Misre: The Visual Representation of Misery in the 19th Century [Hardcover]

Inspired in part by the broadening gap between rich and poor in the U.S., this succinct and insightful book makes 19th-century social injustice uncannily relevant today& Nochlin illuminates the largely unexplored field of 19th-century drawings, paintings, and photography [and examines] pathos-laden images, from simple illustrations that ran in newspapers to paintings by such artists as Goya, Degas, and Van Gogh.What endures in this final book is a fixation with the past as a portal to present mis?res, whether persistent gender inequalities or economic disparities as extreme as those of the industrial age. Images, she taught us over decades, have a unique capacity to indict those wrongs, and, as artists representations of others misfortunes have lately occasioned protests and even calls for destruction, Nochlin reminds us that there is nothing ethical in closing your eyes.An incisive new piece of scholarship from renowned art historian Linda Nochlin tackling the concept of mis?re, or social misery, as it was reflected in the work of writers, artists, and philosophers in the nineteenth century