Acknowledgments

Lajer-Burcharth, Ewa

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Acknowledgments

Ewa Lajer-Burcharth

Necklines: The Art of Jacques-Louis David after the Terror

Acknowledgments

Author

Ewa Lajer-Burcharth

PublisherYale University Press

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-23000

Acknowledgments

This book owes much to the generosity of many institutions and people. The nucleus of my research was made possible by a Chester Dale Fellowship from the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, National Gallery, Washington, D.C., and by grants and fellowships from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation; the Graduate Center, City University of New York; the American Council of Learned Societies; and the Social Science Research Council, together with a Florence J. Gould Tocqueville Award for research in French art history. In later stages, crucial support was provided by a postdoctoral fellowship from the Getty Grant Program and the Clark Fund at Harvard University.

In the conduct of my research, I have received help from many people at the museums, collections, and libraries in France, among whom I want to thank particularly Director Pierre Rosenberg, curators Régis Michel and Arlette Sérullaz at the Département des arts graphiques, Marie-Catherine Sahut at the Département de peinture, and the staff of the Centre de documentation du Département de peinture, all at the Musée du Louvre; Philippe Bordes, former director of the Musée de la Révolution Francaise in Vizille; and Sylvain Béllenger and Christophe Richard at the Musée Girodet, Montargis. Louis Antoine Prat and Bruno de Bayser were generous with their time and knowledge regarding David’s drawings in private collections. Catherine Bossis at the Agence photographique de la Réunion des musées nationaux was outstandingly helpful. In New York, Alan Wintermute and the staff of Colnaghi Gallery proved most resourceful on more than one occasion. In Cambridge, Miriam Stewart and Larry Clark at the Fogg Art Museum were most helpful. In Ottawa, Colin Bailey provided kind and auspicious assistance.

My deepest thanks go to Linda Nochlin, my teacher and friend, whose critical acuity, encouragement, and unflagging support throughout the long period in which this book was taking shape were of utmost importance for me. So was the support of Lynn Hunt, whose groundbreaking studies on the culture of the French Revolution were central for my own work, and whose incisive and generous reading of my manuscript at an early stage was invaluable for my project. My work greatly benefited from the scholarship of Klaus Herding, whose seminar “Signs and Symbols in the French Revolution” awoke my interest in the post-Thermidorian period. The expertise, resources, and friendship of Philippe Bordes and Régis Michel in Paris were simply invaluable. Special thanks go to Simon Schama for his gift of one word, which proved fundamental for this book.

I am deeply grateful to my friends and colleagues who generously read all or part of the manuscript and offered incisive and vital critiques: Alex Potts, Anne Higonnet, John Goodman, Margaret Carrol, and Leila Kinney.

I want to thank my colleagues and friends who invited me to speak on the subject of the book and offered stimulating comments: Régis Michel, whose conference “David contre David” in Paris proved to be a crucible for new ideas; Norman Bryson and Jann Matlock, who invited me to speak at the “Visual Representation and Cultural History” seminar at the Center for Literary and Cultural Studies at Harvard University; Tamar Garb and Briony Fer, who asked me to participate in their panel on power and visual culture at the Art Historians Association Annual Conference in London; Nancy Locke, who invited me to the stimulating conference “Psychoanalysis, Visuality and Spectatorship” at Wayne State University; Dian Kriz, who issued invitations to lecture at the “Terror and the Guillotine” conference and at the Center of Early Modern Culture at Brown University; and Tim Clark, who invited me to speak at the University of California at Berkeley.

I have benefited from the support and encouragement of my colleagues at the Department of History of Art and Architecture at Harvard University, particularly Henri Zerner, Norman Bryson, and Yve-Alain Bois, who have been my most inspiring interlocutors in conversations on modern art. Joseph Koerner, Irene Winter, Neil Levine, John Shearman, and Jim Cuno offered illuminating comments on my work, as did more recently Alice Jarrard. Ioli Kalavrezou’s advice and support at important moments were most appreciated.

Intellectual exchanges with friends and colleagues in Europe and in the United States helped shape my project. I should like to thank especially Claudie Balavoine, Antoine de Baecque, Svetlana Boym, Giuliana Bruno, Paula di Cori, Thomas Crow, Briony Fer, Tamar Garb, Stefan Germer, Molly Nesbitt, Adrian Rifkin, Naomi Schor, and Robert Simon. John Goodman’s generous collegiality has always been exceptional. Thanks also to Jill Slossburg Ackerman, Jim Ackerman, Whitney Davis, Ellen Driscoll, Donna Hunter, David Joselit, Maud Lavin, Jann Matlock, Laurie Monahan, Todd Porterfield, Tom Sleigh, Abigail Solomon-Godeau, and Peggy Waller. Without the intellectual stimulation and feedback from my students at Harvard—especially Cassie Mansfield, Steven Nelson, Pam Lee, Noriko Murai, and, more recently, Issa Lampe, Rachel Baum, and Graham Bader—the book would not be the same. Greg Thomas, Jessica Levin, and Amanda Luyster, my research assistants, provided crucial help at various stages of the project.

Special thanks to Judy Metro at Yale University Press for her unstinting support of my project, her good humor, and her resourcefulness and patience. Jenya Weinreb was an extraordinary and most insightful manuscript editor. I thank her warmly.

My parents, Barbara and Andrzej Lajer, have my deepest gratitude for their support and unfailing interest in my work. I am also thankful to my Danish family, Bente, Max, Thomas, and Jacob Burcharth, who have sustained me in many wonderful ways. Last, but not least, I should like to thank Martin Burcharth, who has been my extraordinary, lucid, and loving interlocutor and steadfast supporter at every stage of this project. To him this book is dedicated.

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