Late-nineteenth century Paris was physically and legislatively shaped by the French state’s desire for public order in the wake of the Franco-Prussian War and Paris Commune, an ambition manifested in the figure of the modern police officer. Patrolling and surveilling the city in his distinctive uniform, he in turn attracted public interest and suspicion. With the abolishment of censorship laws in 1881 and the rapid expansion of mass visual culture, artists were increasingly emboldened to make the police the subject of their art.
This project examines artists who responded critically to the growing visual presence of the police in Paris. Confronted with policemen in the street, but also in official bulletins, police memoirs, and photographic albums published by the state, artists sought to challenge the pervasive reality and image of social control by the forces of order. This dissertation argues that the work of these artists was shaped by new developments in artistic and political avant-gardism, printmaking, and the mass media. In the context of an accelerating breakdown of boundaries between mediums and genres, my research also seeks to understand the role of a robust intermedial culture in their responses to policing around 1900.