Making The News In

Long before the Internet and the advent of social media, even before the invention of photography, prints were the main source of visual information. This was particularly significant in eighteenth-century France, where the dramatic rise in production and the rapid dissemination of prints played a key role in the creation of modern political culture: prints helped people grasp the essence and significance of newsworthy events both near and far. Making the News in 18th-century France examines this phenomenon through a detailed and lively examination of 37 prints and rare books selected from the collections of Carleton University (the Art Gallery and Archives and Research collections), National Gallery of Canada, and Library and Archives Canada. Included in the exhibition are two iconic interpretations of Benjamin Wolfe’s Death of General Wolfe and Antoine-Louis Watteau’s less well-known Death of Montcalm, which anchor the exhibition’s subject within a Canadian context.