Dore Bowen, “Animals, Monarchy, and Magic: Countermodernism and the Diorama in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Paris.”

Dore Bowen (Duke) discussing her paper “Animals, Monarchy, and Magic: Countermodernism and the Diorama in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Paris.” Focusing in on the diorama, it studies visual references to animals, monarchy, and magic in its painted tableaux, as well as atmospheric effects used to alter this imagery, and shows how these refer to countermodern politics. The paper then argues that these early paint-and-light dioramas informed the development of the habitat and anthropological diorama, such as those shown at the 1931 Colonial exhibition in Paris.