Art and Literature of the Second Empire

This volume explores the characteristics of the art and literature of the Second Empire in France; it examines the attitudes and positioning of artists and writers of the period in relation to a regime of dubious legitimacy, and the ways in which that regime exploited to its advantage the artistic capital available to it.

David Baguley is Emeritus professor of French at Durham University and the University of Western Ontario.

Illustrations * Preface * Préface * ARTS * Landscape in the Second Empire- Patricia Mainardi * Manet and the politics of art- Robert Lethbridge * Thomas Couture- Richard Hobbs * L'art de la fete sous le Second Empire- Rémi Delisson * Des artistes et des écrivains hauts fonctionnaires du Second Empire-Catherine Vercueil-Simion * Rhetorique de la grâce ou les lettres de George Sand au lendemain du 2 décembre 1851- Marie- Cécile Levet * Rocambole, le Second Empire et le Paris d'Haussmann- Catherine Dousteyssier-Khoze * Théophile Gautier- Peter Whyte * Claude Vignon- Laurence Brogniez *  Zola et l'impressionisme- Gaël Bellalou