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New York University in France Fall 2011 The French Art World in the Nineteenth Century: From David to Impressionism Professor Shalini Le Gall This course investigates French art of the nineteenth-century, paying particular attention to the way in which historical factors informed artistic production during this period. Beginning with David, Neo-Classicism and the French Revolution, we will move to the Napoleonic period, Romanticism, the Revolutions of 1830 and 1848, and trace the connection from Realism to Impressionism. The second half of the course will examine the disparate movements spurred by Impressionism, collectively referred to as Post-Impressionism (including Neo-Impressionism, Synthetism, and Symbolism), and will culminate with the rise of Art Nouveau at the end of the century. Throughout, we will interrogate how social forces (including politics, gender, race, religion, etc.) influenced the manner in which “modern” art was produced and understood in nineteenth-century France. Conducted in English.

Instructor: Professor Shalini Le Gall (shalini.legall@gmail.com) Term: Fall 2011 Time: Tuesdays 10:45-12:00, Thursdays 11:00-12:30 (NOTE: some museum

visits scheduled outside of class time—see below) Office Hours: Tuesdays 9:45-10:45

Instruction

Instructional format will include slide lectures, seminar-like discussions, group work, and museum visits.

Attendance

Students are expected to be present and on time for weekly lectures and museum visits. Repeated tardiness and unexcused absences will result in a lowered grade.

Assessment

Class Participation 10% Short Paper 20% Midterm Examination 20% Final Research Paper 25% Final Examination 25%

Readings

The textbook for the course is: Stephen Eisenman, Nineteenth-Century Art: A Critical History (London: Thames & Hudson, 1994, 2002, 2007). The book is available on reserve in the NYU Library. Page numbers may vary according to different editions. Assigned readings can be found in the course textbook, coursepack, and website. Underlined readings below can be found in the coursepack and are to be closely read for discussion. Students are required to bring the coursepack to each class and museum meeting.

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1. September 20 / Neo-Classicism and Romanticism

• Eisenman: “Thomas Crow—Patriotism and Virtue: David to the Young Ingres”

• Edward Said, Orientalism, 1978 (1994), pp. 1-5 2. September 22 / Musee du Louvre: Eighteenth & Nineteenth-Century Painting [Metro: Palais-Royale/Musee du Louvre, (line 1) meet at 99 rue de Rivoli, under red canopy, across the street from the metro]

• Eisenman: “Thomas Crow—Classicism in Crisis: Gros to Delacroix” • Eugène Delacroix, “On Romanticism” (1822-4) in Art in Theory 1815-

1900, eds. Harrison, Wood & Gaiger (HWGAIT), pp. 26-30 3. September 27 / Realism & Impressionism

• Eisenman: “The Generation of 1830 and the Crisis in the Public Sphere” • T.J. Clark, “Olympia’s Choice,” from The Painting of Modern Life, 1985

(1999), pp. 79-87 4. WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 28 / MUSEE DU LOUVRE 18:30 [Metro: Palais-Royale/Musee du Louvre, (line 1) meet at 99 rue de Rivoli, under red canopy, across the street from the metro]

• HWGAIT: Ingres, “Opinions on the Salon & Patronage of Art” (1848-9), pp. 468-71; Charles Blanc, “On Colour” (1867), pp. 618-625

5. September 29 / Musee d’Orsay: Realism, Manet & Impressionism [Metro: Solferino (line 12), meet outside the museum entrance, facing the Seine river]

• Eisenman: “The Rhetoric of Realism: Courbet and the Origins of the Avant-Garde”

• HWGAIT: Jean-François Millet, “On Truth in Painting”, Letters, (1850-67), pp. 373-378; Gustave Courbet, “Statement”, (1855), p. 372; Champfleury, “The Burial at Ornans”, (1851-61), pp. 366-370

6. October 4 / Impressionism

• Eisenman: “Manet and the Impressionists” • Robert Herbert, “Paris Transformed,” chapter 1 from Impressionism, Yale

University, 1988, pp. 3-12

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7. October 6 / Musee d’Orsay (10:45): Impressionism

[Metro: Solferino (line 12), meet outside the museum entrance, facing the Seine river]

• HWGAiT: Louis Leroy, “The Exhibition of the Impressionists”, in Charivari, (1874), pp. 573-576

• Jules Antoine Castagnary, “The Exhibition on the Boulevard des Capucines”, (1874), pp. 572-573

8. October 11 / Impressionism—PAPER 1 DUE

• HWGAIT: Pierre Auguste Renoir, “Three Letters to Durand-Ruel”, (1881-1882), pp. 601-603

• Rubin, “Art and Technology, Impressionism and Photography”, Impressionism and the Modern Landscape, University of California Press, 2008, pp. 39-56.

9. October 13 / Petit Palais [Metro: Champs-Elysees Clemenceau (lines 1, 13), meet outside museum entrance]

• HWGAIT: Charles Baudelaire, “To the Bourgeoisie & On Heroism of Modern Life”, (1846), pp. 300-304

10. October 18 / Impressionism

• HWGAiT: Pissarro, “The Constitution of the Independent Artists”, (1874), pp. 569-571; E. Degas, “From Notebooks” (1867-83), pp. 565-568

• Review for Mid-term Exam 11. October 20 / MID-TERM EXAM 12. MONDAY OCTOBER 24 / MUSEE DU LUXEMBOURG 19:00

• Exposition “Cezanne and Paris” 13. October 25 / Impressionism

• Eisenman, “Linda Nochlin—Issues of Gender in Cassatt and Eakins” • Rubin, “Impressionism and Political Power,” from Impressionism, Phaidon

Press, 1999, pp. 265-292 14. October 27 / Post-Impressionism—RESEARCH PAPER THESIS DUE

• Eisenman: “Mass Culture and Utopia: Seurat and Neoimpressionism;” • HWGAIT: Félix Fénéon, “Neo-Impressionism,” (1887), pp. 966-969

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November 1 / No Class

15. November 3 / Musée Marmottan Monet

[Metro La Muette (line 9), meet in front of museum]

• Linda Nochlin, “Why have there been no great women artists,” extract from Women, Art and Power and Other Essays, Westview Press, 1988 by Linda Nochlin, pp.147-158 http://www.miracosta.edu/home/gfloren/nochlin.htm

16. November 8—Post-Impressionism

• Eisenman: “Abstraction and Populism: Van Gogh” • Stephen Eisenman, “Introduction,” Gauguin’s Skirt (1997), pp. 15-21.

17. November 10 / Musee d’Orsay

[Metro: Solferino (line 12), meet outside the museum entrance, facing the Seine river]

• HWGAIT: Vincent Van Gogh, “Letters to his Brother Theo”, (1855), pp. 896-902; Seurat, “Letter to Maurice Beaubourg”, (1890), pp. 969-970

18. November 15 / Symbolism

• Eisenman: “Symbolism and the Dialectics of Retreat” • Rewald, “Some Notes and Documents on Odilon Redon,” Studies in

Post-Impressionism, pp. 215-243 • (HWGAIT) Maurice Denis (1870-1943), “Definition of Neo-

traditionism”, Art et Critique, (1890), pp. 862-869.

19. November 17 / Musee Gustave Moreau

[Metro Trinite or Saint-Georges (line 12), meet in front of museum]

• Readings: (HWGAIT) Joris-Karl Huysmans, “On Gustave Moreau », (1884), pp. 999-1003

20. November 22 / Art Nouveau

• Eisenman: “The Appeal of Modern Art: Toulouse-Lautrec” • Richard R. Brettell, “Modernity, Representation and the Accessible Image,”

from Modern Art 1815-1929 (1999), pp. 65-80.

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21. November 24 / Musee Rodin [Métro : Varenne (line 13), meet in front of museum]

• Petra ten-Doesschate Chu, “Fin-de-Siecle Sculpture,” from Nineteenth-Century European Art, Harry N. Abrams, 2003, pp. 478-483.

22. November 29 / 20th Century Art

• Eisenman: “The Failure and Success of Cezanne” • Clive Bell, “The Aesthetic Hypothesis,” (1914), pp. 107-110 in Harrison &

Wood, Art in Theory 1900-2000

23. December 1 / Musée de l’Orangerie

[Metro: Concorde (lines 1, 8, 12), meet in front of museum]

• Frascina, Modernity and Modernism, Yale University Press, 1993, pp. 214-218

24. December 6 / 20th Century Art—RESEARCH PAPER DUE

• Clement Greenberg, “Avant-Garde and Kitsch,” Partisan Review (1939) http://www.sharecom.ca/greenberg/kitsch.html

25. December 8 / Centre Pompidou--Musee national d’art moderne

[Metro Rambuteau (line 11), Hotel de Ville (1), meet in front of museum]

• Henri Matisse, “Notes of a Painter” (1908), pp. 69-75, in HWAIT 1900-2000.

26. December 13 / No Class

• (Independent Visit to Matisse, Cézanne, Picasso... L’aventure des Stein; Grand Palais, Galeries nationales, 5 oct 2011 – 16 jan 2012)

27. December 15 / FINAL EXAM 10:45-12:15