Research Catalog
The house of fragile things : Jewish art collectors and the fall of France
- Title
- The house of fragile things : Jewish art collectors and the fall of France / James McAuley.
- Author
- McAuley, James K. (James Kelly), 1989-
- Publication
- New Haven : Yale University Press, [2021]
- ©2021
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| Status | Format | Access | Call Number | Item Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Available - Can be used on site. Please visit New York Public Library - Schwarzman Building to submit a request in person. | Text | Use in library | JFE 21-6801 | Schwarzman Building - Dorot Jewish Division Room 111 |
Details
- Description
- xii, 301 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color), maps; 24 cm
- Summary
- In the dramatic years between 1870 and the end of World War II, a number of prominent French Jews--pillars of an embattled community--invested their fortunes in France's cultural artifacts, sacrificed their sons to the country's army, and were ultimately rewarded by seeing their collections plundered and their families deported to Nazi concentration camps. In this rich, evocative account, James McAuley explores the central role that art and material culture played in the assimilation and identity of French Jews in the fin-de-siècle. Weaving together narratives of various figures, some familiar from the works of Marcel Proust and the diaries of Jules and Edmond Goncourt--the Camondos, the Rothschilds, the Ephrussis, the Cahens d'Anvers--McAuley shows how Jewish art collectors contended with a powerful strain of anti-Semitism: they were often accused of "invading" France's cultural patrimony. The collections these families left behind--many ultimately donated to the French state--were their response, tragic attempts to celebrate a nation that later betrayed them.
- Subject
- 1800-1999
- Jews > France > Social conditions > 20th century
- Jews > France > Social conditions > 19th century
- Jewish families > France > Biography
- Art donors > France > Biography
- Art > Private collections > History > France > 19th century
- Art > Private collections > History > France > 20th century
- Antisemitism > France > History
- Jewish art > Private collections > France
- Art and society > France > History > 19th century
- Art and society > France > History > 20th century
- Art > Protection > History. > France
- World War, 1939-1945 > Confiscations and contributions > France
- Art > Collectors and collecting > Biography
- Art > Collectors and collecting
- Antisemitism
- Art and society
- Art > Private collections
- Art > Protection
- Confiscations
- Jews > Social conditions
- ART / General
- France
- Genre/Form
- Biographies.
- History.
- Bibliography (note)
- Includes bibliographical references (pages 264-294) and index.
- Contents
- Introduction: A letter -- Portraits of a milieu : a Jewish elite in crisis -- Dreyfus and Drumont : towards a material antisemitism -- "Apogee of the Israélite" : Jewish collectors and the First World War -- Moïse de Camondo : chaos and control -- Théodore Reinach : Jewish past, French future -- Béatrice Éphrussi de Rothschild : a woman collects -- Museums of memory : from private collections to national bequests -- To the end of the line : Drancy and Auschwitz -- "La Petite Irène" : the afterlife of a portrait -- Conclusion: A death certificate.
- Call Number
- JFE 21-6801
- ISBN
- 9780300233377
- 030023337X
- LCCN
- 2021930169
- OCLC
- 1233317912
- Author
- McAuley, James K. (James Kelly), 1989- author.
- Title
- The house of fragile things : Jewish art collectors and the fall of France / James McAuley.
- Publisher
- New Haven : Yale University Press, [2021]
- Copyright Date
- ©2021
- Type of Content
- textstill image
- Type of Medium
- unmediated
- Type of Carrier
- volume
- Bibliography
- Includes bibliographical references (pages 264-294) and index.
- Chronological Term
- 1800-1999
- Research Call Number
- JFE 21-6801