Author Description

This is the first comprehensive survey of the formation of French art criticism that looks beyond the celebrated leading lights, such as Diderot and Stendhal, to examine the historical circumstances that made art criticism a flourishing journalistic venture. Between the mid-eighteenth century and the 1820s, art critical writing became an established feature of the Parisian art world. Wrigley considers the discourse of art criticism in the context of the dynamic political changes witnessed during this period, locating the history of criticism within patterns of publishing, censorship, and authorship and paying particular attention to the Salon exhibitions which provided the central focus for both official and dissenting estimations of the state of French art.