IMPRESSIONISM: ART IN FRANCE 1860-1910
ARTH 285
Tuesday and Thursday 12:00-1:30pm
Meyerson Hall B3
University of Pennsylvania
Autumn 2002

Lecturer: James Hargrove
E-mail: jbh@sas.upenn.edu
Office Tel. (215) 898-1878
Office Hours: Thursday 3:00-4:30pm
Jaffe History of Art Bldg., Room 208

Teaching Assistants:

• Liliana Milkova
  E-mail: lmilkova@sas.upenn.edu
  Office Hours: Fridays 12:00-2:00pm

• Julia Walker
  E-mail: julia3@sas.upenn.edu
  Office Hours: Tuesdays 9:30-11:30am

France in the second half of the nineteenth century was the center of the European art world. While many other European countries of the time possessed artists of great stature and achievement, it was generally the case that artists working in France (not all of whom were French) produced the most radical and influential developments in painting and sculpture. France was not necessarily the most modern nation of the period, but it was the one in which the transformations of the modern age were given the most acute consideration and articulation in the visual arts. Further, Paris, the capital of France, was regarded as culturally and physically, the most modern city in the world. Artists across Europe and elsewhere looked to Paris for the newest artistic directions. Consequently, French art established the parameters within which the history of modern art would develop.

This course will examine some of the core artists and artistic movements and ideas of the period. It will focus on both subject choice and artistic technique within a larger framework of social and cultural history. The lectures and readings will also explore the myths that have arisen around some of the artists: the "misogyny" of Degas, the "obsessiveness" of Cézanne, the "madness" of Van Gogh, and the "primitivism" of Gauguin.

Required Texts: There is only one book for purchase and it is available at the Penn Book Center (corner of Sansom and 34^th Streets).

• Auguste Rodin, Rodin on Art and Artists, Romilly Fedden, trans., New York: Dover Publications, 1983.

Course Bulkpack: Available only at Wharton Reprographics - basement of Steinberg-Dietrich Hall (on Locust Walk). Most readings are in the Bulkpack with a couple others in books on reserve at the Fisher Fine Arts Library (Furness Building).

1. Paper One (5 pages): A comparative visual analysis of two assigned paintings at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The purpose of this exercise is to develop your skills in looking at and describing works of art. Assigned Thursday, September 19; Due Tuesday, October 1.

2. Paper Two (8-10 pages): A study of your choice requiring you to use your visual analysis skills along with some research. Subjects must be approved by the Teaching Assistant in advance. Assigned in Recitation, week of October 22; Subject Proposal due to T.A. Thursday October 31; Paper due in Recitation, week of December 3.

3. Mid-Term Exam (1&1/4 hours): Thursday, October 24, 2002.

4. Final Exam (2 hours): date to be announced.

Exam questions will be drawn from the lectures and the readings. They will consist of Slide Comparisons (two images shown together for you to compare and contrast on the basis of what you have learned from the lectures and the readings), Short Answer Questions and an Essay.

All lectures and recitations must be attended. Some recitation meetings will take place at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Rodin Museum. Images from the lectures will be posted at the class website 4-5 days after the lecture.

Sept. 05 INTRODUCTION: Some precedents and themes in French art prior to the mid-19^th century.

• Stephen Eisenman, Nineteenth Century Art: A Critical History, Chapter 9: "The Rhetoric of Realism: Courbet and the Origins of the Avant-Garde," pp. 206-224. At Fine Arts Reserve: N6450.E374 1994
• Michael Fried, "Representing Representation: On the Central Group in Courbet’s Studio."

Sept. 10 GUSTAVE COURBET: REALISM, PAINTING AND THE VIEWER

• Marcia Pointon, "Guess Who’s Coming to Lunch? Allegory and the Body in Manet’s Le Déjeuner sur l’Herbe."
• Timothy J. Clark, "The Bar at the Folies-Bergères."

Sept. 12 EDOUARD MANET AND MODERN PAINTING

• Rupert Christiansen, Tales of the New Babylon, Ch. 3: "Monuments of Hypocrisy," Ch. 4: "The Spermal Economy," Ch. 5: "Social Engineering."

Sept. 17 THE PARISIAN CONTEXT

• Eunice Lipton, Looking into Degas, Chapter 3.
• June Hargrove, "Degas’s Little Dancer in the World of Pantomime."

Sept. 19 EDGAR DEGAS AND THE MODERN SPECTACLE

Sept. 24 RECITATION WEEK

Readings for the Next Class:

• Carol Armstrong, "Edgar Degas and the Representation of the Female Body."
• Marcia Pointon, "Biography and the Body in Late Renoir."
• Tamar Garb, "Renoir and the Natural Woman."

Sept. 26 DEGAS, RENOIR AND THE NUDE

• Robert Herbert, "Method and Meaning in Monet."

Oct. 01 CLAUDE MONET AND THE IMPRESSIONIST LANDSCAPE

Readings for the Next Class:

• Robert Herbert, Impressionism, Chapter One: "Paris Transformed," pp. 1-32. At Fine Arts Reserve: ND550.H47 1988.
• Kirk Varnedoe, "Gustave Caillebotte in Context."

Oct. 03 IMPRESSIONISM AND THE CITY STREET

Oct. 08 RECITATION WEEK

• Robert Herbert, Impressionism, Chapter Six: "Suburban Leisure," pp. 195-254 (Don’t bother with "Artist’s Gardens"). At Fine Arts Reserve: ND 550.H47 1988.

• Meyer Schapiro, "Seurat."
• John House, "Meaning in Seurat’s Figure Paintings."
• Linda Nochlin, "Body Politics: Seurat’s Poseuses."

Oct. 15 GEORGES SEURAT

• Linda Nochlin, "Morisot’s Wet Nurse."
• Griselda Pollock, "Modernity and the spaces of Femininity."

Oct. 17 THE IMAGE OF MODERNITY EXPANDED: PAINTING WOMEN

Oct. 22 RECITATION WEEK

Oct. 24 MID-TERM EXAM

• John House, "Camille Pissarro’s Idea of Unity."
• Ralph Shikes: Pissarro’s Political Philosophy and His Art."
• Richard Shiff, "Corot, Monet, Cezanne and the Technique of Originality."
• Richard Shiff, "Making a Find."

Oct. 29 RETURN TO THE LAND: CAMILLE PISSARRO AND PAUL CÉZANNE

Readings for the Next Class:

• Meyer Schapiro, "The Apples of Cézanne: An Essay on the Meaning of Still-life."
• Tamar Garb, "Cézanne’s Late Bathers: Modernism and Sexual Difference."

Oct. 31 CÉZANNE: BODIES AND THINGS

Nov. 05 RECITATION WEEK

• Ron Johnson, "Vincent Van Gogh and the Vernacular: The Poet’s Garden."
• Ron Johnson, "Vincent Van Gogh and the Vernacular: His Southern Accent."
• Lauren Soth, "Van Gogh’s Agony."

Nov. 07 VINCENT VAN GOGH

• Charles Stuckey, "Gauguin Inside Out"
• Abigail Solomon Godeau, "Going Native: Paul Gauguin and the Invention of Primmitivist Modernism."
• Peter Brooks, "Gauguin’s Tahitian Body."

Nov. 12 PAUL GAUGUIN

Readings for the Next Class:

• Richard Thomson, "Rethinking Toulouse-Lautrec."

Nov. 14 HENRI DE TOULOUSE-LAUTREC AND THE IMAGE OF BOHEMIA

Nov. 19 RECITATION WEEK

Readings for the Next Class:

• Susan Sidlauskas, "Contesting Femininity: Vuillard’s Family Pictures."
• Patricia Berman, "Edvard Munch’s Self-Portrait with Cigarette: Smoking and the Bohemian Persona."

• Auguste Rodin, Rodin on Art and Artists (all).

Dec. 03 RECITATION WEEK

• Steven Levine, "Monet, Madness and Melancholy."
• Robert Herbert, "The Decorative and the Natural in Monet’s Cathedrals."

Dec. 20 FINAL EXAM - 8:30-10:30am

Undergraduate Writing Advisors: Main office at Writers House (Locust Walk at 38^th Street), also at Hill House and McClelland Hall in the Quad. Walk-in hours 7:00-10:00pm Sunday through Thursday. E-mail: writeme@english.upenn.edu.

ARTH 285 RECITATION SCHEDULE

Section 201, Tuesdays 12:00-1:30pm, (Walker)

Section 202, Tuesdays 9:00-10:30am, (Milkova)

Section 203, Tuesdays 12:00-1:30pm, (Milkova)

Section 204, Wednesdays 3:00-4:30pm (Milkova)

Section 205, Wednesdays 3:00-4:30pm (Walker)

Section 206, Thursdays 1:30-3:00pm (Walker)