Intersections of Art and Politics: Clemenceau, Monet and Republican Patriotism from Commune to Nymphéas

Abstract

In the aftermath of France’s defeat in the war of 1870-71 and the Commune uprising of 1871, the French sought a new political identity and sense of unity, which brought a new political regime, the Third Republic. At the same time, a younger generation of French artists began experimenting with new forms and techniques that came to be known as Impressionism. The Third Republic was born at the same time that a new generation of artists were emerging. While there was always a distance between the artistic and political worlds, two representative figures, the politician Georges Clemenceau and a leading Impressionist, Claude Monet, found themselves joined in a common cause, despite Monet’s dislike of political conflicts, in defending the newly formed republic from its opponents during three crises in France at the end of the nineteenth and early twentieth century. This paper examines this curious alliance of two friends and patriots during times of crisis during the formative years of the French Third Republic.