Undergraduate Course: Avant-Gardes and Individuals: Art in France, 1886-1900 (HIAR10120)
Course Outline
| School | Edinburgh College of Art |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 4 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | The course will have three consistent themes around which its structure will be organised. The first of these will be exhibitions. These were varied, from the huge international Expositions Universelles of 1889 and 1900, through group exhibitions such as the Impressionist and Volpini shows, to one-man exhibitions of the kind latterly favoured by Monet and Cézanne. The second theme will be the inclination of certain artists (Monet, Cézanne, Van Gogh) to assert their individuality typically by working alone and in the countryside, sending their work to Paris for critical appraisal and sale. The third will be the instinct to form groups, the better to assert stylistic importance in the competitive environment of the capital. The course will also engage with artists' involvement with other disciplines and concepts, including contemporary science, naturalist literature, the Symbolist theatre, music and anarchist politics. Shared teaching will give students two expert voices in this important field of study. |
| Course description |
Avant-Gardes and Individuals: Art in France, 1886-1900 (seminar list):
1): Introduction
2): The 1886 Impressionist exhibition: Degas; Seurat.
3): Alone and apart (1): Monet (Belle-Ile 1886, Creuse 1889); Gauguin (Brittany, 1886, 1888).
4): Paris and competing avant-gardes (1): Neo-Impressionism; Cloisonism; Van Gogh.
5): 1889: the Exposition Universelle; the Volpini exhibition.
6): Reading Week
7): Alone and apart (2): Van Gogh (Arles, 1888, Saint-Rémy 1889); Cézanne in Provence.
8): Paris and competing avant-gardes (2): the Nabis; Neo-Impressionism and anarchism.
9): 1890s exhibitions: Monet (Meules 1891, Cathedrals 1895); Gauguin (paintings from first voyage to Tahiti, 1893); Cézanne, 1895.
10): Cross-disciplinary exchanges: Redon; the Nabis, music and the theatre.
11): Workshop and course appraisal.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- 1. Have a clear picture of the evolution, rivalries and disintegration of avant-garde art movements in late nineteenth century France, and be able to account for these complex and sometimes contradictory patterns.
- 2. Have an understanding of the leading aesthetic debates of the period and the interdisciplinary environment which acted as such a stimulus on the visual arts.
- 3. Be able skillfully to interpret contemporary style and iconography, as well as interweave visual and textual sources as a means of explaining how art was shaped and understood in early Third Republic France.
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Reading List
The New Painting: Impressionism, 1874-1886. Washington, National Gallery, 1986.
Van Gogh and the Painters of the Petit Boulevard. St. Louis Art Museum, 2001. Cat. by C.Homburg, R.Thomson, E.Childs, J.House.
Artists and the Avant-Garde Theatre in Paris, 1887-1900. Washington, Nat. Gall., 1998.
N.Athanassoglou-Kallmyer ¿ Cézanne and Provence. The Painter in his Culture.
Chicago, 2003.
P. Boyer - The Nabis and the Parisian Avant-Garde. New Brunswick/London, 1988.
G.Cogeval/R.Thomson et al. - Monet, 1840-1926. Paris, Grand Palais, 2010.
P. Conisbee ¿ Cézanne in Provence. Washington, National Gallery of Art, 2006.
D.Druick/P.Zegers ¿ Van Gogh and Gauguin. The Studio of the South. Chicago,
Art Institute, 2001.
A.Dumas et al.¿ The Real van Gogh. The Artist and his Letters. London, Royal
Academy, January-April 2010.
J.Hutton - Neo-Impressionism and the Search for Solid Ground. Art, Science and
Anarchism in Fin-de-Siècle France. Louisiana State Univ. Press, 1994.
H.Lemonides et al. ¿ Paul Gauguin. The Breakthrough into Modernity. Cleveland
Museum of Art, October 2009-January 2010.
R.Roslak ¿ Neo-Impressionism and Anarchism in Fin-de-siècle France. London, 2007.
G.Shackelford/X.Rey - Degas and the Nude, Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, 2011.
B.Thomson - Gauguin¿s Vision. Edinburgh, National Gallery of Scotland, 2005.
¿ - Gauguin: Maker of Myth. London, Tate Modern, September 2010- January
2011.
R.Thomson - Seurat. Oxford, 1985.
" " - Degas: The Nudes. London, 1988.
" " - Consensus on Canvas. Naturalism and the Third Republic, 1880-1900.
New Haven, 2012.
P.Tucker - Monet in the '90s. The Series Paintings. Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, 1989.
M.Ward - Pissarro, Neo-Impressionsim and the Spaces of the Avant-Garde. Chicago
Univ. Press, 1995.
M.Werth ¿ The Joy of Life. The Idyllic in French Art, circa 1900. California, 2002.
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Prof Richard Thomson
Tel: (0131 6)50 4125
Email: |
Course secretary | Mrs Sue Cavanagh
Tel: (0131 6)51 1460
Email: |
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