Martha Ward

This 1986 bibliography provides a source for reviews of the state-sponsored Parisian exhibitions of painting and sculpture (salons) held during the Second Empire, 1852–70. It includes an extensive list of references each presented in a standard format, with titles, dates and ordering codes based on the holdings of the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. It is indexed by authors and by periodicals. The catalogued essays and articles are of fundamental importance in establishing a picture of contemporary reactions to art in mid-eighteenth-century France. Tourneux's standard work Salons et expositions d'art à Paris 1801–70 has long been out of print. By incorporating and correcting the relevant material from Tourneux, and adding many new references from unpublished and newspaper sources, the compilers have achieved a substantial increase in the amount and range of criticism available for analysis by cultural and literary historians.

Different eras experience art in different ways - often dramatically so. "Looking and Listening in Nineteenth-Century France", the catalog to an exhibition at the Smart Museum of Art, uses a selection of prints, paintings, drawings, sculptures, and recorded music to demonstrate how new technological developments and changing social settings transformed the French experience of art in the nineteenth century. Treating a disparate range of subject matter from Joan of Arc to Homer, concert audiences to comet sightings, the contributors provide a cultural context for this flowering of imagery concerned with looking and listening. They also explore how artists and composers sought to better capture the attention of their beholders and listeners. Presenting the achievements of both well-known artists (Daumier, Degas, Fantin-Latour, Vuillard) and lesser-known figures in a fresh light, "Looking and Listening in Nineteenth-Century France" cuts to the heart of debates about the function of art and the role of audiences. The catalog includes a special CD compilation of music relating to the works in the exhibition, along with two bonus tracks of early recordings.

An evocative dual portrait explores the lives of the Marie Laveaus, mother and daughter of the same name who became leaders of indigenous American religious and spiritual traditions in nineteenth-century Creole New Orleans.