Natalie Adamson is Lecturer in the School of Art History at the University of St Andrews, Scotland. She is a scholar of art, photography and cultural politics, especially in late nineteenth- and twentieth-century France. Her most recent publication is Painting, Politics, and the Struggle for the École de Paris, 1944–1964 (Ashgate Publishing, 2009).Toby Norris is Assistant Professor of Art History at Assumption College, Worcester, MA. He works on the relationship between state patronage and the art market in France, focusing on the interwar period. Recent papers include "The Querelle du Réalisme and the Politicization of French Artists during the Great Depression," in PART: Journal of Art History at the CUNY Graduate Center, March 2007, and "Underwriting Independence: The Art Market in France in the 1920s," presented at the Association of Art Historians Conference, 2009.

"The dazzling torch bearers and trail blazers of 20th-century French art have so successfully monopolised the interest of historians, curators and critics that much of the broader intellectual, political and artistic topography of the period has been neglected. This fine collection of essays sets out to realign perceptions and open new perspectives by reaching beyond habitual lines of art-historical enquiry, reassessing the constantly shifting relationship between academic conventions and modernist innovation and focussing on the firefighters as well as the firestarters. This book counters reductive narratives and dismissive value systems in order to allow a more inclusive and holistic understanding of modern French art and artists and their operational environment."—Professor Peter Read, School of European Culture and Languages, University of Kent

Natalie Adamson is Lecturer in the School of Art History at the University of St Andrews, Scotland. She is a scholar of art, photography and cultural politics, especially in late nineteenth- and twentieth-century France. Her most recent publication is Painting, Politics, and the Struggle for the École de Paris, 1944–1964 (Ashgate Publishing, 2009).Toby Norris is Assistant Professor of Art History at Assumption College, Worcester, MA. He works on the relationship between state patronage and the art market in France, focusing on the interwar period. Recent papers include "The Querelle du Réalisme and the Politicization of French Artists during the Great Depression," in PART: Journal of Art History at the CUNY Graduate Center, March 2007, and "Underwriting Independence: The Art Market in France in the 1920s," presented at the Association of Art Historians Conference, 2009.

"The dazzling torch bearers and trail blazers of 20th-century French art have so successfully monopolised the interest of historians, curators and critics that much of the broader intellectual, political and artistic topography of the period has been neglected. This fine collection of essays sets out to realign perceptions and open new perspectives by reaching beyond habitual lines of art-historical enquiry, reassessing the constantly shifting relationship between academic conventions and modernist innovation and focussing on the firefighters as well as the firestarters. This book counters reductive narratives and dismissive value systems in order to allow a more inclusive and holistic understanding of modern French art and artists and their operational environment."—Professor Peter Read, School of European Culture and Languages, University of Kent

Natalie Adamson is Lecturer in the School of Art History at the University of St Andrews, Scotland. She is a scholar of art, photography and cultural politics, especially in late nineteenth- and twentieth-century France. Her most recent publication is Painting, Politics, and the Struggle for the École de Paris, 1944–1964 (Ashgate Publishing, 2009).Toby Norris is Assistant Professor of Art History at Assumption College, Worcester, MA. He works on the relationship between state patronage and the art market in France, focusing on the interwar period. Recent papers include "The Querelle du Réalisme and the Politicization of French Artists during the Great Depression," in PART: Journal of Art History at the CUNY Graduate Center, March 2007, and "Underwriting Independence: The Art Market in France in the 1920s," presented at the Association of Art Historians Conference, 2009.

"The dazzling torch bearers and trail blazers of 20th-century French art have so successfully monopolised the interest of historians, curators and critics that much of the broader intellectual, political and artistic topography of the period has been neglected. This fine collection of essays sets out to realign perceptions and open new perspectives by reaching beyond habitual lines of art-historical enquiry, reassessing the constantly shifting relationship between academic conventions and modernist innovation and focussing on the firefighters as well as the firestarters. This book counters reductive narratives and dismissive value systems in order to allow a more inclusive and holistic understanding of modern French art and artists and their operational environment."—Professor Peter Read, School of European Culture and Languages, University of Kent