Reading Wednesday
May. 14th, 2025 11:00 pmFinished Paris In Ruins: Love, War and the Birth of Impressionism by Sebastian Smee— ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
osprey_archer beat me to writing a review; I co-sign all points, although I found that Smee's descriptions of paintings made up for the relative lack of actual art reproductions. Followed with Little Dancer Aged Fourteen: The True Story Behind Degas's Masterpiece by Camille Laurens, a slim, sprawling, personal meditation on the famous sculpture and its model, Marie van Goethem, that touches on everything from the pseudoscience of physiognomy* to Marilyn Monroe** to the plight of modern-day refugees and child laborers to the author's great-grandmother and childhood dreams of ballet. Fascinating book to read immediately after Smee's— at one point, Laurens mentions that Degas preferred the label "Intransigent" to "Impressionist" without mentioning the political context of the term,*** which Smee delved into; it's hard to square Laurens' description of Degas who "seemed to harbor an intellectual distrust towards women that closely bordered on contempt" with Degas who pitched a fit over the best way to display Berthe Morisot's drawings at a retrospective of her art that he, Renoir, and Monet organized after her death. (People! They're complicated!) I also found my reading experience overlaid with the palimpsest of a childhood picture book, Degas and the Little Dancer by Laurence Anholt, which made for a wild contrast.
( Read more... )
osprey_archer beat me to writing a review; I co-sign all points, although I found that Smee's descriptions of paintings made up for the relative lack of actual art reproductions. Followed with Little Dancer Aged Fourteen: The True Story Behind Degas's Masterpiece by Camille Laurens, a slim, sprawling, personal meditation on the famous sculpture and its model, Marie van Goethem, that touches on everything from the pseudoscience of physiognomy* to Marilyn Monroe** to the plight of modern-day refugees and child laborers to the author's great-grandmother and childhood dreams of ballet. Fascinating book to read immediately after Smee's— at one point, Laurens mentions that Degas preferred the label "Intransigent" to "Impressionist" without mentioning the political context of the term,*** which Smee delved into; it's hard to square Laurens' description of Degas who "seemed to harbor an intellectual distrust towards women that closely bordered on contempt" with Degas who pitched a fit over the best way to display Berthe Morisot's drawings at a retrospective of her art that he, Renoir, and Monet organized after her death. (People! They're complicated!) I also found my reading experience overlaid with the palimpsest of a childhood picture book, Degas and the Little Dancer by Laurence Anholt, which made for a wild contrast.( Read more... )
