Module Information

The nineteenth century was a period of profound upheaval for Europe: all that was solid melted into air. Powered by the First and Second Industrial Revolutions, economies, and therefore societies, were rapidly transformed. Out of this tumult came a new social and cultural ethos: modernity. Artists of all kinds reflected on and participated in the myriad revolutions that generated modern life: indeed, many artists understood art as a powerful tool for engendering yet new revolutions, whether political or aesthetic.
This module examines how artists in the nineteenth century responded to the transformations taking place around them, and in so doing transformed art itself. It aims to, first, acquaint you with the key artists, movements, and contexts for understanding this period in the history of art; and second, help you continue to develop key art historical skills: including describing, analysing, and comparing works of visual art; conducting independent research; constructing and communicating interpretations and arguments about artworks; and contextualizing these interpretations and arguments in a historical framework.

1. The Enlightenment in Crisis
1a. Seminar 1: Eugène Delacroix’s Journals
2. Romanticism in Britain & Germany
3. The Birth of Photography
3a. Seminar 2: William Henry Fox Talbot, The Pencil of Nature, 1844
4. Colonialism and Orientalism
5. Realism
5a. Seminar 3: Gustave Courbet, ‘Letter to Students’ (1861)
6. Pre-Raphaelitism
7. Impressionism
7a. Seminar 4: Charles Baudelaire, ‘The Painter of Modern Life’ (1863)
8. Assessment Preparation Week
9. Neo-Impressionism
10. Symbolism
10a. Seminar 5: Albert Aurier, ‘Symbolism in Painting: Paul Gauguin’ (1891)
11. Paul Cézanne