Painting and Narrative in France, from Poussin to Gauguin

Before Modernism, narrative painting was one of the most acclaimed and challenging modes of picture-making in Western art, yet by the early twentieth century storytelling had all but disappeared from ambitious art. France was a key player in both the dramatic rise and the controversial demise of narrative art. This collection of essays is the first to analyse French painting in relation to narrative, from Poussin in the early seventeenth to Gauguin in the late nineteenth century.