FA171 Impressionism: Avant-Garde Rebellion in Context

FA155 Impressionism: Avant-Garde Rebellion in Context Fall 2015 Prof. Nancy Scott M W 2 – 3:30 PM

This course fulfills the Fine Arts major and minor requirements, the French and Francophone Studies major elective, the Creative Arts requirement, and is ideal for the European Cultural Studies major or for students interested in 19th century literature and the arts.

Course Requirements: To complete the course, and receive a passing grade, the student must fulfill the following assignments: three short assignments, a midterm, the research paper, and a final exam (with take-home essay component). Both exams will reflect on visual material presented in class lectures, lectures notes, and readings in the syllabus. The final research paper may also comprehend a museum / visual analysis essay, if feasible. [See notes for final project, to be posted on Latte.] Guidelines on the short assignments also will be posted on Latte. NB: Your attendance and participation will also be computed in the final grade. You cannot receive a grade in the course if you have failed to turn in all required work.

Texts and reading assignments: There is no principal text for the course, though several books are used for longer sections. Specific articles for discussion and consultation are listed in Latte weekly modules, and all pdf documents are posted on Latte. Important current exhibitions of Impressionism and Impressionist art will be discussed, and texts incorporated into class lectures and readings.

Gustave Caillebotte: The Painter's Eye, National Gallery of Art Washington D. C. June 28 – October 4, 2015

Discovering the Impressionists: Paul Durand-Ruel and the New Painting, Philadelphia Museum of Art, June 24, 2015 - September 13, 2015

Still available on alibris.com, abebooks.com, and other independent seller sites, recommended for your purchase:

Herbert, Robert. Impressionism (Yale University Press: 1991).

Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, ed. Charles S. Moffett, The New Painting: Impressionism 1874-86 (Burton: 1986). ISBN: 0884010473.

Topics and readings for week beginning:

August 27 Introduction: Who do we call an Impressionist? What is the origin of the term? . S. Eisenman, “How the Impressionists got their Name,” in The New Painting: Impressionism 1874-86 (Hereafter New Painting). pp. 51-59.

Impressionism—FA155 page 2

Aug 31 JMW Turner—British antecedents, and the long legacy of ‘veils of color’ Reading: Latte: Smiles, “Sun of Venice going to the Sea” p 169 “Response of French Artists” pp 155-67ff

Exposition Universelle of 1855—the background of the French Romantic tradition, and Gustave Courbet’s Pavilion du Réalisme

Reading: Latte:Tinterow, Loyrette, et al. (Metropolitan Museum of Art) Origins of Impressionism, introduction, pp. xiii-xvi.

Sept 9 The early realist style of Edouard Manet to the 1863 Salon des Réfusés Herbert, chapter 1, pp. 28-33 “Manet’s Paris;” and chapter 2, pp. 43-57 “Artist as Investigator” and “Artist as Observer of Domestic Manners.” Ch. 5, “Luncheons,” pp. 170-177.

Sept 16 The artist of contemporary life: Manet and Edgar Degas (c 1858-9): urban and socio-economic themes Herbert, chapter 1, “Paris Transformed,” pp. 1-28; ch. 2, “Impressionism and Naturalism: The Artists as flâneur,” pp. 33-43; ch. 4, “Theater, Opera, Dance,” pp. 93-139.

Sept 21 Painting “en plein air” Seascapes and early landscapes of Monet, Renoir, Morisot Latte: Tinterow, et al., Origins, “Realist Landscape,” pp. 55-93.

Sept 29 Tuesday is Brandeis Monday –Meet at the Rose [Cézanne session].

Artists of Gleyre’s studio: Bazille and Sisley; Pissarro, early work; Pissarro and Monet in London Latte: Tinterow, Origins, “Figures in the Landscape,” pp. 125-147. On Latte: Patrice Mandarel, Frederic Bazille and Early Impressionism, pp. 11-20.

Oct 7 First Impressionist Exhibition—the Société Anonyme Paul Tucker, “The First Impressionist Exhibition in Context,” in New Painting, pp. 93-117; Cézanne – early work and his relation to the Impressionist exhibits On Latte: John Rewald, Cézanne, “First Exhibitions” to p 117; R. Cohen, “Artist’s Model,” The New Yorker, Nov. 20, 2005. Impressionism—FA155 page 3 Oct 12 The Late 1870s: 2nd and 3rd Impressionist Exhibitions

Hollis Clayson, “A Failed Attempt,” in The New Painting, pp. 145-159; Richard Brettell, “The ‘First’ Exhibition of Impressionist Painters,” Ibid., pp. 189-202.

Oct 19 Enter Cassatt (& exit Cézanne) Ronald Pickvance, “1879: Contemporary Popularity and Posthumous Neglect,” Ibid., pp. 243-265.

Oct 26 5th Impressionist Exhibition – Degas Rules Charles Moffett, “1880: Disarray and Disappointment,” Ibid., pp. 293-309.

Nov 2 6th and 7th Impressionist Exhibitions Fronia Wissman, “1881: Realists among the Impressionists,” Ibid., pp. 337-352; Joel Issacson, “1882: The Painters called Impressionists,” Ibid., pp. 373-93

Class discussion on Manet’s Bar at the Folies Bergère Essays to be chosen from B. Collins: Twelve Views of Manet’s Bar

Nov 9th: Assignment no.2 due—Response paper to issues raised by essay in Twelve Views of Manet’s Bar.

Nov 9 Durand-Ruel and his 1883 Exhibition of Impressionism—the Impressionists break ranks. Reading : Inventing Impressionism: Paul Durand-Ruel and the New Painting, pages TBA.

Nov 16 8th Impressionist Exhibition Martha Ward, “1886: The Rhetoric of Independence and Innovation,” Ibid., pp. 421-42. Seurat and color -- the “science” of Neo-Impressionism-- Broude, Norma, Seurat in Perspective, “Introduction,” pp. 1-13.

Roads deeper into Impressionism Monet’s later period at Giverny; Degas and his late style; Cassatt as printmaker and collector.

Due date: December 7th Museum without Walls: Research paper

Nov 23 The crisis, dissolution and roads to Post-Impressionism Renoir’s “sour” manner and his classical period; Cézanne’s maturity from 1886.

Nov 30 The Origins of Symbolism: Gauguin after Impressionism, 1886-89 Expressionism and Late Impressionism: Van Gogh in Arles and St-Rémy: 1888-89

Dec 7 Brief oral reports on Museum without Walls.

Study Day May 1- 8 (Friday- Friday) Final Exam Period FINAL EXAM as scheduled by the Registrar’s office: [TBA: Probable combination will be slide examination during exam period, with a take- home essay.]

Impressionism—FA155 page 4

E-mail: [email protected] Voice: X62664 Office Hours: Monday / Wednesday @ 3:45- 5 PM; Thursdays by appointment.

Office: 210, Mandel Center for the Humanities, 2nd Level,