How social upheavals after the collapse of the French Empire shaped the lives and work of artists in early nineteenth-century Europe As the French Empire collapsed between 1812 and 1815, artists throughout Europe were left uncertain and adrift. The final abdication of Emperor Napoleon, clearing the way for a restored monarchy, profoundly unsettled prevailing national, religious, and social boundaries. In Restoration , Thomas Crow combines a sweeping view of European art centers―Rome, Paris, London, Madrid, Brussels, and Vienna―with a close-up look at pivotal artists, including Antonio Canova, Jacques-Louis David, Théodore Géricault, Francisco Goya, Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, Thomas Lawrence, and forgotten but meteoric painters François-Joseph Navez and Antoine Jean-Baptiste Thomas. Whether directly or indirectly, all were joined in a newly international network, from which changing artistic priorities and possibilities emerged out of the ruins of the old. Crow examines how artists of this period faced dramatic circumstances, from political condemnation and difficult diplomatic missions to a catastrophic episode of climate change. Navigating ever-changing pressures, they invented creative ways of incorporating critical events and significant historical actors into fresh artistic works. Crow discusses, among many topics, David’s art and influence during exile, Géricault’s odyssey through outcast Rome, Ingres’s drive to reconcile religious art with contemporary mentalities, the titled victors over Napoleon all sitting for portraits by Lawrence, and the campaign to restore art objects expropriated by the French from Italy, prefiguring the restitution controversies of our own time. Beautifully illustrated, Restoration explores how cataclysmic social and political transformations in nineteenth-century Europe reshaped artists’ lives and careers with far-reaching consequences. Published in association with the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC "handsomely illustrated and profoundly revealing and stimulating"-- Michael Prodger, Literary Review "A feast for the eyes ... the depth and breadth of [Crow's] learning is stupendous." - Tim Blanning, The Art Newspaper "...passionately echoes not only the politically engaged social art history Crow has played a part in establishing--it also aims to jolt readers living through years of political extremism and uncertainty ... the book's historical canvas is broad--Paris, Madrid, Brussels, Moscow, London, Waterloo--and if the action is not quite on a par with Stendhal and Tolstoy, the personalities are nearly as interesting. Beautiful glossy color reproductions accompany the enthusiastic, personable prose: the book retains the pleasing spirit of lectures by a master teacher..." --Andrei Pop, H-France Review "This beautifully written and produced book opens new perspectives onto an eight-year period of political chaos through an examination of the lives of key artists and works of art. In new and often revelatory readings of the work of a dozen painters, some well-known and others less familiar to all but specialist readers, Thomas Crow subtly intertwines a number of seemingly contradictory historical trajectories -- the fall of Napoleon, the European restoration, and even a tentative sense of liberatory progress. Lucid, engaging, and enlightening, this is a masterly, almost epigrammatic work by a historicist art historian at the top of his game." --jury commendation, the Laura Shannon Prize in Contemporary European Studies, Silver Medal, 2020 “A major scholarly achievement and an exhilarating read, Restoration provides an absorbing narrative about European art during and after the fall of the Napoleonic Empire. With a wealth of fresh interpretations, this extraordinarily wide-ranging, authoritative, and concise book gives us a new understanding of art under the Restoration as uniquely unstable, provisional, and mobile.” ―Bridget Alsdorf, Princeton University “This thrilling book offers an entirely fresh and compelling set of perspectives on some of the most important artists of the early nineteenth century. Fusing tightly structured analysis with rich and colorful descriptions, anecdotes, and observations and offering stunning interpretations of individual works, Restoration takes us on a stimulating art historical journey.” ―Mark Hallett, Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art "A major scholarly achievement and an exhilarating read, Restoration provides an absorbing narrative about European art during and after the fall of the Napoleonic Empire. With a wealth of fresh interpretations, this extraordinarily wide-ranging, authoritative, and concise book gives us a new understanding of art under the Restoration as uniquely unstable, provisional, and mobile." -- Bridget Alsdorf , Princeton University"This thrilling book offers an entirely fresh and compelling set of perspectives on some of th