ABSTRACT
In his seminal work on the politics of Impressionism, Art and the French Commune: Imagining Paris after War and Revolution, the art historian Albert Boime argues that the Paris Commune of 1871 and its political aftermath form the essential background to the development of French Impressionist aesthetics. According to Boime, 'The Impressionists, moderate republicans, descended into the public sphere to reclaim symbolically its sullied turf for the bourgeoisie.' These main avant-garde artists of the day 'pre-eminently politicized their creations by reimagining and reconstructing symbolically their partially destroyed country and disrupted social hierarchy. The Third Republic sought to encourage the populace away from revolutionary aspirations based on perceptions of class conflict, and towards aspirations for social and personal betterment achieved through national unity. Valles wrote his trilogy against the anti-revolutionary Republic, and was aware of its procedures in the visual realm.
