Portraiture and Friendship in Enlightenment France

Portraiture and Friendship in Enlightenment France is well researched and is particularly commendable in terms of its use of unexamined or understudied primary-source material. Fripp introduces texts—visual and written—that will be useful for scholars in a number of fields. It is a welcome addition to scholarship on sociability and portraiture and will be of interest to scholars in art history, cultural studies, and gender studies. Heather Belnap, Brigham Young University, author of Women, Femininity, and Public Space in European Visual Culture,

Portraiture and Friendship in Enlightenment France forges important new ground in several respects. Fripp makes a compelling case that the idea of friendship was a structuring principle that guided many aspects of the theory and practice of the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture, a gendered notion that operated differently for female and male artists, a tool that artists could employ to further their careers, and an important key to understanding the caricatures that circulated among members of the Academy, particularly when traveling abroad. Although many of the primary-source texts and images discussed will be familiar to specialists in eighteenth-century French painting, looking at these written and visual documents through the lens of friendship reveals new layers of meaning that have never before been discussed. Laura Auricchio, Dean, Fordham College at Lincoln Center, author of Adélaïde Labille-Guiard: Artist in the Age of Rev

A nuanced and intimate take. Apollo

Portraiture and Friendship is a beautifully illustrated volume, with many captivating ideas and insights. By calling our attention to artistic friendship, Fripp makes an eloquent case for the complex polysemy of its concept and practices in the eighteenth century and for the role of portraiture to help us understand the social and economic value of friendship for artists. Eighteenth-Century Studies

What emerges from all this erudite analysis is a nuanced and intimate take on what might be seen too simplistically as the rigid ancien régime world of art. Christopher Baker, National Galleries of Scotland, Apollo

Framed by the French Enlightenment, this engaging, scholarly book offers numerous possibilities for further research in art history and criticism, cultural studies, and gender studies. Felicia B. Sturzer, University of Tennessee, New Perspectives on the Eighteenth Century

[Portraiture and Friendship in Enlightenment France] makes a compelling case for the significance of friendship to the practice of portraiture in eighteenth-century France and, in so doing, enriches our understanding of the importance of social networks in artists' lives. It constitutes a valuable addition to the still rather limited literature on French portraiture of this period. One can only hope that it will encourage other scholars to pursue research in this area. Emma Barker, The Open University (UK), H-France Review