A Dissertation on Invective

Archives for February 2008

Beginnings of an introduction

19 February 2008 | Uncategorized

[Delacroix] was showered with insults more offensive and ignominious than would ever have been addressed to a thief or an assassin.” –Théophile Gautier, 1864
Why did Delacroix, Courbet, Manet, and the Impressionists, who also had their defenders, receive such virulent abuse? History shows that invective thrives when uncertainty prevails to such a degree that society’s basic [...]

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