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Description: Esprit de Corps: The Art of the Parisian Avant-Garde and the First World War,...
BOOKEsprit de Corps: The Art of the Parisian Avant-Garde and the First World War, 1914–1925
Kenneth E. Silver
Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-32210
In analyzing the changes in modern art between the outbreak of World War I and the Paris Exposition des Arts Dcoratifs of 1925, Kenneth Silver shows that the Parisian avant-garde was deeply involved in French society and its dominant values and relationships. He radically reinterprets masterpieces of modern art, from Matisse and Picasso to Léger and Le Corbusier, demonstrating how their creators all refer, consciously or not, to the Great War and its aftermath.

Praise for Esprit de Corps

"It's impossible to suppose that anybody will ever study the French art of this period without acknowledging dependence on Silver's huge book. In it a genuine historical crisis is studied by minute application to works of art and artistic controversies. It sets high standards."—Frank Kermode, The London Review of Books

"One of the outstanding books of the past decade and an indispensable addition to the history of twentieth-century art."—Holland Cotter, Art in America

"Ranks among the small number of works necessary to the understanding of art of this century."—Philippe Dagen, Le Monde

*This eBook is available exclusively on the A&AePortal.*
Author
Kenneth E. Silver
PublisherPrinceton University Press
Print publication date October 1989 (out of print)
Print ISBN 9780691040523
EISBN 9780300280005
Copyright© 1989 by Kenneth E. Silver
Illustrations 251
Print Status out of print
Publisher (out of print)
WorldCat
Google Books

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List of illustrations

  • The Café de la Paix in Wartime
  • Virtuous Germania (La Vertueuse Germania)
  • Reims Cathedral, taken during bombardment by Germans
  • Remember 1914! (Rappelez-vous 1914!)
  • It’s Not New! (Ce n’est pas nouveau!)
  • The Boche Imperial Family Kubified (La Famille impériale boche kubistée)
  • The Cubists! (Les Cubistes)
  • Marianne and Germania
  • Marianne and Germania
  • Marianne and Germania
  • Marianne and Germania
  • Marianne and Germania
  • Intellectual and Soldier (Intellectuel et militaire)
  • Marianne and Germania
  • Maurice Barrès, Patriot/Writer (Maurice Barrès, L'Ecrivain Patriote)
  • The Piano Lesson
  • The Red Studio
  • Playing Cards, Glasses, Bottle of Rum: "Vive la France
  • Guillaume Apollinaire, Artilleryman (Guillaume de Kostrowitzky, Artilleur)
  • Alphabet of the Army (L'Alphabet de l'Armée)
  • Joffre
  • The Four Aymon Sons (Les 4 Fils Aymon)
  • The Allies (Les Alliés), detail
  • To the Deputies Slain for the Fatherland (Aux Deputés, morts pour la patrie)
  • Plan for artillery emplacement
  • Rooster (Gallic Cock)
  • Helmet design for French army
  • Return (Le Retour)
  • The Conquest of the Air
  • The End of the Great War (La Fin de la Grande Guerre)
  • Brow and Necklace of Victory (Front et collier de la Victoire)
  • Nurse
  • Double Portrait of Josette Gris
  • La Race, cover
  • The Painter and His Model
  • The Tragedy
  • Portrait of a Young Man in an Artist’s Studio
  • Seated Man (The Smoker)
  • The Painter's Studio: A Real Allegory Summing Up Seven Years of My Artistic and Moral Life, detail of central section
  • Bather
  • Max Jacob
  • Ambroise Vollard
  • War (La Guerre)
  • Cannon in Action
  • The Armored Train
  • The Card Party
  • At Ease: The Officers’ Bridge Game (Au repos: Le bridge des Officiers)
  • Verdun, la rue Mazel
  • Drawing, from notebook
  • Drawing, from notebook
  • Scene of Battle
  • Dixmude
  • Portrait of Jeanne
  • Motherhood
  • In Front of the Ruins of the Colosseum (Devant les ruines du colisée)
  • Their Culture (Leur Kulture)
  • Dante on Our Side (Dante avec nous)
  • 1916 (New Year’s Greeting)
  • Guardian of the Valiantly Wounded
  • Untitled
  • Victory
  • Venus and Cupid
  • Glory to You (Gloire à Vous)
  • Illustration for Journée francaise du secours national
  • Verdun
  • French Christmas: Victory (Le Noël de la France: la Victoire)
  • The Sower (Elle sême à tous vents)
  • The Best Defense (Le Meilleur Rempart)
  • Immortality
  • Slain for the Fatherland (Mort pour La Patrie)
  • Go forth...Daughter of France, the time has come! (Va...fille de France, le temps est venu!)
  • La Marseillaise Rallying the Parisians
  • Prisoner!
  • Poster for War Loan
  • Vision of Exile (Vision d’Exil)
  • In the Manner of Puvis de Chavannes (À la manière de Puvis de Chavannes)
  • Those who have seen
  • Un bel élan
  • Portrait of Jean Cocteau in Uniform
  • Portrait of Guillaume Apollinaire in Uniform
  • Portrait of Léonce Rosenberg in Uniform
  • Portrait of Riccioto Canudo in Uniform
  • Set for Parade
  • Costume for Parade (Manager in Fancy Dress)
  • Costume for Parade (Manager from New York)
  • Overture curtain for Parade
  • Taverna
  • Les Charmes de la vie (The Attractions of Life)
  • Grotesque Alphabet of the Cris de Paris
  • Study for Manager in Parade
  • Photograph of cocoa vendor
  • Photograph of homme-affiche
  • Costume for Parade (Chinese Magician)
  • Grotesque Alphabet of the Cris de Paris, detail
  • Harlequin
  • Harlequin
  • La Chanson de Pierrot
  • Figure of Harlequin for Jean Cocteau's Le Coq et L'Arlequin
  • Figure of teh Cock for Jean Cocteau's Le Coq et L'Arlequin
  • Italian Flower Girl
  • Italian Peasant Girl
  • Drawing after Corot’s Mlle. de Foudras
  • The Italian Woman (L'Italienne)
  • Ma Jolie
  • Villa Medici, Rome
  • Portrait of Olga
  • Wall decorations for Errazuriz villa
  • Wall decorations for Errazuriz villa
  • Portrait of Olga
  • Livia from Ingres's Tu Marcellus Eris
  • Tu Marcellus Eris
  • Le Gitan, study for
  • The City of Paris
  • Portrait of Léonide Massine, study for
  • Woman and Child
  • Appearance of the Angel to Punchinello
  • Annunciation
  • Portrait of Josette
  • Woman with Mandolin (after Corot)
  • Girl with a Mandolin
  • Harlequin with Guitar
  • After Cézanne
  • Cézanne’s Bathers, drawing after
  • Vestibule (Exhibition of Munich Decorators, Paris)
  • Music Room (Exhibition of Munich Decorators, Paris)
  • Nijinsky as the Golden Slave in Shéhérazade
  • Paul and Denise Poiret in costume for 1002nd Night party
  • Sorbet
  • Old Turkey (Vieille Turquie)
  • They can hear the cannon in Constantinople (On entend le canon a Constantinople)
  • Arras
  • Gassed Men (Les Gazés)
  • Mutilés de Guerre
  • Motherhood (Maternité)
  • For the War Loan, the Sacred Union (Pour l’emprunt, Union Sacrée)
  • The Farewells
  • The Soil of France (La Terre de France)
  • The Good Frenchman contributes to the War Loan (Le Bon Francais souscrit à l’Emprunt)
  • Image from French Women at Work for the Nation
  • La Mode Nationale
  • Patriotic faïence
  • The Music Lesson
  • Holy France / The Knitter (Sainte France / La Tricoteuse)
  • The Guardian of the Home (La Gardienne de Foyer)
  • Knitter (Tricoteuse)
  • Seal of the City of Paris
  • The Entry of the French into Strasbourg
  • Medallion (La Somme) for the Peace Festivities
  • The Etoile—Arc de Triomphe during the 1919 Peace Festivities
  • Procession of the Mutilés de Guerre
  • Marshals Foch and Joffre at the Peace Festivities parade
  • Cenotaph for the War Dead
  • The Allies
  • France Victorious
  • Still-Life with Book, Glass, and Pipe
  • Table in a Cafe (Bottle of Pernod)
  • Woman with Mandolin (after Corot)
  • Saint Sébastien pleuré par les Saintes femmes
  • The Peasants’ Repast (after Le Nain)
  • Bathers
  • Young Girls by the Seashore
  • The Football Players (Les joueurs de football)
  • Portrait of Renoir
  • Renoir’s Le Ménage Sisley, study after
  • Sleeping Peasants
  • Three Dancers
  • Portrait of André Derain
  • Portrait of Max Jacob
  • Portrait of Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler
  • Portrait of Boris Kochno
  • La Madelon
  • Portrait of Jean-Louis Gampert
  • Self-Portrait
  • The Plumed Hat
  • Odalisque with Red Trousers
  • Odalisque (Algerian Woman)
  • Odalisque with Green Sash
  • Odalisque with a Slave
  • Poster for the 1922 Exposition Coloniale (Marseille)
  • Poster for the 1924 Olympic Games (Paris)
  • Two Punchinellos
  • Harlequinade
  • Harlequin and Pierrot
  • Monument to the Genius of the Latin People
  • Bathers
  • Bathers
  • La Source
  • Three Women at the Spring
  • La Liseuse
  • Et in Arcadia Ego
  • The Shepherd's Song
  • La Source
  • The Pipes of Pan
  • Mother and Child
  • Mother and Child
  • Poster for Peace Loan
  • Family of the Commedia dell’Arte, study for
  • Mother and Child
  • Mother and Child
  • Woman in White
  • The Village Dance
  • Hope
  • Front page of newspaper L’Excelsior, with drawing
  • Canéphore
  • Canéphore
  • Noble Burdens, study for
  • Les Palefreniers
  • Portrait of Guynemer
  • The Sick Man in Bed
  • Self-Portrait
  • Curtain for Le Tricorne
  • Curtain for Les Fâcheux
  • Costume design for Les Tentations de la bergère
  • Set design for La Création du Monde
  • Monument to Latin Stupidity (Monument a la Bétise Latine)
  • Costume design for Les Mariés de la tour Eiffel
  • Costume worn at the Beaumont Bail des Jeux
  • Portrait of Max Goth
  • Three Musicians
  • Studies
  • Calling of Saint Matthew
  • Pour que la France soit prospère
  • Eiffel Tower
  • Portrait of Mme. Mandel
  • Eiffel Tower
  • The City of Paris: The Woman and the Tower
  • The City
  • Three Women
  • Greek vase, detail
  • Women in an Interior
  • Still-Life in Front of a Window at St. Raphaël
  • Guitar and Compotier
  • The Louis-Philippe Table
  • The Open Window
  • Still Life before an Open Window, Place Ravignan
  • Studio with Plaster Head
  • Still-Life with Statue
  • The Musician's Table
  • General view of Esplanade des Invalides (Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes)
  • View of the Porte d’Honneur: Pont Alexandre III (Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes)
  • Title page of Architectures (Paris, 1921)
  • Desk
  • L’Esprit Nouveau pavilion (Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes, Paris)
  • Eyes which do not see: Automobiles
  • Still Life
  • Glasses and Bottles
  • Still-Life with Numerous Objects
  • Fugue
  • Urbanism display, L’Esprit Nouveau pavilion (Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes)
  • Editorial defacing of Giorgio de Chirico
  • The Three Dancers
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List of Illustrations
Kenneth E. Silver
Description: Esprit de Corps: The Art of the Parisian Avant-Garde and the First World War,...
Esprit de Corps: The Art of the Parisian Avant-Garde and the First World War, 1914–1925
List of Illustrations
Author
Kenneth E. Silver
PublisherPrinceton University Press
Copyright© 1989 by Kenneth E. Silver
Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-32212
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Acknowledgments
Kenneth E. Silver
Description: Esprit de Corps: The Art of the Parisian Avant-Garde and the First World War,...
Esprit de Corps: The Art of the Parisian Avant-Garde and the First World War, 1914–1925
I AM INDEBTED to many people and numerous institutions for the realization of this book, which has been a long time in the making. I want to thank, first of all, the National Endowment for the Humanities, which provided me with funds for travel, research, and writing. In Paris, I am indebted to the staff of the Musée d’Histoire Contemporain...
Author
Kenneth E. Silver
PublisherPrinceton University Press
Copyright© 1989 by Kenneth E. Silver
Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-32213
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I. “In the nightmare through which we are passing”
Kenneth E. Silver
Description: Esprit de Corps: The Art of the Parisian Avant-Garde and the First World War,...
Esprit de Corps: The Art of the Parisian Avant-Garde and the First World War, 1914–1925
ON 2 AUGUST 1914, the day France declared war on Germany, Pablo Picasso, who was vacationing in Avignon, escorted his friends Georges Braque and André Derain to the railroad station for the journey to Paris, where the...
Author
Kenneth E. Silver
PublisherPrinceton University Press
Copyright© 1989 by Kenneth E. Silver
Related print edition pages: pp.3-27
Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-32214
Chapter subject tags:Avant-garde (Aesthetics)--France--History--20th centuryNationalism and art--France--History--20th centuryArt and society--France--Paris--20th centuryWorld War, 1914-1918Painting, French--20th centuryGris, Juan, 1887-1927Picasso, Pablo, 1881-1973Art dealers--FranceCubism (Art)

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II. The Rewards of War
Kenneth E. Silver
Description: Esprit de Corps: The Art of the Parisian Avant-Garde and the First World War,...
Esprit de Corps: The Art of the Parisian Avant-Garde and the First World War, 1914–1925
PIERRE ALBERT-BIROT, editor of Sic—the new “little magazine” of the Parisian avant-garde—asked his “newly enlisted readers,” in the inaugural issue of January 1916, to respond to the question: What will the war...
Author
Kenneth E. Silver
PublisherPrinceton University Press
Copyright© 1989 by Kenneth E. Silver
Related print edition pages: pp.28-73
Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-32215
Chapter subject tags:Avant-garde (Aesthetics)--France--History--20th centuryNationalism and art--France--History--20th centuryArt and society--France--Paris--20th centuryWorld War, 1914-1918Gris, Juan, 1887-1927Matisse, Henri, 1869-1954Picasso, Pablo, 1881-1973Painting, French--20th centuryCubism (Art)

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III. Comme il faut
Kenneth E. Silver
Description: Esprit de Corps: The Art of the Parisian Avant-Garde and the First World War,...
Esprit de Corps: The Art of the Parisian Avant-Garde and the First World War, 1914–1925
DESPITE the nationalistic tone of Le Mot and L’Elan, and the reference to Ingres in Picasso’s two portrait drawings of 1915, there was scant evidence to support Jacques Vernay’s prediction of a classical reaction when he wrote his review of the Triennale in April 1916. To the contrary, had he been at all conversant with the...
Author
Kenneth E. Silver
PublisherPrinceton University Press
Copyright© 1989 by Kenneth E. Silver
Related print edition pages: pp.74-145
Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-32216
Chapter subject tags:Avant-garde (Aesthetics)--France--History--20th centuryNationalism and art--France--History--20th centuryArt and society--France--Paris--20th centuryWorld War, 1914-1918Severini, Gino, 1883-1966Futurism (Art)Painting, French--20th centuryCocteau, Jean, 1889-1963Picasso, Pablo, 1881-1973Cubism (Art)

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IV. Internecine Warfare
Kenneth E. Silver
Description: Esprit de Corps: The Art of the Parisian Avant-Garde and the First World War,...
Esprit de Corps: The Art of the Parisian Avant-Garde and the First World War, 1914–1925
AS EARLY as April 1916, the young painter and critic Bissière had written in the magazine L’Opinion:
Author
Kenneth E. Silver
PublisherPrinceton University Press
Copyright© 1989 by Kenneth E. Silver
Related print edition pages: pp.146-185
Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-32217
Chapter subject tags:Avant-garde (Aesthetics)--France--History--20th centuryNationalism and art--France--History--20th centuryArt and society--France--Paris--20th centuryWorld War, 1914-1918Cubism (Art)Delaunay, Robert, 1885-1941Picasso, Pablo, 1881-1973Severini, Gino, 1883-1966Gris, Juan, 1887-1927Cézanne, Paul, 1839-1906Poiret, Paul

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V. Fluctuat nec mergitur
Kenneth E. Silver
Description: Esprit de Corps: The Art of the Parisian Avant-Garde and the First World War,...
Esprit de Corps: The Art of the Parisian Avant-Garde and the First World War, 1914–1925
IF THE IDEOLOGICAL PROGRAM of French wartime propaganda was fashioned mostly from half-truths, misconceptions, stereotypes, and, when necessary, outright lies, the destruction of the homeland at the hands of the invader was a visible fact. It was convenient and even amusing to invent a “Fritz” and...
Author
Kenneth E. Silver
PublisherPrinceton University Press
Copyright© 1989 by Kenneth E. Silver
Related print edition pages: pp.186-218
Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-32218
Chapter subject tags:Avant-garde (Aesthetics)--France--History--20th centuryNationalism and art--France--History--20th centuryArt and society--France--Paris--20th centuryWorld War, 1914-1918--AtrocitiesArchitecture, French--20th centuryReconstruction (1914-1939)--FranceWorld War, 1914-1918--PropagandaMatisse, Henri, 1869-1954Bergson, Henri, 1859-1941

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VI. Blue Horizons
Kenneth E. Silver
Description: Esprit de Corps: The Art of the Parisian Avant-Garde and the First World War,...
Esprit de Corps: The Art of the Parisian Avant-Garde and the First World War, 1914–1925
ON 11 NOVEMBER 1918 the German peace delegates surrendered to France in Marshal Foch’s railway car at Rethondes, close to Compiègne. Beginning that night and for almost two days afterward...
Author
Kenneth E. Silver
PublisherPrinceton University Press
Copyright© 1989 by Kenneth E. Silver
Related print edition pages: pp.219-298
Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-32219
Chapter subject tags:Avant-garde (Aesthetics)--France--History--20th centuryNationalism and art--France--History--20th centuryArt and society--France--Paris--20th centuryWorld War, 1914-1918--ArmisticesReconstruction (1914-1939)--FranceCubism (Art)Purism (Art)Painting, French--20th centuryPicasso, Pablo, 1881-1973Ingres, Jean-Auguste-Dominique, 1780-1867Matisse, Henri, 1869-1954Severini, Gino, 1883-1966Modernism (Art)--Classical influencesPuvis de Chavannes, Pierre, 1824-1898

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VII. From Analysis to Synthesis
Kenneth E. Silver
Description: Esprit de Corps: The Art of the Parisian Avant-Garde and the First World War,...
Esprit de Corps: The Art of the Parisian Avant-Garde and the First World War, 1914–1925
STRANGE as it may seem, Cubism not only survived the war but, to a certain extent, flourished in post-war Paris.The post-war history of Cubism will be considered by Christopher Green in Cubism and Its Enemies (New Haven and London, 1987). After four long years of...
Author
Kenneth E. Silver
PublisherPrinceton University Press
Copyright© 1989 by Kenneth E. Silver
Related print edition pages: pp.299-361
Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-32220
Chapter subject tags:Avant-garde (Aesthetics)--France--History--20th centuryNationalism and art--France--History--20th centuryArt and society--France--Paris--20th centuryWorld War, 1914-1918Cubism (Art)Picasso, Pablo, 1881-1973Painting, French--20th centuryGris, Juan, 1887-1927Braque, Georges, 1882-1963Léger, Fernand, 1881-1955Picabia, Francis, 1879-1953Dadaism (Art)Cézanne, Paul, 1839-1906Delaunay, Robert, 1885-1941

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VIII. Perchance to Dream
Kenneth E. Silver
Description: Esprit de Corps: The Art of the Parisian Avant-Garde and the First World War,...
Esprit de Corps: The Art of the Parisian Avant-Garde and the First World War, 1914–1925
BETWEEN the months of April and October 1925, the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes was installed in the heart of Paris...
Author
Kenneth E. Silver
PublisherPrinceton University Press
Copyright© 1989 by Kenneth E. Silver
Related print edition pages: pp.362-399
Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-32221
Chapter subject tags:Avant-garde (Aesthetics)--France--History--20th centuryNationalism and art--France--History--20th centuryArt and society--France--Paris--20th centuryExposition internationale des arts décoratifs et industriels modernes (1925 : Paris, France)Reconstruction (1914-1939)--FranceLe Corbusier, 1887-1965Purism (Art)Ozenfant, Amédée, 1886-1966Painting, French--20th centurySurrealism (Art)

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Bibliography
Kenneth E. Silver
Description: Esprit de Corps: The Art of the Parisian Avant-Garde and the First World War,...
Esprit de Corps: The Art of the Parisian Avant-Garde and the First World War, 1914–1925
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Author
Kenneth E. Silver
PublisherPrinceton University Press
Copyright© 1989 by Kenneth E. Silver
Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-32222
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Esprit de Corps: The Art of the Parisian Avant-Garde and the First World War, 1914–1925
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