Output details
34 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
University of Nottingham
Chapter title
Un monsieur à chapeau: les hiérarchies cachées de 'La Rencontre' de Gustave Courbet
Type
C - Chapter in book
DOI
-
Publisher of book
Publications de l’Université de Saint-Etienne
Book title
La production de l’immatériel: théories, representations et pratiques de la culture au XIXe siècle
ISBN of book
9782862724836
Year of publication
2008
URL
-
Number of additional authors
0
Additional information
-
Interdisciplinary
-
Cross-referral requested
-
Research group
None
Proposed double-weighted
No
Double-weighted statement
-
Reserve for a double-weighted output
No
Non-English
Yes
English abstract
This article proposes a new reading of Courbet’s 'The Meeting'. The argument draws on French proverbs and expressions to show that complex significations of class, subservience, ridicule, and sovereignty clustered around such details in the painting as hats, beards, and canes. The essay suggests that the intersection of the linguistic and the visual produces a web of meanings thus far unexplored in Courbet’s canvas. Through a focused analysis of a specific painting, the article aims to engage in dialogue with earlier methods of art historical interpretation. In doing so, it proposes other possibilities of signification and analysis.
