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The Painter´s Touch is a radical reinterpretation of three paradigmatic French painters of the eighteenth century. In this beautifully illustrated book, Ewa Lajer-Burcharth provides close readings of the works of Fran‡ois Boucher, Jean-Siméon Chardin, and Jean-Honoré Fragonard, entirely recasting our understanding of these painters´ practice. Using the notion of touch, she examines the implications of their strategic investment in materiality and sheds light on the distinct contribution of painting to the culture of the Enlightenment. By examining what paintings actually "say" in brushstrokes, texture, and paint, The Painter´s Touch transforms our understanding of the role of painting in the emergence of modernity and provides new readings of some of the most important and beloved works of art of the era.

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"In this long-anticipated book, Lajer-Burcharth looks more closely and originally at the very paint of masterpieces by Boucher, Chardin, and Fragonard than anyone may ever have done before. Unexpectedly extending the material turn to the medium we have come to take for granted, oil paint, Lajer-Burcharth convinces us that all great paintings contain deep meanings within their forms. If this book doesnt dispel the aura of frivolity called rococo around three great artists, nothing will."--Anne Higonnet, Barnard College, Columbia University, author of A Museum of Ones Own: Private Collecting, Public Gift

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Ewa Lajer-Burcharth is the William Dorr Boardman Professor of Fine Arts at Harvard University. Her books include Chardin Material and Necklines: The Art of Jacques-Louis David after the Terror.

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