Exhibition catalogue Portraits of the Belle Epoque

The main features of the period between the Franco-Prussian War and the First World War were sustained economic growth and significant political agitation, which brought about sweeping social changes. In high commercial demand, the portrait is the most representative pictorial genre of the time.

It illustrates the new individualism of modern man and his interest in the image he projects in his social environment. From the point of view of art history it is a genre that allows us to explain the changes that occurred in both stylistic conventions and the relations between the artist and his public or market. Those changes gave rise to the figure of the modern artist.