{"id":518,"date":"2020-12-31T23:31:39","date_gmt":"2021-01-01T06:31:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/toddlarkin.com\/?p=518"},"modified":"2025-10-26T16:10:44","modified_gmt":"2025-10-26T22:10:44","slug":"politics-portraits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/toddlarkin.com\/?p=518","title":{"rendered":"Politics & Portraits Anthology"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Anthology release: Spring 2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Now available on amazon.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Politics & Portraits in the United States & France during the Age of Revolution<\/em> is an anthology of essays prepared by portrait scholars from the United States, Canada, France, and Germany and published by the Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press to mark the bicentennial of the burning of the federal buildings and the loss of national treasures at Washington, D.C., on the night of 24-25 August 1814. It explores the way portraits intersected with politics during the Revolutionary and Imperial Eras in The United States and France. Between the War of Independence of 1776 and the War of 1812, the United States maintained a complicated and tense political relationship with Britain and France, affecting patterns of trade and diplomacy, cultural representation, and consumption on both sides of the Atlantic. The transition from monarchical to republican forms of government was accompanied by a shift from aristocrats to citizens as the primary patrons, artists, subjects, and viewers of portraits. For this reason, images of heads if state, delegates, and their families often reveal an uneasy integration of old aristocratic forms and new republican values. The essays in this book examine representations of major figures such as Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette, George Washington, Napoleon Bonaparte, and James Madison, among others. They also explore how artists portrayed royal, republican, and imperial heads of state to promote authority; national, state, and provincial delegates to express the values of a faction, constituency, or class; and prominent merchants to depict the burgeoning influence of the citizen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Session “Republicanism and the Politician’s Portrait,” part of the “Political Portraiture” conference at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C., August 2014.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n


Table of Contents<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Preface   T. Lawrence Larkin<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Introduction   T. Lawrence Larkin<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

PART I: IMAGES OF AUTHORITY IN FRANCE AND THE UNITED STATES<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Part I Introduction   T. Lawrence Larkin<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The U.S. Congress\u2019s State Portraits of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette: The Politics of Display and Displacement at the Capitol, 1800-1814   T. Lawrence Larkin<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bonaparte as a Republican   David O\u2019Brien<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Man + Horse: Repurposing the Equestrian Portrait in the Post-Revolutionary Era   Heather McPherson<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

PART II: THE PORTRAIT AS DIPLOMATIC GIFT<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Part II Introduction   Brandon Brame Fortune<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gilbert Stuart\u2019s \u201cLansdowne\u201d Portrait of George Washington: From Diplomatic Gift to State Portrait   Ellen G. Miles<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Portraits for Diplomacy: Gilbert Stuart\u2019s Pendant Portraits of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison   Gaye S. Wilson<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rivalries and Dissensions within the Maison de l\u2019Empereur: Napoleon\u2019s Portraitists and the Production of Diplomatic Gifts   Cyril L\u00e9cosse<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

PART III: REPUBLICANISM AND THE POLITICIAN\u2019S PORTRAIT<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Part III Introduction   Philippe Bordes<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Faces of the Nation: Physionotrace Portraits and the Invention of Political Modernity   Guillaume Mazeau<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Representing the Representatives: Portraiture and Sovereignty in Revolutionary France, 1789-1795   Gerrit Walczak<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Signs of Power: Bonaparte and the Concordat of 1801  Kathryn Calley Galitz<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

PART IV: PATRIOTISM AND THE FAMILY PORTRAIT<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Part IV Introduction  Amy Freund<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Woman on a Wire: How Marie-Antoinette, d\u2019Angiviller, and Vig\u00e9e Le Brun Confounded Critics by Balancing Majesty and Maternity at the Salon of 1787   T. Lawrence Larkin<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Architectural Portraits: Mount Vernon, Monticello, and La Grange   Kevin D. Murphy<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Politicizing Portraiture: Family Portraits and Visual Rhetoric in Revolutionary France   Marlen Schneider<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

PART V: THE \u201cFACE\u201d AND \u201cBODY\u201d OF EARLY REPUBLICAN CAPITAL CITIES: PARIS, PHILADELPHIA, NEW YORK, AND WASHINGTON<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Part V Introduction   Margaretta M. Lovell<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Urban Portraits, Two Centuries Ago: Faces, Bodies, and Footprints   Jeffrey A. Cohen<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Portrait to Plan: Mapping Capital Cities in France and the United States   Min Kyung Lee<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bibliography<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About the Contributors<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Index<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Design by Julie Allred of BW&A Books<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Todd Larkin in Washington, D.C., to carry out research on the old north wing of the Capitol (painted by William Birch ca. 1800) at the Architect of the Capitol’s Office and to consult with the Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press (Ginger Strader, Editor-in-Chief).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Early assessments:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe essays\u2026are all extremely accessible but also substantial in scholarship and argument\u2026.A fair number of the essays are about closing down on the subject\u2014explaining and resolving it fully (e.g. Miles, Larkin)\u2014so it was good to have an example of an essay (Cohen) that opened everything up and left the subject unresolved\u2026.There is a larger audience built into the book because it addresses both Americanists and French modernists, art and architectural historians, and cultural historians of the period.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            – E. Bruce Robertson, University of California<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe book\u2019s introduction by Larkin provides historical context and discusses the purpose and structure of the book\u2026.The subjects of the portraits in the essays range from kings and queens to generals, politicians, and presidents, in addition to equestrian, family, and group portraits. Portraits of Napoleon Bonaparte and George Washington dominate. Interestingly, parts four and five present architecture and urban planning as a form of portraiture, with Mount Vernon, Monticello, and La Grange as reflective of their owners\u2019 politics, and with \u2018political portraiture\u2026as a powerful metaphor to describe urban space\u2019.\u2026The documentation of the book is strong, with two to three pages of endnotes following each essay\u2026.Some of the plates are repeated in later chapters, which is helpful in allowing the essays to stand on their own without the need to flip back or forth to look for relevant plates\u2026.Overall it is an impressive work of scholarship and is a fine addition to the study of portraits and politics in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries in the United States and France.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            – Virginia Feher, University of North Georgia<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Montana State University graduate student assistants Katrin Cottingham and Laurence Alexander preparing to film Philippe Bordes discussing Jacques-Louis David’s Napoleon in<\/em> His<\/em> Study<\/em> (1812), National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., August 2014.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Anthology release: Spring 2019 Politics & Portraits in the United States & France during the Age of Revolution is an anthology of essays prepared by portrait scholars from the United States, Canada, France, and Germany and published by the Smithsonian … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":519,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[10,17,18,11,15,9,16,19],"class_list":["post-518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-american-revolution","tag-ancien-regime","tag-architecture","tag-french-revolution","tag-politics","tag-portraits","tag-transatlantic-diplomacy","tag-urban-planning"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/toddlarkin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/toddlarkin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/toddlarkin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toddlarkin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toddlarkin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=518"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/toddlarkin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":569,"href":"https:\/\/toddlarkin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518\/revisions\/569"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toddlarkin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/toddlarkin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toddlarkin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toddlarkin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}