Emerging in a context of documentary historical research as one of the leading art historians of the mid-nineteenth century in France, Leon Lagrange (1828-1868) published substantial monographs on Joseph Vernet, Pierre Puget, as well as contributing regularly to such leading periodicals as the Gazette des Beaux-Arts and L'Artiste. Lagrange worked in close contact with such figures as de Chennevieres and de Montaiglon at the Archives de l'art francais. Influenced by the writings of Ludovic Vitet (1802-1873), historian of art and first Inspector of historical monuments, Lagrange applied the standards of the new historical sciences to the study of past art and helped establish art history in France as a modern discipline based on archival research. Like Taine's, his art history paid heed to society as well as the individual artist. Lagrange's publications have a particular interest because of their regional focus and liberal politics: he devoted all his research to documenting Provencal artists and integrating them into a progressive history of art motivated by the triumph of bourgeois values.
