Nineteenth-Century French Paintings in the Ashmolean Museum

A fully illustrated, comprehensive, and scholarly catalogue of the paintings in the Ashmolean Museum’s collection by French artists born between 1775 and 1875

The only complete catalogue of French paintings of the period in the Ashmolean Museum, this comprehensive and scholarly study explores their rich collection of nineteenth-century French art. Continuing a convention set by earlier Ashmolean catalogues that mirrors the concept of the long nineteenth century, the book defines nineteenth-century French artists as those born between 1775 and 1875. Stretching into the twentieth century, it covers a fascinating range of paintings including works by Louis-Léopold Boilly, Camille, Lucien, and Félix Pissarro, Henri Fantin-Latour, Édouard Manet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Paul Cézanne, Claude Monet, and Henri Matisse.

The catalogue was compiled by the late distinguished art historian Jon Whiteley. In each entry, Whiteley draws upon his encyclopaedic knowledge of French art and the Ashmolean holdings. Provenance, literature, and exhibition history are recorded as well as extensive technical notes and information on frames. The entries on each work are accompanied by new, high-quality photography and comparative images, resulting in a complete and thorough documentation of this important part of the Ashmolean collection of Western art, providing an informative contribution to existing scholarship.

Distributed for Modern Art Press

Jon Whiteley (1945-2020) was an art historian, emeritus fellow of St Cross College, Oxford, and assistant keeper in the Department of Western Art at the Ashmolean Museum from 1972. The present catalogue was his final work, finished just before his death in 2020.