Guillaume Lethière /
Born in the French colony of Guadeloupe, Guillaume Lethière (1760-1832) was a key figure in the history of art during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The son of a formerly enslaved woman of color and a white government official and plantation owner, Lethière moved to France with...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Book |
| Language: | English |
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Williamstown, Massachusetts :
Clark Art Institute,
[2024]
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| Summary: | Born in the French colony of Guadeloupe, Guillaume Lethière (1760-1832) was a key figure in the history of art during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The son of a formerly enslaved woman of color and a white government official and plantation owner, Lethière moved to France with his father at age fourteen. He trained as an artist and navigated the tumult of the French Revolution and its aftermath in order to achieve the highest levels of recognition in his time. A favorite artist of Napoleon's brother, Lucien Bonaparte, Lethière also held positions at the Académie de France in Rome, Institut de France, and École des Beaux-Arts. He operated a studio that rivaled those of his contemporaries Jacques-Louis David and Antoine-Jean Gros. Despite his accomplishments and corpus of paintings and drawings, Lethière is relatively unknown today. This study serves to introduce Lethière to new and broader audiences and restore him to his place as one of the most eminent artist of his generation. An international group of scholars offers the first comprehensive view of Lethière's career in its political, social, and art historical context, addressing issues of colonialism, slavery, and diaspora, as well as shedding new light on the presence and reception of Caribbean artists in France during this time. |
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| Item Description: | Catalogue of an exhibition held at the Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts, June 15th - October 14th, 2024, and the Museé du Louvre, Paris, November 13th, 2024 - February 17th, 2025. |
| Physical Description: | 432 pages : illustrations (chiefly color), portraits ; 31 cm |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references (pages 392-413) and index. |
| ISBN: | 9780300275780 9781935998600 1935998609 0300275781 |