Brief description

Module Title Nineteenth Century Art 1840-1900

Academic Year 2002

Course Co-ordinator   Moira Vincentelli

Other Staff Kathy Talbot

Semester 1

Assessment 3-hour examination   75%
an essay (2500 words)   25%

Lectures 10
Workshops 10 (one-and-a -half hours)

Brief description
The course will introduce students to some of the main issues and debates around the visual arts in Britain, Europe and America 1840-1900. It will deal primarily with French and British art but will also include material relating to Germany, Italy, Scandinavia, Belgium and America and will examine the social context of the production of art including academies, exhibitions, training and artists groups. Students will be encouraged to look critically at the categorisations used in relation to nineteenth century art such as Realism, Impressionism, Post-Impressionism and Symbolism and at the concept of modernity and the rise of notions of the avant-garde. Key theoretical texts will be introduced for class discussion. Students will have set reading for the seminars and a key image to be prepared for each lecture.   

Learning Outcomes

The course will enable the student

1. to identify the principle art tendencies in European painting 1840-1900 and will be able to discuss key images in relation to these.

2. to be able to read critically some of the theoretical and art historical literature on nineteenth century European painting and be able to recognise the problems of categorisations of artists and movements.

3. to develop expertise in note-taking, library research, essay writing, and the presentation of ideas in class discussion.

Short Bibliography

Eisenman, Stephen Nineteenth Century Art - A Critical History London: T&H 1994
Frascina, Blake,Fer,Garb, Harrison Modernity and Modernism - French Painting in the Nineteenth Century Yale: Open University, 1993
Smith, Paul Impressionism, Beneath the Surface London: Everyman , 1993
Denvir,B. Post-Impressionism London: Thames and Hudson Dolphin, 1992
Treuherz, J. Victorian Painting London Thames and Hudson Dolphin, 1993
M. Pointon, Marcia Naked Authority - the Nude in Western Painting Cambridge, 1990
Frascina,F. and Harris,J. Art in Modern Culture, an Anthology of Critical Texts Open University, Phaidon, 1992   
Pollock, Griselda Vision and Difference, Femininity, Feminism and the Histories of Art ,New York, Routledge, 1988
Said, Edward Orientalism. London, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1978.
MacKenzie, John Orientalism, History, Theory and the Arts Manchester, MUP, 1995
Caillebotte, the Unknown Impressionist, Royal Academy catalogue, 1996
Varnedoe, K., Caillebotte, New Haven 1987
Weisberg, Gabriel Realism
Sarah Simmons Daumier, Oresko, London, 1979
Laughton, Bruce The Drawings of Millet and Daumier, New Havevn Yale, 1991
Greenhalgh, Paul Art Nouveau 1890-1914, Victoria & Albert Museum, 2001
Jacobs, Michael, The Good and Simple Life: Artist Colonies in Europe and America. Oxford: Phaidon, 1985
Garb, Tamar Bodies of Modernity, Figure and Flesh in fin de siecle France, London, Thames and Hudson, 1998 (essay on Caillebotte)
Lubern, Nina Rural Artists' colonies in Europe 1870-1910, Manchester, MUP, 2001

Notes

This module is at CQFW Level 5