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ARTH 222/3.0 - Impressionism and Post-Impressionism

Daphne Lawson

COURSE DESCRIPTION

This is a half credit seminar course taken over the spring semester, and comprises of thirty six contact hours. This course is attractive to students majoring in art history, but it is also designed to include those students from an arts and humanities background who wish to explore an in depth analysis of the development of French nineteenth century modernity.

The content of the course centers initially on the rebuilding of Paris during the Second Empire and explores how these structural and social changes determined the subject matter and choices made by the avant-garde artists at this time.  The impact of Baudelaire’s request for a painter of modern life is addressed, and how this manifested itself in the role of the artist-flaneur.  In the 1870s, the complexity of Impressionism from both a male and female perspective is evaluated, and the ways in which gender and class may have determined viewpoint and perception.

The avant-gardes of the 1880s and 1890s are studied, and the move away from city to country, heralded by Van Gogh, Cézanne and Gauguin are discussed in terms of their individual exploration of Modernist values. The alternative art practices of the American and English Post-Impressonists Whistler and Sickert are also addressed in the context of their French counterparts. The classes at Herstmonceux are reinforced by two days in Paris after the mid-term trip visiting the Musée D’Orsay and the Orangerie, where Monet painted his Waterlilies.

COURSE PREREQUISITES: Permission of the instructor. Relevant previous study in one or more of the areas covered by the course – art history, history, literature, the French language, philosophy, women’s studies or urban geography.

COURSE OBJECTIVES: The student is asked to question the values of the society that provided the basis for these paintings, and through the study of French cultural politics and social history, the student can address issues that relate to these images with an increased visual awareness and a stronger critical focus.

EVALUATION:During the semester, students are expected to lead one seminar, worth 30% of the term’s mark, and write one mid term research paper also worth 30%. There will be an end of term slide test worth 20% and a participation mark of 20% based on class reading, contribution and discussion.

REQUIRED TEXT: R.L.Herbert: Impressionism, Art Leisure and Parisian Society (Yale 1988)

 

WEEK 1 Class 1: Introduction to the Course

Class 2: Manet and Baudelaire’s Painter of Modern Life

Reading: P. Smith Impressionism Chapter 1 Manet, Baudelaire & the Artist as Flaneurpp.33-57

Issues to discuss: What is history painting? Why is it no longer relevant to the paintings of modern life?

Class 3: Haussmann's Paries - Strategic Beautification, Paris Transformed

Reading: R. Herbert Impressionism Chapter 1 Paris Transformed pp.1-32

R. Herbert Impressionism Chapter 2 Impressionism & Naturalism pp.33-57  

Issues to discuss: In what ways did the new architecture of Paris define Impressionist subject matter?               

Class 4: DVD of Le bal au Moulin de la Galette followed by a discussion of the issues of Renoir’s idealized vision of modernity. Can it be argued that it was valid?
WEEK 2

Class 1: Issues of Prostitution

Reading: T.A.Gronberg Femmes de Brasserie Art History,  September 1984  

Further Reading: E. Lipton Looking into Degas Chapter 4 The Bathers, modernity & Prostitution pp.151-186

P. Smith Impressionism Degas and Women pp.77-81 

T.J Clarke The Painting of Modern Life Chapter 2 Olympia’s Choicepp.79-146

Hollis Clayson Painted Love (London 1997)

Class 2: Van Gogh - his work in Holland and Paris

Reading: Richard Raskin On  The Vincent Signature & the Values Embodied in the Potato Eaters (online)

Further Reading: Van Gogh Exhibition Catalogue Amsterdam 1990 (paintings)

Walter & Metzger Van Gogh, the Complete Paintings   A Dutchman in Paris: 1886 pp.221-80,Far East on his Doorstep pp.283-299

Class 3: Van Gogh in Arles and Remy

Reading: V. Jirat-Wasiutynski Vincent Van Gogh’s Paintings of Olive Tress & Cypresses from St Remy  The Art Bulletin Dec.1993  Vol. LXXV No 4. (ARTH 222 online)

Further Reading: Van Gogh Exhibition Catalogue Amsterdam 1990 (paintings)

Walter & Metzger Van Gogh, the Complete Paintings  St.Remy pp.503-561 &

Auvers to the end On Dr. Gachet’s Territory pp.635-667

Class 4: The late Series Paintings and the Waterlilies by Monet

In preparation for the Orangerie in Paris

The Late Monet Series Paintings: 1886-c.1900

Reading: P. Tucker Monet in the 90s Monet & the challenges to Impressionism in the 1880s pp.17-39

Further Reading: P. Smith Impressionism Chapter 3 Monet and the moment of art pp.83-111
WEEK 3

Class 1: Student Presentations

Presentation1: Impressionism in the 1870s - Parisian Suburban Leisure - Monet

Presentation 2: Impressionmism and Suburban Leisure - Renoir

Reading: R. Herbert Impressionism Chapter 6 Suburban Leisure pp.195-263

Further reading: P. Smith Impressionism Impressionism & the impression pp.19-31

& Chapter 3 Monet & the moment of Art pp.83-111

P. Tucker Monet at Argenteuil

J. House Renoir Hayward Gallery 1986

Class 2: Student Presentations

Presentation 3: Degas, Manet and Public spectacle - the Café and Brasserie 

Reading: R. Herbert Impressionism Chapter 3 Café and Café-Concert pp.59-91

Further Reading: A. Gronberg Femmes de Brasserie Art History, Sept 1984  

Issues to discuss: what is the difference between official and clandestine prostitution?

Presentation 4: Manet and Degas - The Café Concert

Reading: Chapter 3, as above

M.Shapiro Degas & the Siamese Twins of the Café-Concert , Gazette des Beaux-Arts 1982 (online ARTH 222 readings)

Class 3: Student Presentations

Presentation 4: The Impressionists and the Opera, Degas and the Ballet

Reading: R. Herbert Impressionism Chapter 4 Theatre Opera and Dancepp.93-139

Further reading: E. Lipton Looking into Degas Chapter 2 At the Ballet, the disintegration of glamour pp73-115

R. Kendall Beyond Impressionism Chapters 4 and 5

L. Nochlin The Politics of Vision  Chapter 5 Manet’s Masked Ball at the opera pp.75-94

C. Armstrong Degas, Odd Man Out pp.43-72

Followed by Lecture: On Impressionist Portraiture

Reading: R. Herbert Chapter 2 Impressionism and Naturalismpp.33-57

Class 4: The Women Impressionists - Berthe Morisot and Mary Cassatt

Presentation 5: Berthe Morisot - The suburban, and the modern

Reading: K. AdlerThe suburban, the modern and ‘Une Dame de Passy’(online ARTH 222 course readings/articles)

Further Reading:  P. Smith Impressionism Chapter 2 Impressionist Women & women Impressionists pp.59-74 (up to Degas and Women) (PTO)

K. Adler & T. Garb Berthe Morisot Phaidon Press, London 1980

Presentation 6: Mary Cassatt - Modernity and Spaces of Femininity

Reading: G. Pollock  Modernity and the Spaces of Femininity pp. 245-267 (online ARTH 222 readings)

N. Broude & M.Garrard The Expanding  Discourse

G. Pollock Mary Cassatt, Painter of Modern Women London 1998

 

Mid-term Field Studies held in Paris at: the Musee D’Orsay and the Monet water lilies in the Orangerie

WEEK 4

Class 1: Cancelled in lieu of class held on Saturday in the Musée D’Orsay (it is suggested that time is spent working on your paper due the Monday of week 5)

Class 2:

Group discussion on the visits to the Musée D’Orsay and the Orangerie.

Each student is expected to bring a prepared paragraph for informal discussion on the relative merits of seeing primary sources in galleries.

Issues to discuss: How valuable are primary sources to art history? What are the advantages and disadvantages in travelling all the way to Paris to see them?

Class 3: Student Presentations

Presentation 7: Toulouse Lautrec – Painter of the Moulin Rouge

Reading: Toulouse Lautrec Hayward gallery catalogue

R. Thomson: Rethinking Lautrec pp.13-27

A. Roquebert:Toulouse Lautrec and artistic life 1883-1901pp.28-42 (online ARTH 222 course reading)

Further Reading: R. Thomson et al Toulouse Lautrec & Montmartre Washington 2005

C. Freches-ThoryToulouse Lautrec: the Postumous reputationpp.43-53

Thomson The Post-Impressionists Chapter 10 ‘You’re a Parisianist’pp.133-50 

Class 4: Pissarro and the Politics of Vision

Reading: P. Smith Impressionism Chapter 4 Pissarro’s Political Vision

Further Reading: L. Nochlin The Politics of Vision Chapter 4 Camille Pissarro: the Unassuming Eye  pp.60-74

R. Brettell Pissarro & Pontoise Chapter 2 Omissions & Admissions pp.37-71

& Chapter 3The Industrial Landscape: Pissarro & the Factory pp.73-97
WEEK 5

Class 1: Seurat and Pointillism - the Suburb - Baignade D’Asnieres and Sunday on the Island of the Grande Jatte & the Entertainment paintings

Reading: J. House Meaning in Seurat’s Figure PaintingsArt history Vol 3 Sept 1980

Further Readings: S. F. Eisenmann 19th Century Art a Critical History Chapter 13 Mass Culture and Utopia; Seurat and Neo Impressionism pp.274-286

L. Nochlin the Politics of Vision Chapter 9 Seurat’s la grande Jatte: an Anti-Utopian allegorypp.170-93

R. Thomson Seurat Phaidon Press Oxford 1985

J. Russell Seurat London 1986 (Thames and Hudson 2nd Ed.)  

 

Essay due at 1:00pm

Class 2: Gauguin and the Myth of the Primitive - Brittany

Reading: S. F. Eisenman Gauguin’s skirt Chapter 1 Exotic scenarios pp.27-85

Further Reading: N. Broude & M. Garrard the Expanding discourse Chapter 17

Abigail Solomon-Godeau Going Native  pp. 313-29 & Chapter 18

P. Brooks Gauguin’s Tahitian Body pp. 330-45.

Class 3: Gauguin and the Myth of the Primitive – Tahiti

Reading and Further Reading: as above

Class 4: Cézanne - The Dialectic of  Flat Surface

Reading: P. Smith Impressionism Chapter 5 Cezanne & the problem of form pp.146-163

Further reading: S. E. Eisenman 19th Century Art, a Critical History Chapter 16 The failure and success of Cezanne pp.337-350

F. Frascina et al Modernity and Modernism Cezanne pp.201-213
WEEK 6

Class 1: London Impressionism - Whistler’s Modernist Aesthetic & Sickert’s Music Halls

Reading: A. Greutzner-Robins: Sickert, ‘Painter in Ordinary’ to the Music Hallspp.13-23 (Sickert 1992)

Further Reading: R. Dorment Whistler pp.13-28
Class 2: Review Class for Slide Test
Class 3: Cancelled in lieu of field study to the Orangerie Paris - use as private study time for slide test
Class 4: Slide Test

The Field Studies on this course will be taken in Paris at the Musee D’Orsay and the Orangerie to view Monet’s Waterlilies

 

ARTH 222 Guidelines for the Summer Mid-Term Paper

This is a research paper based on any painting or group of paintings studied on the course. This assignment centres on an analysis of the relevant information that you research which supports your particular interest. The idea is that everyone will analyse one aspect of the course in detail in a form that shows research skills and an analytical presentation.

Length should be no more than 1200 words, with an appendix of photocopies or postcards at the back for reference, and a bibliography of at least four books and/or  articles from Jstor or your online readings, in addition to your text book. Any websites should be in addition to that. Everything in your bibliography must be cited in your text. Footnotes are required and will not be included in the word count.  The choice must not overlap at all with your seminar.

You could focus on one painting which we are studying, or group a few paintings around a chosen theme. For example, for single paintings, you could choose from the following list:

Manet Olympia

Manet Dejeuner sur l’herbe

Manet Un Bar aux folies Bergere

Renoir: Moulin de la Galette

Renoir Luncheon of the Boating Party

Van Gogh The Potato Eaters

Van Gogh Wheatfield with cypresses

Van Gogh Starry Night

Van Gogh Bedroom at Arles

Seurat: Sunday afternoon on the Island of the Grande Jatte

Seurat : Baignade d’Asnieres

Gauguin Vision after the Sermon Jacob Wrestling with an Angel

Toulouse LautrecMoulin Rouge

Munch: the Scream

Or any other important painting covered on the course, in the Musée D’Orsay or the Orangerie 

 

Alternatively, you could write on a thematic group of paintings covered on the course:

Degas Nude Bathers

DegasImages of the ballet

Monet and Renoir’s paintings of La Grenouilliere

Monet paintings of Argenteuil

Monet Series paintings of Grainstacks or Rouen Cathedral or Poplars

Monet Waterlilies in the Orangerie

Images of the Loge at the Opera

Images of Women by Women Impressionists.

Cezanne Mont st. Victoire

Cezanne the Card Players

Van Gogh’s Paintings of his chair and Gauguin’s chair

Seurat: his Entertainment images

Toulouse Lautrec: his lithographic posters

Gauguin Paintings of Tahiti

Gauguin The Tahitan Nude.

Pissarro Images of Peasant life

Any other ideas, please check with me or email me before going ahead with it.