On Modern Beauty: Three Paintings by Manet, Gauguin, and Cézanne
A thought-provoking examination of beauty using three works of art by Manet, Gauguin, and Cézanne. As the discipline of art history has moved away from connoisseurship, the notion of beauty has become increasingly problematic. Both culturally and personally subjective, the term is difficult to define and nearly universally avoided. In this insightful book, Richard R. Brettell, one of the leading authorities on Impressionism and French art of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, dares to confront the concept of modern beauty head-on. This is not a study of aesthetic philosophy, but rather a richly contextualized look at the ambitions of specific artists and artworks at a particular time and place.
 
Brettell shapes his manifesto around three masterworks from the collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum: Édouard Manet’s Jeanne (Spring), Paul Gauguin’s Arii Matamoe (The Royal End), and Paul Cézanne’s Young Italian Woman at a Table. The provocative discussion reveals how each of these exceptional paintings, though depicting very different subjects—a fashionable actress, a preserved head, and a weary working woman—enacts a revolutionary, yet enduring, icon of beauty.
 
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On Modern Beauty: Three Paintings by Manet, Gauguin, and Cézanne
A thought-provoking examination of beauty using three works of art by Manet, Gauguin, and Cézanne. As the discipline of art history has moved away from connoisseurship, the notion of beauty has become increasingly problematic. Both culturally and personally subjective, the term is difficult to define and nearly universally avoided. In this insightful book, Richard R. Brettell, one of the leading authorities on Impressionism and French art of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, dares to confront the concept of modern beauty head-on. This is not a study of aesthetic philosophy, but rather a richly contextualized look at the ambitions of specific artists and artworks at a particular time and place.
 
Brettell shapes his manifesto around three masterworks from the collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum: Édouard Manet’s Jeanne (Spring), Paul Gauguin’s Arii Matamoe (The Royal End), and Paul Cézanne’s Young Italian Woman at a Table. The provocative discussion reveals how each of these exceptional paintings, though depicting very different subjects—a fashionable actress, a preserved head, and a weary working woman—enacts a revolutionary, yet enduring, icon of beauty.
 
19.95 In Stock
On Modern Beauty: Three Paintings by Manet, Gauguin, and Cézanne

On Modern Beauty: Three Paintings by Manet, Gauguin, and Cézanne

by Richard R. Brettell
On Modern Beauty: Three Paintings by Manet, Gauguin, and Cézanne

On Modern Beauty: Three Paintings by Manet, Gauguin, and Cézanne

by Richard R. Brettell

Paperback(1)

$19.95 
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Overview

A thought-provoking examination of beauty using three works of art by Manet, Gauguin, and Cézanne. As the discipline of art history has moved away from connoisseurship, the notion of beauty has become increasingly problematic. Both culturally and personally subjective, the term is difficult to define and nearly universally avoided. In this insightful book, Richard R. Brettell, one of the leading authorities on Impressionism and French art of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, dares to confront the concept of modern beauty head-on. This is not a study of aesthetic philosophy, but rather a richly contextualized look at the ambitions of specific artists and artworks at a particular time and place.
 
Brettell shapes his manifesto around three masterworks from the collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum: Édouard Manet’s Jeanne (Spring), Paul Gauguin’s Arii Matamoe (The Royal End), and Paul Cézanne’s Young Italian Woman at a Table. The provocative discussion reveals how each of these exceptional paintings, though depicting very different subjects—a fashionable actress, a preserved head, and a weary working woman—enacts a revolutionary, yet enduring, icon of beauty.
 

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781606066065
Publisher: Getty Publications
Publication date: 06/11/2019
Edition description: 1
Pages: 116
Product dimensions: 6.20(w) x 8.60(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Richard R. Brettell, the founding director of the Edith O’Donnell Institute of Art History and the Margaret McDermott Chair of Aesthetic Studies at the University of Texas at Dallas, passed away in 2020.

Table of Contents

Foreword vii

Timothy Potts

Introduction: Modern Beauty 1

Note To The Reader 10

Is Beauty Transitory?: Édouard Manet's Jeanne 13

Is Beauty Immemorial?: Paul Gauguin's Arll Matamoe 39

Is Beauty Beyond Time?: Paul Cézanne's Young Italian Woman At A Table 71

Afterthoughts 95

List Of Illustrations 98

Suggested Further Reading 103

Index 107

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