Sculptors and Design Reform in France 1848–1895

Claire Jones’ Sculpture and Design Reform in France 1848–1895 signals an exciting inquiry into the relationship between French sculpture and decorative arts in the nineteenth century. Jones argues that twentieth-century art historians’ interest in modernism and traditional high art hierarchies has obfuscated the close relationship between Salon and decorative sculpture in the second half of the nineteenth century. The thesis suggests Jones’ astute attention to the fluidity between so-called ‘fine’ and ‘decorative’ art, while anticipating ways in which the book’s sometimes over-determined historiographic underpinning can be limiting. Jones argues that the scholarly focus on Auguste Rodin as the seminal figure in the development of modern sculpture has led art historians to discount his decorative work, and therefore the links between traditional categories of fine and decorative—or ornamental—sculpture in the nineteenth century. Over the course of the three chronologically organized chapters that follow this introduction (1848–70, 1870–89, 1890–95), Jones makes a convincing case for the intrinsic links between decorative and Salon sculpture during the period. For instance, her analysis of the multiple forms that James Pradier’s Sapho took after the Salon of 1848 is illuminating. Jones also brings compelling new archival research and scholarly attention to understudied artists such as Jules Dubois and Joseph Chéret, creating case studies that deepen our understanding of period’s sculptural climate.