Annual Bastille Day Celebration

Romantic Paris: Histories of a Cultural Landscape, 1800–1850

The beautifully illustrated Romantic Paris describes the artistic flowering that spanned the fifty years from Napoleon’s coup-de-etat to that of his nephew, Louis Napoleon, and transformed Paris, altering forever both high culture and everyday life. Author Michael Marrinan examines the era that gave us Delacroix, Courbet, and Lizt, and inspired the works of Victor Hugo. Marrinan will speak on the topic,“Le Tricolore: Triumph & Conflict.

PROGRAM NOTES:
Today, when tricolor flags flutter along the Champs-Elysées and adorn embassies around the world on Bastille Day, they are immediately recognized as the unique emblem of the French nation. This was not always so. For much of the century between its invention, and the first celebration of the fête nationale in 1880, the tricolore was a contested icon adopted, appropriated, and sometimes rejected by the succession of governments that mark the history of nineteenth-century France. Michael Marrinan's presentation for this year's Bastille Day celebration will trace some of the meanings of the tricolore, as inscribed in the visual arts, during the one-hundred years following the Parisians's successful assault upon the Bastille on 14 July 1789.
For reservations call 415-393-0100
or email at rsvp@milibrary.org

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