The Spectatorial Gaze: Viewer-Voyeur Dynamics in Book Illustrations of Diderot's 'La Religieuse'

This article analyses the manner in which Diderot's novel La Religieuse (1796) has been interpreted in book illustration. There has long been an assumption that Jean-François Le Barbier was the first illustrator of La Religieuse, whereas this article posits that a number of significant artists preceded him: an anonymous artist (1796), the designer P. J. Challiou (1797) and another unknown illustrator (1797). This analytical investigation is followed by an overview of viewer–voyeur trends in the subsequent illustration of La Religieuse, suggesting that core representation dilemmas, together with the interpretative strategies adopted, vary remarkably little across more than two centuries of reception and illustration.