Terres cuites orientalistes et africanistes, 1860–1940 examines a focused area of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century sculpture: terracotta works shaped by European fascination with North African, Middle Eastern, Asian, and African subjects. Published as a substantial illustrated art-historical study, the book surveys the makers, models, and visual conventions that emerged as Orientalist and Africanist imagery entered French and European ceramic sculpture. It considers terra-cotta figures and figurines not only as decorative objects, but as evidence of how artists represented ethnicity, costume, gesture, labor, and perceived cultural difference during the colonial period. The volume places these works in context, tracing the development of exoticist taste from the mid-nineteenth century through the interwar years. By attending to both artistic production and the social assumptions embedded in the imagery, it offers a useful reference for collectors, curators, and readers interested in sculpture, ceramics, and the history of racialized representation in European art.

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