A Republican Mirage: Zuber et Cie's Vues d'Amérique du Nord

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  • March 22, 2019
Creator
  • Gohmann, Joanna M.
    • Affiliation: College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Art and Art History
Abstract
  • In 1834 the French wallpaper company Zuber et Cie, produced a scenic wallpaper titled Vues d'Amérique du Nord, in which scenes of American life unfold across the forty-nine foot composition. Using the popular tropes of viewing spectacles, Zuber et Cie frames American society as a series of five idealized, picturesque vignettes. When considering this wallpaper, there are two levels of spectacle that occur simultaneously: those occurring on the wallpaper's surface and the larger spectacle, which the viewer would have experienced when surrounded by the panoramic-like wallpaper. In this thesis, I examine the layered spectacles, placing the wallpaper within a large context of French interest in America, popular vocabularies of spectacle, and the nineteenth-century French home. Through my analysis, I articulate how and why Vues d'Amérique du Nord was a product of a very specific time in the July Monarchy, during which America was envisioned as the future of France.
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  • In Copyright
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  • Sheriff, Mary D.
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