Imagery and Ideology: Fiction and Painting in Nineteenth-Century France

Abstract

As the title of this attractive if, arguably, overmodest study suggests, William Berg explores how each of the figures in his pairings of writers and artists ‘conveys ideology through visual imagery rather than through direct verbal intervention’ (p. 172). Separate chapters are devoted to Corneille and David; Chateaubriand and Girodet; Balzac and Daumier; Stendhal, Delacroix and Hugo; Sand, Holbein and Millet; Flaubert, Moreau and Huysmans; Zola and Manet; Maupassant, Monet and Renoir père et fils; and Delacroix, Picasso and Djebar. The breadth of coverage provides ample scope for a demonstration of diversity, though individual readers may regret the absence of such figures as Degas, Fromentin and, especially, Courbet. The clarity of conception and execution is exemplary, with the reader being treated to a tangible and, often highly suggestive, presentation of the interplay between text and image. Those who seek a developing argument rooted in a theoretical perspective will, however, be disappointed, though Berg's introduction provides valuable starting points. The highly inclusive, and largely unexamined, concept of ideology adopted incorporates an opposition between light and line as easily as it does that between ‘individual liberty and societal repression’ (p. 236), and Berg is largely content to identify ‘ambivalence’, thereby satisfying a predilection for formulaic conclusions that sit uneasily alongside his emphasis on the complex and open-ended. The usefulness of his book resides, instead, in the examples of close reading. No prior knowledge of French history, literature or painting being assumed, the strengths are those of an intelligent undergraduate guide that also stimulates more advanced enquiry. The scrupulous reference to, and citations from, an exceptionally wide range of scholarship make this study, in addition, a valuable introduction to further reading, albeit at the expense of the critic's own voice. That said, although much in the individual discussions is likely to be found familiar, the specialist will value the case studies as facets of the century's overall fixation with visual representation. The readings are invariably sound and contain, at the level of detail, a number of insights and fertile suggestions. At times they go further, as in the illuminating analysis of La Mare au diable. Berg's particular expertise is felt in the discussions of Zola and Maupassant. In sections such as those devoted to Le Chef-d'œuvre inconnu and Manet's ‘La rue Mosnier aux drapeaux, l'homme aux béquilles’, the critical discussion is infectious, thereby inciting the reader to add his own observations, questions and hypotheses. Inevitably, the reviewer has quibbles. It is implied (p. 58) that prior to Atala, no French prose-writer had sought to imitate a hissing snake; maybe not, but the absence of reference to ‘Pour qui sont ces serpents qui sifflent sur vos têtes?’ is, to say the least, surprising. As for the ahistorical reading of a postcard depicting Chateaubriand's characters, the significance of the image looks rather different when you take into account its date, place of publication and echo of a noted iconographical tradition: 1945, Nancy, Joan of Arc. In short, this is a good book that, with greater ambition, could easily have been an excellent one.