Impressionism, Decadence, Rhythm: Artists in France and Britain 1870-1914 (U04407)

? Credit Points : 20 ? SCQF Level : 10 ? Acronym : ACE-4-U04407

This course looks at one of the richest periods in the history of French and British art. It examines artistic and dealer networks that existed at the end of the nineteenth century and studies the cross-fertilisation of artistic and literary ideas across the English Channel c.1870-1914. In 1871 the art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel and the artists Claude Monet and Camille Pissarro took refuge in London. In the next decade a large number of British artists moved to Paris to study. This marked the beginning of a long period of assimilation of Impressionist art, resulting in a revolution in British painting. The 1880s saw the formation of the Glasgow School in Scotland and the New English Art Club in London, and the period culminated in the Post-Impressionist exhibitions of 1910 and 1912. As the course will demonstrate, Scotland and England developed very different responses to Impressionism, Symbolism and Post-Impressionism and critical definitions of these artistic styles or movements were extremely broad. Prominent figures of the period included James McNeill Whistler, Aubrey Beardsley and Roger Fry, all firm Francophiles who moved in avant-garde literary as well as artistic circles. The course therefore focuses not only on the major British artists of the period, but on nineteenth-century writings and aesthetic theory, as well as influential art journals such as The Yellow Book and Rhythm.

Entry Requirements

? Pre-requisites : A pass in either History of Art 2 or Architectural History 2a and 2b.

Subject Areas

Home subject area

History of Art, (School of Arts, Culture and Environment, Schedule A)

Delivery Information

? Normal year taken : 4th year

? Delivery Period : Semester 2 (Blocks 3-4)

? Contact Teaching Time : 2 hour(s) per week for 11 weeks

First Class Information

Date	Start	End	Room	Area	Additional Information
12/01/2009	14:00	15:50

All of the following classes

Type	Day	Start	End	Area
Tutorial	Monday	14:00	15:50	Central

? Additional Class Information : There will be two tutorials on Mondays. One, as above, at 1400-1550 and the other at 1610-1800. Students will be required to attend one of these.

Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes

Students will

• gain a broad understanding of British and French art of the period 1870-1914

• gain an in-depth understanding of the networks and relationships that existed between artists, dealers and critics in France and Britain in the period 1870-1914

• gain an understanding of the major illustrated art journals of the period and engage with nineteenth- and early twentieth-century art criticism

• engage critically with modern scholarship and with different historiographical and methodological approaches

• undertake close visual analysis of works central to the period in question