http://worldcat.org/entity/work/id/136216571

Fashion and the representation of modernity: Studies in the late work of Edouard Manet (1832--1883)

This dissertation examines a selection of Edouard Manet's (1832-1883) paintings and pastels of women in fashionable dress, dating to the last five years of his life, a time in which such imagery became paramount in his practice. Although fashion has been recognized for some time as an important component of Manet's modernism, little attention has been paid to the works under discussion. They are, however, among the most fashion-oriented in his oeuvre, sharing subject matter and certain formal conventions with genres, such as the society portrait and the fashion plate, that were deeply imbedded in the culture of clothing in late-nineteenth century France. By studying these works in relation to the artifacts of that culture, I provide a richer view of this period in the artist's career, and enhance our understanding of fashion's relevance to his project. My argument is that Manet, even when intimately engaged with the materials of fashion and femininity, maintains a critical distance from his subject, representing fashion in a manner revelatory of how that quintessentially modern phenomenon operated in his time.

Open All Close All