating story of how, in the initial age of mass media and popular high art, this important artist managed to achieve an unprecedented measure of artistic and financial independence by promoting his work and himself through the popular press.

The Courbet who emerges in Chu’s account is a sophisticated artist and entrepreneur who understood that the modern artist must sell—and not only make—his art. Responding to this reality, Courbet found new ways to “package,” exhibit, and publicize his work and himself. Chu shows that Courbet was one of the first artists to recognize and take advantage of the publicity potential of newspapers, using them to create acceptance of his work and to spread an image of himself as a radical outsider. Courbet introduced the independent show by displaying his art in popular venues outside the Salon, and he courted new audiences, including women.

And for a time Courbet succeeded, achieving a rare freedom for a nineteenth-century French artist. If his strategy eventually backfired and he was forced into exile, his pioneering vision of the artist’s career in the modern world nevertheless makes him an intriguing forerunner to all later media-savvy artists.

Author

Petra ten-Doesschate Chu

PublisherPrinceton University Press

Print publication date April 2007 (in print)

Print ISBN 9780691126791

EISBN 9780300266528

Illustrations 137

Print Status in print

Publisher (in print)

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