ARHA240 - Nineteenth Century French Painting, 1789-1906

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Academic Year 2003/2004

Nineteenth Century French Painting, 1789-1906
ARHA 240 FA

Underlying this course is an argument that the history of 19th century French painting is the seedbed of modernism. In developing this argument, we will look synoptically at painting in France between 1789 and 1906. You will be introduced to the main painters and movements, and get an overall sense of French painting's historical trajectory over 120 years. Some lectures will be broad discussions of large topics, such as Modernism, Nature, or Classicism. Other lectures will focus on a single picture or group of pictures in depth: David's Sabine Women, for instance, or Degas's images of prostitution. Other lectures will focus on a single artist's career and still others on an historic period. The following topics will receive special emphasis: the changing notions of history and the vicissitudes of history painting, the rise of landscape painting and contemporary subjects, the perpetuation of Classicism, painting's imbrication in a colonial discourse, the relationship of art to revolution, the rise and fall of a public sphere for art-making, the construction of a French tradition of painting, France's indebtedness to international artistic and cultural traditions, the shift from the male to the female nude, the role of women painters and the gendering of representation.

MAJOR READINGS

Francis Frascina et al, MODERNITY AND MODERNISM: FRENCH PAINTING IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993
Meyer Schapiro, PAUL CÉZANNE, New York: Abrams, 1952
Griselda Pollock, MARY CASSATT, PAINTER OF MODERN WOMEN, Thames and Hudson, 1998.
A Course Reader

EXAMINATIONS AND ASSIGNMENTS

Midterm and final exams, occasional in-class assignments, 8-page paper.

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS and/or COMMENTS

Instructor uses enrollment requests and does not respond to emails prior to the beginning of class. All interested students should attend the first day of class.

COURSE FORMAT: Lecture

REGISTRATION INFORMATION

Level: UGRD Credit: 1 Gen Ed Area Dept: HA ART Grading Mode: Graded

Prerequisites: NONE

SECTION 01

Instructor(s): Kuenzli,Katherine M.

Times: ..T.R.. 02:40PM-04:00PM; Location: DAC100

Reserved Seats: (Total Limit: 40)

SR. major: 7 Jr. major: 7

SR. non-major: 7 Jr. non-major: 7 SO: 6 FR: 6

Special Attributes:

Curricular Renewal: Reading Non-Verbal Texts

Links to Web Resources For This Course.

Last Updated on MAR-19-2004