Revolution & Counter-Revolution in European Prints from 1789 to 1889

This volume of essays, international in scope, illuminates a vast graphic output situated culturally between "high art" and "popular imagery" that has as yet been little explored either by art historians or general historians. The essays focus in a systematic manner on the rich iconography of the "Century of Revolution" (c.1770-1871) and range over political allegory, portraiture, fashion prints, maps, book illustration and caricature, presenting a panorama of the graphic arts in this age of the "culte des images" (Baudelaire). The volume investigates the conditions of their production, the manner of their consumption, their evocative power and their diffusion across Europe. In this way it makes a ground-breaking contribution to the development of historical and interdisciplinary study of the image.