Domesticity and anxiety: Artists' portraits of their parents in France, circa 1840--1885.
Item
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Title
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Domesticity and anxiety: Artists' portraits of their parents in France, circa 1840--1885.
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Identifier
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AAI3115237
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identifier
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3115237
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Creator
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Coller, Barbara G.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Jane Mayo Roos
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Date
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2004
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Art History
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Abstract
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The exploration of identity formed through early family experiences resonates with twenty-first century viewers. This dissertation examines the nature of artists' portraits of their parents by studying the images of them made by six major French artists working in the middle to the latter part of the nineteenth century. Using a methodology grounded in social history and psychoanalytic theory, the individual nature of the relationship between each artist and his or her family is discussed. The author argues that a significant number of artists made portraits of their parents that are emotionally significant, and, in some cases, artistically pivotal. Much of the research was derived from letters between the artists and their family-members and friends.;Some of the observations resulting from the study include the importance of money issues for the young artist that produced a prolonged state of dependency on the father; the frequent conflict between the parent and adult child over the desirability of an artistic career; the common ages of execution of the works---clustering in the late twenties---during a time of self-examination; and the importance of this kind of personal and contemporary subject as a sign of avant-garde modernity. In addition, because the works were not commissioned, the artists were free to experiment without the constraints of pleasing a patron.;A chapter is devoted to each of the following six artists: Gustave Courbet, Edouard Manet, Berthe Morisot, Paul Cezanne, Frederic Bazille and Gustave Caillebotte while portraits by James Abbott McNeill Whistler, Edgar Degas and Mary Cassatt are also discussed. The author argues that in five of the six examples, anxiety connected to the artist's relationship with one or both of the parents affected the likenesses. In the case of Morisot, the anxiety is evident in her written description of an incident that occurred during the completion of the portrait of her mother and sister when her mentor, Edouard Manet, violated the boundaries of her work and thus produced a traumatic episode.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy Restricted.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.