ARTH 253: IMPRESSIONISM AND POST-IMPRESSIONISM
Fall 2000
Tuesday and Thursday, 12:30-1:45
160 Campbell Hall

Matthew Affron
office: 201 Peyton Annex
telephone: 243-8648
e-mail: ma2x@virginia.edu

This course examines the origins, nature, and historical implications of modernism in European art during the second half of the nineteenth. It surveys the interrelated and overlapping artistic movements that developed during this period: Realism, Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, Symbolism, Art Nouveau. Along the way, the course investigates some distinctive questions that confronted artists and their audiences, among them the establishment of modernity as a cultural ideal, the development of the avant-garde, and the genesis of the concept of abstraction

 

COURSE REQUIREMENTS:
Regular attendance is expected. All assignments must be completed to pass the course.
Paper I (3 pp.)
Mid-Term Exam
Paper II (5 pp.)
Final Exam

GRADING: Paper I, 15%; Mid-Term, 25%; Paper II, 30%; Final Exam, 30%
Overdue papers will be penalized one letter grade (A to B) for every 24 hours' delay.

 

REQUIRED TEXTS:
Robert Goldwater, SYMBOLISM (New York: Harper & Row, 1979)
Robert L. Herbert, IMPRESSIONISM: ART LEISURE, AND PARISIAN SOCIETY (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1991)
A packet of readings is available for purchase at Brillig Books, 7 Elliewood Avenue (phone: 296-9669)

COURSE SCHEDULE:
Packet of readings: designated with an (*)
Th Aug 31 Introduction to the course
ACADEMICS AND INDEPENDENTS: FRENCH ART INSTITUTIONS IN THE 19TH CENTURY
Tu Sept 5 (*)Harrison C. White and Cynthia A. White, CANVASES AND CAREERS (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993), 5-33
REALISM
Th Sept 7

(*)Linda Nochlin, "The Nature of Realism," in REALISM (New York: Penguin Books, 1971), 13-56
(*)Gustave Courbet, Letter to Young Artists, (1861), in ART IN THEORY 1815-1900, eds. Charles Harrison and Paul Wood With Jason Gaiger (Oxford: Blackwell, 1998), 402-404
MANET, MODERNITY, AND PARIS
Tu Sept 12 Herbert, ch. 1
(*)Charles Baudelaire, "The Artist, Man of the World, Man of the Crowd, and Child," and "Modernity," from "The Painter of Modern Life," in ART IN THEORY 1815-1900, eds. Harrison and Wood with Gaiger, 494-498
Th Sept 14 (*)Louis Emile Edmond Duranty, "The New Painting" (1876), in THE NEW PAINTING, ed. Charles S. Moffett (San Francisco: The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, 1986), 37-49
IMPRESSIONISM AND NATURALISM
Tu Sept 19 Herbert, ch. 2
BOHEMIANS, MARGINALS, AND PERFORMERS
Th Sept 24 Herbert, ch. 3
THE SPACES OF FEMININITY
Tu Sept 26 (*)Timothy J. Clark, "Preliminaries to a Possible Treatment of 'Olympia' in 1865," SCREEN 21, no. 1 (Spring 1980): 18-41
Th Sept 28 (*)Griselda Pollock, "Modernity and the Spaces of Femininity," in VISION AND DIFFERENCE (London: Routledge, 1988), 50-90
ENVIRONS OF PARIS
Tu Oct 3 Herbert, ch. 6
SEASIDE LEISURE
Th Oct 5 Herbert, ch. 7 and "Conclusion"
CEZANNE AND LATER IMPRESSIONISM
Th Oct 10

(*)Stephen F. Eisenman, "The Failure and Success of Cezanne," in NINETEENTH CENTURY ART: A CRITICAL HISTORY (London: Thames and Hudson, 1994), 337- 350
(*)Emile Bernard, "Paul Cezanne" (1904), in CEZANNE IN PERSPECTIVE, ed. Judith Wechsler (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1975), 39-45
SEURAT AND NEO-IMPRESSIONISM
Tu Oct 12

(*)John House, "Meaning in Seurat's Figure Paintings," ART HISTORY 3, no. 3 (September 1980): 345-356
(*)Ellen Wardwell Lee, "Neo-Impressionism," in THE AURA OF NEO- IMPRESSIONISM: THE W.J. HOLLIDAY COLLECTION (Indianapolis: Indianapolis Museum of Art, 1983), 12-23
Th Oct 17 (*)Felix Feneon, "Eighth Impressionist Exhibition" (1886), in IMPRESSIONISM AND POST-IMPRESSOINISM: SOURCES AND DOCUMENTS, ed. Linda Nochlin (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1975), 108-110
Tu Oct 19 MID-TERM EXAM
SYMBOLISM
Th Oct 26

Goldwater, 1-72, 115-127, 148-158
(*)Charles Baudelaire, "Correspondences" (1857) and Jean Moreas, "Symbolism--a Manifesto" (1886), in ART IN THEORY 1815-1900, eds. Harrison and Wood with Gaiger, 484-485 and 1014-1016
VAN GOGH AND GAUGUIN
Tu Oct 31

Goldwater, 73-94, 127-140, 196-203
(*)Albert Aurier, from "Symbolism in Painting: Paul Gauguin" (1891), in ART IN THEORY, 1815-1900, eds. Harrison and Wood with Gaiger, 1025-1029
Th Nov 2 (*)Peter Brooks, "Gauguin's Tahitian Body," in THE EXPANDING DISCOURSE, eds. Norma Broude and Mary Garrard (New York: Harper Collins/Icon Editions, 1992), 330- 345
THE NABIS / ROSE + CROIX
Tu Nov 7

Goldwater, 95-114 and 186-195
(*)Sar Josephin Peladan, "Manifesto and Rules of the Salon de la Rose + Croix" (1891), in ART IN THEORY, 1815-1900, eds. Harrison and Wood with Gaiger, 1054-1060
RODIN AND MODERN SCULPTURE
Tu Nov 9

Goldwater, 162-177

(*)Albert E. Elsen, RODIN (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1963), 35-66
THE BELGIANS, MUNCH, HODLER, DUTCH SYMBOLISTS
Th Nov 14 Goldwater, 204-241 and 249-258
KLIMT AND THE VIENNA SECESSION
Tu Nov 16

Goldwater, 241-248
(*)Kirk Varndoe, "Painting and Drawing," in VIENNA 1900: ART, ARCHITECTURE & DESIGN (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1986), 149- 177
THE MODERN POSTER
Th Nov 21 (*)Bradford R. Collins, "The Poster as Art: Jules Cheret and the Struggle for the Equality of the Arts in Late Nineteenth Century France," DESIGN ISSUES 2, no. 1 (Spring 1985): 41-50
DECORATION AND ABSTRACTION
Tu Nov 28 (*)Stephen Escritt, "A Decadent Age?" in ART NOUVEAU (London: Phaidon, 2000), 65-130
Th Nov 30

Goldwater, 178-185
(*)Maurice Denis, "The Influence of Paul Gauguin" (1907, in THE IMPRESSIONISTS AND THEIR LEGACY, ed. Kapos, 434, 443-445
(*)Maurice Denis, "A Definition of Neo-Traditionalism" (1890), in ART IN THEORY, 1815-1900, eds. Harrison and Wood with Gaiger, 862-869
MATISSE AND FAUVISM
Tu Dec 5

(*)Sarah Whitfield, "Fauvism," in CONCEPTS OF MODERN ART, ed. Nikos Stangos (New York: Thames & Hudson, 1994), 11-29
(*)Henri Matisse, from "Notes of a Painter" (1908), in THEORIES OF MODERN ART, ed. Herschel B. Chipp (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1968), 130-137
Th Dec 7 Course conclusion
Sa Dec 16 FINAL EXAM, 2-5 p.m.