Neer uncovers a key moment in the history of early modern art, when painting was understood to be a tool for self-transformation and for living a philosophical life. 
 
In this wide-ranging study, Richard Neer shows how French painters of the seventeenth century developed radically new ways to connect art, perception, and ethics. Cutting across traditional boundaries of classicism and realism, Neer addresses four case studies: Nicolas Poussin, renowned for marrying ancient philosophy and narrative painting; Louise Moillon, who pioneered French still life in the 1630s; Georges de La Tour, a painter of intense and introspective nocturnes; and the Brothers Le Nain, specialists in genre and portraiture who inspired Courbet, Manet, and other painters of modern life. Setting these artists in dialogue with Montaigne, Descartes, Pascal, and others, ranging from the studios of Rome to the streets of Paris, this book provides fresh accounts of essential artworks—some well-known, others neglected—and new ways to approach the relation of art, theory, and daily life. 
 

Richard Neer is the Barbara E. and Richard J. Franke Distinguished Service Professor in Art History, Cinema & Media Studies and the College at the University of Chicago, where he also serves as director of the Franke Institute for the Humanities. He is the author of numerous books and articles on classical art, cinema, art theory and French painting, including The Emergence of the Classical Style in Greek Sculpture. In 2022 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
 

Acknowledgments
Introduction. Before Theory: Painting and Philosophical Practice

Part I: Poussin’s Classicism
Chapter One. Poussin’s Self-Portraits and the Dream of Classical Theory
Chapter Two. Poussin’s Philosophy
Chapter Three. Poussin’s Practice
Chapter Four. Landscape and Disproportion

Part II: Realism, Acuity, and Metaphor
Chapter Five. Discerning Eyes: Louise Moillon, Still-Life, and Genre
Chapter Six. Corporeality and Metaphor in La Tour and Le Nain
Coda
Notes
Bibliography
Index