Course description
This course aims to
This course looks at the conflicts, contrasts and achievements in nineteenth century art in France. It begins by establishing the academic concerns, which set the standard for the 19th Century and against which artists reacted. The Romantic period saw the beginning of this reaction and response to rational thought and Enlightenment ideas. However, after the 1789 revolution, the concept of absolute authority could never be regained. It is this 'lack' of belief in established ideas that led to the loss of faith and the anomie suffered by many in the nineteenth century. In artistic terms, the dismantling of the academy and all that it upheld began with these ideas, and then generated momentum with the growth of the city and industrialised society.
Manet and Degas responded to Baudelaire's call for a painter of modern life. They were followed by younger artists who made an even greater challenge to formal concerns. This new aesthetic termed impressionism was however not a unified style but encompassed a range of approaches as will be evidenced in comparing Monet, Renoir, Sisley, Pisarro and Morisot. By the end of the nineteenth century, the only consistent element was change, and the acceleration in cultural and artistic phenomena is evidenced in the objects produced. The other side of this response to the modern was, however, a turning away form it - in many ways a rejection which grew from the revaluation of the nature of God. Nature became an answer for some, while others rejected the outer world totally and turned to the inner sensation. The Symbolists developed from the earlier imaginative tradition, constructing an alternative vision and a personal rejection of the ideals of realism. Finally, the course looks at the early post impressionists: Van Gogh, Gauguin and Cezanne.
Close connection will be made to the social, cultural and political events that informed the art and architecture produced at the time. There will also be discussion of the cross-cultural influences between France and England. The course will be well illustrated.
What materials will I need?
LIBRARY
Students are advised not to buy books until they attend their first session:
Boime, H (1987), 'The Academy and French Painting in the Nineteenth Century', Phaidon
Clark, T J (1990), 'The Absolute Bourgeois: Artists and Politics in France 1848-51', Thames and Hudson
Clark, T J (1989), 'The Painting of Modern Life', Phaidon
Eisenman, S F (1998), 'Nineteenth Century Art: A Critical History', Thames and Hudson
Frascina, F (1996), 'Modern Art and Modernism', Yale University Press
Contact details for this course
Please contact GAE to enrol on this course or for more information.
Contact name
Support Officer Oliver Fisher
Post
Brighton Junction,
Isetta Square,
Brighton,
BN1 4GQ
Telephone
01273 810210
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