L’expérience sensorielle de la campagne: peintres et critiques d’art face à la scène agreste

During the second half of the nineteenth century, art critics developed a sensory relationship with rural genre scenes. Indeed, at the turn of the 1848 Revolution, a new image of the peasant began to emerge in France: depicted as the main character of a genre scene in which both his labor and his sensory environment became key elements of the composition. This rural genre scene was influenced by the political and social context and by Romanticism’s artistic legacy. In response to revolutions and industrialization—­which transformed people’s relationship with the countryside—­artists sought to create an emotional connection between viewers and peasant figures through sensory illusions, ranging from color effects to childhood memories. Attuned to the cultural idea of Gesamtkunstwerk and multi-sensory art, art critics bore witness to this paradigm shift through their writings. (In French)