Art History 285-601a Impressionism: Art in France, 1848-1906

Spring 2007 Class meets Thursdays 5:30-8:30pm Classroom Location: WILL 1 Course Instructor: Dr. Karen K. Butler Office: B-16 Jaffe History of Art Building Office Hours: By appointment E-mail: [email protected]

Course Description

French Impressionism is the focus of this course, which will explore paintings (as well as some sculpture, photography, and architecture) produced between 1848 and 1900. We will analyze the work and reputations of French, Dutch, and Scandinavian artists who painted and exhibited in Paris during those years, as well as read key writings on the major artists and movements of the period. We will reflect on such central ideas of modernism as the “misogyny” of Degas, the “obsessiveness” of Cézanne, the “primitivism” of Gauguin, and, of course, the “madness” of Van Gogh. All art will be analyzed within the context of the social, economic, and political changes that were taking place in and around Paris – the capital of the nineteenth century.

Whenever possible, we will consider a relatively small number of works by each artist, rather than attempt to master an exhaustive survey. Although this is a lecture course, discussion is expected and encouraged. The main textbook for the course is Stephen Eisenman’s Nineteenth-Century Art: A Critical History, 2nd Edition (2002). It is available for purchase at Penn Book Center (130 S. 34th Street). Required weekly readings from the textbook will be supplemented with essays from books and articles which address more specifically the themes of the course and introduce debates within the discipline. Students are expected to have completed the assigned reading prior to each lecture as the weekly readings will be incorporated into lectures and discussion.

Requirements Short paper 20% Midterm exam 20% Term paper 30% Final exam, date tba 30%

Short paper The assignment for the short paper (3-4 pages long) will be to write an analysis of two paintings at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Pairs will be selected by the students from a list provided by the professor.

1 Second paper Students will once again select topics from a list provided by the professor. The paper will require visual analysis of artworks similar to that of the first paper combined with analysis of essays that addresses a recent critical debate in the field.

Exams There will be a midterm and final exam. The final will focus on the second half of the course, although it will include material presented prior to the midterm. Students will be expected to have studied and memorized all images discussed in lectures and in the required readings for the exams. Students are required to correctly memorize and spell the artist’s full name, date, and title for all required works. All images presented in lecture will be posted for review on Artstor 4-5 days after lecture. Students will also be tested on the material presented in lectures and readings. Please note that even if a reading has not been directly addressed in lecture, students will be expected to have read and understood the argument of the author and be prepared to address it for the exam.

A note on papers and exams: Late papers will not be accepted. Plagiarism will result in a failing grade. There will be no make-ups for either exam, unless there is a dire medical emergency or a death in the family; proof will be required.

Attendance All lectures must be attended. One class will be scheduled as a museum visit and will meet at a date to be determined at either the Barnes Foundation or the Philadelphia Museum of Art. All students are expected to attend the visit to a Philadelphia area museum.

Weekly Schedule

Thursday 1/11 Courbet’s Realism and the Avant-Garde Eisenman: 222-240 • Michael Fried, Courbet’s Realism (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990), 85-110, 310-315.

Thursday 1/18 Edouard Manet and the Parisian Context Eisenman: 282-298 • T.J. Clark, “The View from Notre Dame,” The Painting of Modern Life (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984, 23-78, 272-281.

2 Thursday 1/25 The Impressionist Group/Claude Monet and The Impressionist Landscape • Robert Herbert, “Paris Transformed,” in Impressionism: Art, Leisure, and Parisian Society (Hew Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1988): 1-32.

Thursday 2/8 Edgar Degas and the Modern Spectacle/The Nude • Carol Armstrong, “Edgar Degas and the Representation of the Female Body,” in The Female Body in Western Culture: Contemporary Perspectives (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1986), 223-241. • Linda Nochlin, “Impressionist Portraits and the Construction of Modern Identity,” in Renoir’s Portraits: Impressions of an Age (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1997), 53-75.

First Paper Due in Class

Thursday 2/15 No Class/College Art Association Meeting

Thursday 2/22 Woman as Artist and Subject: Mary Cassatt and Berthe Morisot • Griselda Pollock, “Modernity and the Spaces of Femininity,” in Vision and Difference: Femininity, Feminism and Histories of Art (London and New York: Routledge, 1988), 50-90, 205- 209. • Linda Nochlin, “Mary Cassatt’s Modernity,” in Representing Women (London: Thames and Hudson, 1999), 180-215.

Thursday 3/1 MIDTERM EXAM

Thursday 3/8 NO CLASS – Spring Break

Thursday 3/15 Photography and Modernity Eisenman: 241-268

Thursday 3/22 Georges Seurat Eisenman: 318-331 • T.J. Clark, “Conclusion,” in The Painting of Modern Life (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984), 259-268, 315- 316. • Linda Nochlin, “Body Politics: Seurat’s Poseuses,” in Representing Women (London: Thames and Hudson, 1999), 217-237,259-261.

3 Thursday 3/29 Vincent Van Gogh and Paul Gauguin Eisenman: 340-355 and 356-388 (read for discussion of Gauguin) • Griselda Pollock, “On Not Seeing Provence: Van Gogh and the Landscape of Consolation, 1888-1889,” in Framing France: The Representation of Landscape in France, 1870- 1914 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1998), 81- 118. • Abigail Solomon-Godeau, “Going Native: Paul Gauguin and the Invention of Primitivist Modernism” in The Expanding Discourse: Feminism and Art History (New York: Icon Editions, 1992), 313-329.

Second Paper Due in Class

Thursday 4/5 Symbolism, the Nabis Eisenman: 356-388 (read for discussion of Munch, Redon and Rodin) • Patricia Berman, “Edvard Munch’s Self-Portrait with Cigarette: Smoking and the Bohemian Persona,” The Art Bulletin 75, no. 4 (December 1993): 627-646.

Thursday 4/12 Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Modern Bohemia Eisenman: 332-339 • Richard Thomson, “Rethinking Toulouse-Lautrec,” in Toulouse-Lautrec (London and Paris, 1992) 13-27.

Thursday 4/19 Paul Cézanne Eisenmann: 389-402 • Richard Schiff, “Cézanne’s Blur, Approximating Cezanne,” in Framing France: The Representation of Landscape in France, 1870-1914 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1998), 59-80.

Reading Days 4/23-25 Final Exam TBA

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