Quand les arts traversent la Manche: échanges et transferts franco-britanniques au xixe siècle by Fabrice Bensimon and Ségolène Le Men (review)

This essay collection is based on the conference ‘La France et l’Angleterre au xix^e échanges, représentations, comparaisons’, which was held at the Université Paris X–Nanterre and the École normale supérieure in 2004, the centenary of the Entente cordiale between Britain and France. Unlike the first volume, which was on political, social, and cultural history and was published under the conference title by Sylvie Aprile and Fabrice Bensimon (Paris: Céaphis, 2006), this volume focuses on the exchange of art and artists across the English Channel. Exploring the way in which travel and transfers of artworks, techniques, and styles contributed to artistic developments on both sides of the Channel, it is thought-provoking for both specialists in the field and the general public. The volume, which is organized chronologically from the end of the Napoleonic Wars, as travel once more became possible, to the end of the nineteenth century, offers a variety of topics and approaches. Several contributors focus on the French reception of nineteenth-century English art, for example Barthélémy Jobert, who demonstrates how national prejudices and presumptions concerning art production heavily inform French criticism of English art. Eva Bouillo and Gervaise Brouwers investigate French art criticism in the post-Napoleonic years, which are marked by a pronounced Anglomania and a strong presence of English art in the Salons. Two further essays analyse French art criticism, one focusing on Théophile Gautier’s articles on English art at the Exposition universelle in 1855 (Marie-Hélène Girard), and the other on Louis Blanc’s contributions to the Manchester Exhibition (1857) in L’Artiste (Sophie Pauliac). Other topics include the influence of the motif Charles I Taking Leave of his Children, painted by Thomas Stothard on French etchings (Vera Klewitz); the artistic manifestations and consequences of the allied occupation of France from 1815 to 1818, for example, artists’ views of foreign soldiers (Todd Porterfield); book illustrations (Ségolène Le Men); the international publishing house, Goupil (Régine Bigorne); and the institution of the New English Art Club, founded in 1886, whose members were influenced by the French Impressionists (Anne-Pascale Bruneau-Rumsey). While most contributors focus on paintings or etchings, Sophie Schvalberg analyses British and French debates on antique sculptures, in particular the sculptures from the Parthenon that were bought by Lord Elgin. She argues that these debates heralded the end of neo-classicism and the emergence of a new Franco-British aesthetic. Although the essay topics may seem unrelated, they all explore the conflation of nationality and art and they complement one other very well. The volume addresses important questions on the existence and roles of national art schools, and explores how international exchange contributed to local artistic developments. In the last four short essays it also provides valuable information on nineteenth-century English art in French collections as well as French art in the National Gallery in London. A number of well-chosen plates and figures illuminate the arguments in this publication.