Miscellaneous French-Related Artworks
Each of the images that conclude this chapter has a somewhat anomalous relation to what has come before. One depicts a church in France that was once in England, too. Another evokes a region of Switzerland that was briefly part of France. The third is an original drawing of a famous French cathedral by a Danish-born Swedish-English painter may have been the only living artist to create multiple works inspired by writings of Herman Melville in Melville’s lifetime. In each of these works, the transnational theme that is often implicit in the painters, engravers, and subjects of the prints Melville collected becomes somewhat more explicit. Each could have been cataloged within a non-French chapter, but each has enough Frenchness in language, locale, or history to justify, ultimately, its placement here.
- Works cited in this section:
- Barry, T. A., and Patten, B. A. Men and Memories of San Francisco, in the ‘Spring of ‘50’. San Francsico: Bancroft and Company, 1873.
- Bourget, Jean. The History of the Royal Abbey of Bec, near Rouen in Normandy. London: printed for J. Nichols and sold by H. Payne, 1779.
- Kent, W. H. “Bec, Abby of.” In The Catholic Encyclopedia. 18 v. New York: Robert Appleton, 1907. 2:379-80.
- Lacretelle, Charles. Histoire de la révolution française. 8 v. Paris, Strasbourg, Treuttel, et Würtz, 1821-26.
- “Peter Petersen Toft (1825-1901).” Farhat Cultural Center, https://farhatculturalcenter.wordpress.com/2012/09/11/peter-petersen-toft-danish1825-1901/