A painterly performance of politeness: Jean-Étienne Liotard’s "Still Life: Tea Set" and identity in eighteenth-century England

Jean-Etienne Liotard;still life;tea set;identity;self-fashioning;eighteenth-century;England;Liotard;surface;ancien regime of identity;polite;politeness;polish;agency;consumerism;middling sort;middle class;Georgian;le peintre turc;tea;porcelain;blur;sugar

Kalaher, Emily Danielle

关键词: Jean-Etienne Liotard;    still life;    tea set;    identity;    self-fashioning;    eighteenth-century;    England;    Liotard;    surface;    ancien regime of identity;    polite;    politeness;    polish;    agency;    consumerism;    middling sort;    middle class;    Georgian;    le peintre turc;    tea;    porcelain;    blur;    sugar;   

Others  :  https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/bitstream/handle/2142/89085/KALAHER-THESIS-2015.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

美国|英语

来源: The Illinois Digital Environment for Access to Learning and Scholarship

【 摘 要 】

This thesis explores how Jean-Etienne Liotard’s 1783 painting, Still Life: Tea Set, functioned within its eighteenth-century context.Rather than considering the image as an academic exercise, depiction of the chinoiserie craze, or as evidence of the aging artist’s waning virtuosity, as other scholars have done, I argue that Still Life: Tea Set functioned as an active agent within its specific social matrix.Utilizing eighteenth-century sources as well as the work of contemporary scholars, this study closely examines the still life in relation to the phenomena of politeness and superficial self-fashioning, or the ancien régime of identity—a concept put forth by Dror Wahrman.When considered within the historically situated themes of eighteenth-century consumerism, the emergence of the Georgian middle-class, and polite society, it becomes clear that Still Life: Tea Set was an image created for consumption within a very specific cultural matrix, within which it was able to actively generate a range of flexible meanings for viewers.