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- Monarchs
& Monasteries - Path to Royal Absolutism
Rise and Fall of the Absolute Monarchy
- From Empire to Democracy
Conclusion - Acknowledgments
From
Empire to Democracy:
The Independence of Culture
(1799 to present)
France and the United States are rightly considered
the birth places of modern democracy. But while Americans have enjoyed
the political and institutional stability of the "one and indivisible
Republic" for over 200 years, the French since 1789 have experienced
a succession of short-lived regimes: a Directoire, a consulate,
two empires, two monarchies, and five republics, as well as the Vichy
regime during World War II. In France, as one President of the Fifth
Republic has noted, political crises tend to lead to institutional crises
which threaten the regime itself. In such moments, the French have thrice
heeded the call of charismatic and prestigious leaders (Napoleon I,
Napoleon III, and Marshall Pétain) whose temperaments and politics paid
short shrift to democracy. But twice they have turned to General Charles
de Gaulle, who led the French Resistance against the Nazis and, in 1958,
founded France's current regime, the Fifth Republic. To date, it has
proven a robust, prosperous and stable democracy.
The United States has not faced the
threat of military invasion since the early nineteenth century. France,
on the other hand, was overrun by foreign armies in 1814-1815 and later
fought three major wars on her soil over seventy-five years (the Franco-Prussian
War of 1870 and the two World Wars). Nor have the French been spared
civil strife, including revolutions (1830, 1848), civil wars (1871,
1940-45), bitter wars of decolonization in Indochina and Algeria after
World War II, and paralyzing nationwide strikes in 1968.
Such cataclysms have inflicted incalculable
human and material losses. But they have also provided an inviting canvas
of events and ideas for the creative brush strokes of poets, playwrights,
novelists, painters, caricaturists, and statesmen -- possible proof
that the great artists of the modern era are motivated more by upheaval
and injustice than by tranquil prosperity. The result: a remarkably
rich and diverse culture, inspired by Enlightenment values and independent
as never before from those who hold the reins of power.
Equally impressive has been the ultimate
triumph of the revolutionary ideals of 1789: Liberty, Equality, Fraternity.
That victory owes much to the French men and women who have defended
freedom and democracy against domestic and foreign foes alike, often
at the peril of their lives. Many of the items in this final section
of Creating French Culture bear witness to their courage in
the face of censorship and worse, and to their unwavering commitment
to principles which Americans, too, have always cherished.
165.
Théodore Géricault (b. 1791-d. 1824), Le
Retour de Russie (The Return from Russia), around 1818, Department
of Prints and Photographs, Dc 141b Rés. vol. 1, Watercolor over
pencil on Bristol Board, and lithograph
This painting is at the heart of a series of studies on the misfortunes of
war and Napoleon's retreat from Russia, which was to result in Géricault's
most famous lithograph, Return from Russia. In the middle of
the icy plain a one-armed grenadier leads the exhausted horse of a blind
cuirassier. The pain, resignation, and despair on their faces summarize
this horrible disaster, survived by only a handful of Napoleon's soldiers.
168.
Longus, Daphnis et Chloé (Daphnis
and Chloë), Paris, 1802, Department of Rare and Precious Books,
Rés. Vélins 835, Vellum
Daphnis and Chloë, a novel by the third-century B.C. Greek writer Longus, has been illustrated often throughout the centuries. In 1793, Pierre Didot the Elder, the scion of a dynasty of printers that revolutionized the aesthetic of the book in France, asked Pierre Prud'hon (b. 1758-d. 1823) to illustrate the novel. Prud'hon's three drawings were supplemented by six from François Gérard (b. 1770-d. 1837). The copy exhibited here was produced for Imperial Marshal Andoche Junot (b. 1771-d. 1813).
169.
Jean-François Champollion (b. 1790-d. 1832),
Panthéon égyptien (Egyptian Pantheon), around
1815-1825, Manuscripts Department, Western Section, NAF 20323, Paper
Champollion's five-volume Egyptian Pantheon drew heavily on his deciphering
of hieroglyphics. For each god he provided abundant, accurate, and detached
testimony of the classical authors, philological discussions, and excerpts
from hieroglyphic texts, accompanied by drawings. Folio 88 reproduces
the principal symbols of the Egyptian goddess Hathor whose motto on
four columns is "lady of the offerings, eye of the sun residing in its
disk, mistress of the heavens, spirit of all the gods."
170.
Charles Philipon, La Métamorphose
du roi Louis-Philippe en poire (The Metamorphosis of King Louis-Philippe
into a Pear), Department of Prints and Photographs, B 16, Rés.
Philipon, Pen-and-bister-ink drawing
This set of four sketches by Charles Philipon (b. 1800-d. 1862), executed
probably in 1831, begins with an accurate portrait of King Louis-Philippe
(1830-1848) whose face the caricaturist gradually transformed into a
pear. The pear, as a symbol of the soft, corpulent king, met with immediate
success. Louis-Philippe, the so-called "Citizen King" was a favorite
target of republican caricaturists until censorship was reinstated in
September 1835.
178.
Charles Marville (b. 1816-d. after 1879), L'Hôtel
de Ville de Paris (Paris City Hall), Paris, around 1860, Department
of Prints and Photographs, Eo 8 grand folio, vol. 3, Albumen print from
wet collodion on glass negative
Charles Marville, like Baldus, turned to photography from painting early in
the Second Empire. Commissioned by the city of Paris, Marville began
in 1858 to photograph the old streets destined to disappear during the
urban renewal directed by Baron Georges Haussmann (b. 1809-d. 1891).
He also photographed the City Hall. In this print of the oldest, central
part of the façade, the richly sculpted Renaissance décor
seems carved out by the light from the street lamps.
180.
Victor Hugo (b. 1802-d. 1885), Les Misérables,
n. d., Manuscripts Department, Western Section, NAF 13379, Paper
Hugo wrote Les Misérables, of which this is the autograph
manuscript, between 1848 and 1861, to draw attention, as he noted in
the preface, to "the degradation of man by poverty, the ruin of woman
by hunger, the wasting of the child by night." The work succeeded in
drawing attention to the working conditions of women and children. Immediately
successful, the novel inspired a stage version, parodies, an American
film in 1909, and, more recently, a celebrated musical.
189.
Three- dimensional Model for Verdi's Aïda,
n. d., Opera Department, Maquette 130, Cardboard cut out and
painted
The premiere of Giuseppe Verdi's (b. 1813-d. 1901) Aïda (March
22, 1880 at the Paris Opera) benefitted from the advice of Auguste-Edouard
Mariette Bey (b. 1821-d. 1881), the famous Egyptologist. The scenery
and costumes were designed with the greatest archeological precision.
Exhibited here is the model for Scene I, Act I: a hall in the king's
palace. The entranceway in the middle leads to the hall of judgment,
the gallery on the right to the prison of Radamès.
193.
Emile Zola (b. 1840-d. 1902), J'accuse...!
(I accuse...!), January 11-13, 1898, Manuscripts Department,
Western Section, NAF 19951, Paper
In December 1894, Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a French Jew falsely accused of
treason, was sentenced to lifelong internment on Devil's Island. In
January 1898, the famous writer Emile Zola, convinced of Dreyfus's innocence
by mounting proof of a military cover up, drafted an open letter to
President Félix Faure, denouncing the military establishment.
The government filed suit against him, which, as Zola had predicted,
ensured that "the truth is emerging and nothing can stop it" (folio
33).
194.
Georges Clemenceau (b. 1841-d. 1929), Au pied du Sinaï (At the Foot of Sinai),
Illustrations by Henri de Toulouse- Lautrec (b. 1864-d. 1901), Paris,
1898, Reserve of Rare and Precious Books, Rés. Z. Audéoud
223
In this collection of "Jewish stories" by Clemenceau (who became one of the
falsely accused Captain Dreyfus's staunchest defenders), candid accounts
of the Jewish condition, collected during trips to Central Europe, counterbalanced
more fanciful portraits (Baron Moses, Mayer the friendly crook). To
illustrate the stories, Toulouse-Lautrec observed life in la Tournelle,
the Jewish quarter of Paris. The original binding exhibited here is
soberly Art Nouveau.
195.
Claude Debussy (b. 1862-d. 1918), Pelléas
et Mélisande (Pelleas and Melisande), n. d., Music Department,
MS 963
The conception and composition of Pelleas and Melisande, the only
opera Debussy completed and one of the major works of the twentieth
century, well illustrates the latent conflicts between dominant cultural
authorities and an artist aware of the revolutionary character of his
work. The autograph manuscript of the orchestra score exhibited here
was used in the first performances and for the first edition of the
orchestra score published in 1904.
197.
Marcel Proust (b. 1871-d. 1922), A la
recherche du temps perdu: Sodome et Gomorrhe (Remembrance of Things
Past: Cities of the Plain), 1915-16, Manuscripts Department,
Western Section, NAF 16709
The theme of this volume of Proust's masterpiece is homosexuality, depicted through the experiences of the two main characters, Charlus and Albertine. Cities of the Plain fills seven of the twenty notebooks Proust used for the revised copies of the latter parts of the novel. The notebook displayed here corresponds to the beginning of Cities of the Plain II, which opens (fol. 14) with a high-society party given by the Princess of Guermantes.
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Rise and Fall of the Absolute Monarchy -
From Empire to Democracy
Conclusion - Acknowledgments
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