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Images of Rousseau

By George Wigmore, on 5 March 2012

Of the many images we have of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, the one that continues to define him is as the revolutionary author of The Social Contract, whose political philosophy played a critical role in the French Revolution.

Rousseau was far more than just a renegade philosopher, but his treatises on society and education frequently eclipse his significant contributions to literature, music theory and composition. It is this holistic view of Rousseau that UCL aims to highlight and celebrate on the 300th anniversary of his birth.

With this in mind, I popped down to the UCL Art Museum to hear Dr Avi Lifschitz, Lecturer in European History at UCL, give a talk on the Images of Rousseau, and the contrasting perspectives, and representations, we have of him today.

Born in Geneva in 1712, Rousseau was pretty different from other philosophers at the time. Taught at home by his father, he was a voracious reader, devouring all the books in his local library and often reading throughout the night with his father.

Religion also featured prominently in the young Rousseau’s life. Moving frequently around France and Switzerland as a young man, he continued to entertain thoughts of a clerical career, with his religion a strong theme in many of his most famous works.

While religion continued to play a major role in Rousseau’s life, it was music that came to define his early years. Working as a musical copyist in Paris in the 1740s, it was here that he made a major contribution to the Enlightenment movement.

On the invitation of Denis Diderot, a French philosopher and writer, Rousseau wrote several entries in Diderot’s Encyclopédie, which subsequently came to define an important stage in the Enlightenment, symbolising the movement’s aim of changing the way people thought.

Starting with musical entries, Rousseau continued to contribute articles for many years, the most famous of which is his article on the political economy. It was during this period that Rousseau became famous for his own music and copying, with his opera, Le Devin du Village, performed for King Louis XV in 1752.

It is this multifaceted side of Rousseau that the Images of Rousseau did so well, featuring not only all his famous texts, such as Julie, Émile, Confessions and The Social Contract, but also his music and lesser-known artwork.

Helping the audience negotiate the aforementioned texts, along with several wonderful paintings and etchings of Rousseau, Dr Lifschitz was an excellent guide, providing enough information to satisfy experts and laymen alike, without ever being patronising.

For me, while the texts were stunning, and surprisingly small considering their historical significance, it was the pictures that proved to be the highlight.

In particular, an etching of Rousseau being greeted by Plato in the Elysian Fields provides an interesting insight into the dictomy that continues to exist with Rousseau. According to Dr Lifschitz, the picture actually represents his revolutionary work in music rather than depicting his political and philosophical contributions to the French Revolution.

Therefore in many ways it is this picture that typifies the disparity between the representations of Rousseau at the time, and our posthumous images of him.

But this exhibition, along with the wide range of events that UCL has been offering throughout his tercentenary year, go some way towards reconciling the two, providing a more unified image of a polymath who made so many great contributions to different disciplines throughout his life.

Rousseau 300: Nature, Self and State runs until the 27 April at the UCL Art Museum, and UC Opera will perform a semi-staged production of Le Devin du Village on the  20 April. An international conference on Rousseau also runs from the 19 to 21 April 2012. More information can be found here.

One Response to “Images of Rousseau”

  • 1
    Martin Meiske wrote on 1 June 2012:

    Thank you for this article – in fact Rousseau has multiple faces! Here is an additional chance to experience them:

    We just started a project focused on the reconstruction and visualization of Rousseau’s “Émile” (1762). I’d like to invite you to our 18th Century debates. You can leave your comments as a normal user or as a historical figure.

    The debate will be presented as a funnel-shaped convergence of philosophical categories, all displayed with accordance to the central category education. The categories of Epistemology, Metaphysics, Religion, Society and Ethics will be supportive both for the reconstruction of the debate between Rousseau and Formey as well as for the reconstruction of intellectual positions of both philosophers regarding their respective ideas of education.

    Visit us on:
    http://www.europeanenlightenment.de/intellectualexchange/
    http://www.facebook.com/theemiledebates

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