From Millet to Léger : essays in social art history /

Socialist art historian Herbert (emer., Mount Holyoke College) has gathered together a group of previously published essays to form a cohesive discussion of late-19th- and early-20th-century French art. The transition from rural to industrial society and the way in which artists represented this monumental shift are at the center of the discussion. One only has to compare Millet's soft, muted depictions of peasants working the land with Leger's brightly colored, machine-like images to see what remarkable changes occurred in art between 1860 and 1920. More subtle but equally poignant are the hints of industrial encroachment on the French countryside, seen in the railways and smokestacks in some of Monet's landscapes. Herbert guides us through this period of art and history in 13 essays (with citations noting the original publication). A list of principal writings by the author and appendixes containing letters from Leger to Alfred Barr are included. In addition to Millet, Monet, and Leger, the author covers relevant works by Daubigny, Courbet, Pissarro, Signac, and others. The writing is clear and succinct and forms a solid discussion of the topic. Upper-division undergraduates, graduate students, and faculty are the target audience. Recommended. T. L. Wilson Michigan State University

A compilation of Herbert's articles, published between 1960 and the mid-1990s, this book offers a valuable survey of the social inclinations of modernists and their 19th-century forebears. Consciously eschewing postmodern theorizing, Herbert (humanities, emeritus, Mount Holyoke; Seurat: Drawings and Paintings) carefully reconstructs each era's political climate and approaches paintings with careful attention to how period viewers would have understood them. From a lucid explanation of Primitivism to a well-plotted account of the Machine Aesthetic and its gendered implications, Herbert traces the essential issues of modern art history. Along the way, he determines the social import of an emphasis on decorative expression in the works of the Impressionists, examines veiled Socialist sympathies in Courbet's portraits, and persuasively repositions Lger from presumed abstract formalist to social realist. While he focuses primarily on French Modernism, Herbert provides ample discourse on the impact of Socialist artistic developments in other nations, such as Russia, Switzerland, and Germany. Collectively, his essays effectively capture the cyclic rhythms of intellectual patricide, the socially and politically motivated rolls and swells of aesthetics that drive culture ever forward. Written in light, accessible prose, and illustrated with 30 black-and-white and 26 color images, this volume is recommended for both public and academic libraries.-Savannah Schroll, formerly with Smithsonian Inst. Libs., Washington, DC (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.