Boutet de Monvel’s Jeanne d’Arc: The Passion for All Things Post-Medieval: A Multimedia Perspective

Elizabeth Emery, Professor of Modern Languages and Literature, Montclair State University Elizabeth Emery explores the French engagement with the medieval period in the years 1870–1914. She examines this French medievalism (the post-medieval engagement with medieval things) through paintings, history textbooks for children, and popular World’s Fair attractions and memorabilia. Through this multimedia presentation she helps contextualize the late 19th-century French passion for medieval motifs that so influenced American visitor Senator William A. Clark that he returned to Washington with many treasures, including Boutet de Monvelʼs Jeanne d’Arc paintings now on display in the National Gallery of Art. This lecture was given on December 12, 2018, as part of an expert panel on French medievalism at the turn of the 20th century, examining the particular cases of Boutet de Monvel’s Jeanne d’Arc and book arts, along with the greater phenomenon of medievalism during the Belle Époque.