Date of Award
2026
Document Type
Thesis - Restricted Access (SIA Only)
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
Historic Art and Design
First Advisor
Betsy Thomas
Second Advisor
Maria Sancho-Arroyo
Abstract
The start of the Dreyfus Affair in 1894, set off by the wrongful conviction of Jewish army captain Alfred Dreyfus became one of the defining political and cultural crises of the French Third Republic. This paper examines how the Affair divided the French artistic community and how avant garde art did not equal avant garde or progressive political conviction. Through close analysis of artists including Edgar Degas, Camille Pissarro, Paul Signac, and Félix Vallotton and art dealers such as Paul Durand-Ruel, Ambroise Vollard, and Berthe Weill, the paper traces how antisemitism, nationalism, and republican idealism each found expression in studios, galleries, caricatures, and private correspondence. The Affair exposed the ideological fault lines in French artistic life and forced individuals to declare where they stood. Some of the impact extended well beyond Dreyfus's exoneration in 1906
Recommended Citation
Cassorla, Alison, "The Dreyfus Affair and the Artistic Community" (2026). MA Theses. 303.
https://digitalcommons.sia.edu/stu_theses/303