Abstract

For many artists of late nineteenth-century France, particularly those of the avant-garde, the studio served as the physical environment over which they had the most agency, relative to public venues. Studios could function alternatively as a workshop, domestic refuge, social gathering spot, salesroom, and exhibition hall, thereby providing artists with a hybrid space where they could engage their audiences. Affiliated with the artist’s character and creative process, the studio’s polysemic nature granted its inhabitants the opportunity to shape its meaning. From the locale and architecture, to the use of light and color, to the objects on view or hidden, the elements of the studio offered each artist a medium to express their aesthetics, their values, and their identities. Such communication could occur by means of the direct encounters of visitors as well as indirectly by painted representations, graphic illustrations, photographs, and written accounts. Through a series of paired case studies of avant-garde artists’ studios in France circa 1880–1910, this dissertation examines how such environments were not merely sites of artistic production, but also artistic products in and of themselves. The case studies are the colorful decorative programs of James McNeill Whistler (American, 1834–1903) and Claude Monet (French, 1840–1926); the domestic salon-studios of Berthe Morisot (French, 1841–1895) and Odilon Redon (French, 1840–1916); and the multimedia, multicultural displays of Edgar Degas (French, 1834–1917) and Paul Gauguin (French, 1848–1903). Each chapter probes questions of artistic reputation, strategies of representation, and the particular creative milieu of the avant-garde. This project sheds light on these overlooked but crucial spaces in avant-garde production—in terms of both the material creation of art and the symbolic creation of persona. At stake is a richer understanding of how these artists navigated their careers and of the networks formed by these endeavors.

Committee Chair

Elizabeth Childs

Committee Members

Gloria Groom; John Klein; Kristina Kleutghen; William Wallace

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Author's Department

Art History & Archaeology

Author's School

Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

Document Type

Dissertation

Date of Award

5-2-2025

Language

English (en)

Author's ORCID

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2210-5447

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Available for download on Monday, May 12, 2031

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