Impressionism and Post-Impressionism

ARTHI 4873 Impressionism and Post-Impressionism at the Art Institute of Chicago Professor David Getsy Department of Art History, Theory, & Criticism School of the Art Institute of Chicago Summer 2006 3w4 office: MC 710 Mon - Fri, 1-4pm e-mail: dgetsy@artic.edu classroom: MC 619 office hours by appointment Course description Using the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago, this course introduces the major themes of Impressionist and 'Post-Impressionist' painting in France. The majority of class meetings are held in the museum galleries. Also using the Art Institute as a case study, we critically examine the reputation of Impressionism and its rise to become the most popular topic for blockbuster exhibitions. Course structure Sessions in this three-week intensive course will be split between lectures and group discussions. Students will be expected to undertake independent study and analysis outside of class hours, including course readings and project research. The majority of classes will meet for at least an hour in the galleries of the Art Institute. Students are required to actively participate in these discussions and will be evaluated on their contributions to group conversations. There is one required book for the course: Stephen EISENMAN, Nineteenth-Century Art, second edition (London and New York: Thames & Hudson, 2002). All other readings will be made available through the Docutek system. Students should refer to the syllabus, rather than to the Docutek listing, for specifics (page numbers, order of reading, selections, etc.) Evaluation 1. Attendance and participation All students are expected to attend class meetings prepared to discuss the required readings. This is a discussion-based class, and all students should regularly and productively contribute to class discussions. Attendance at all class meetings is essential. More than two missed classes may be grounds for a no credit. 2. Examinations There will be two slide-based examinations held in class. These examinations will be based primarily on class lectures, readings, and discussions. Class lectures do not follow the organization of the textbook, and successful exams will demonstrate comprehension of topics from both lectures and outside readings. Unless otherwise noted, laptops are not allowed at any point on days with examinations.

2 3. Field project In the first week of class, students will be assigned one of seven relevant galleries at the Art Institute. On the last day of class, students will turn in a written evaluation of their assigned gallery. This should contain: 1. An overview of the gallery s organizing theme. 2. A discussion of the way in which the gallery is hung. What is the narrative that this gallery is telling its viewers? 3. An analysis of what is included and excluded in the gallery. 4. A discussion of how viewers utilize the gallery, based on discussions with museum visitors. The written project will be 1500 words with standard citations for any references. One class session will be made available for observation of the galleries and interviews with museum visitors. Students will be expected to demonstrate basic knowledge about the paintings in their gallery, for which general research is required. Guidebooks to the Impressionist collections have been put on reserve at the Flaxman Library to aid in preliminary research. 4. Graduate Students Graduate students from the following programs must submit an expanded version of the field project: a. Art History, Theory, and Criticism (MAAH) b. Arts Administration and Policy (MAAAP) c. Visual and Critical Studies (MAVCS) d. Art Education (MAAE) e. Art Therapy (MAAT) These students should prepare a paper of 2500 words that expands upon the requirements for the field project above. Most importantly, these papers should present a coherent argument (rather than overview) about the gallery and its relation to the context of the museum and to the narratives of art history. While this is a position paper rather than a standard research paper, students should still demonstrate their research into relevant topics. Papers are due on the last day of class. Differently-abled students Any students with exceptional needs or concerns (including 'invisible' difficulties such as chronic diseases, learning disabilities, or psychiatric complications) are encouraged to make an appointment with the professor to discuss these issues by the end of the first week of the term so that appropriate accommodations can be arranged. Any student in need of academic adjustments or accommodations should first contact Services for Students with Disabilities (SSD). SSD can be reached by phone at 312.345.9478 or by sending an email to Sara Baum, Coordinator of Services for Students with Disabilities (sbaum@artic.edu). Laptop usage Students are allowed to use their laptops in class for note-taking only. Wireless connections should not be made during class time, and any student discovered to be using laptops for any other purpose than note-taking will not be allowed to use their laptop for the rest of the term.

3 Plagiarism The School of the Art Institute of Chicago prohibits dishonesty such as cheating, plagiarism, or knowingly furnishing false information to the School. See Students Rights and Responsibilities, Student Handbook: www.artic.edu/saic/life/studenthandbook/rights.pdf. One plagiarizes when one presents another s work as one s own. It is a form of intellectual theft. Plagiarism need not always be intentional. One can plagiarize even if one does not intend to. The penalty for plagiarizing ranges from a failing grade on the plagiarized assignment to not earning credit for the course. This may also result in some loss of some types of financial aid (for example, a No Credit in a course can lead to a loss of the Presidential Scholarship), and in cases of regular offenses can lead to expulsion from the School. The Faculty Senate Student Life Subcommittee has prepared a 28- page handbook entitled Plagiarism: How to Recognize It and Avoid It. The document is available online on at http://www.artic.edu/saic/programs/resources/library/plagiarism_packet.pdf Course calendar All discussion reading assignments must be completed by the date under which they are listed. New readings may be added as necessary, with notice. Texts listed under Further reference are not required but may be of use for related project research. Monday, 31 July Introduction: Art in 19th-Century France: The Salon and Its Alternatives (Courbet, Millet, Daumier) 1. Discussion [no reading] 2. Museum session: Courbet, Millet, Daumier sculpture 3. Further reference EISENMAN, pp. 204-40. Tuesday, 1 August In advance of Impressionism: Manet, Baudelaire, and Modern Life 1. Discussion reading EISENMAN, pp. 282-88 Various authors on the Manet s Olympia and Dead Christ and Edouard Manet, Reasons for Holding a Private Exhibition. In Art in Theory, 1815-1900, edited by Charles Harrison, Paul Wood, and Jason Gaiger, 514-20. London: Blackwell, 1998. Baudelaire, Charles. Excerpts from The Painter of Modern Life. In Art in Theory, 1815-1900, edited by Charles Harrison, Paul Wood, and Jason Gaiger, 493-98. London: Blackwell, 1998. 2. Museum session: Manet Wednesday, 2 August Formulations of the Impressionist movement 1. Discussion reading EISENMAN, pp. 288-98 Mallarmé, Stéphane. The Impressionists and Edouard Manet [1876]. In The New Painting: Impressionism 1874-1886, edited by Charles S. Moffett, et al., 27-35. San Francisco: Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, 1986 Laforgue, Jules. Impressionism [1883]. In Impressionism and Post- Impressionism 1874-1904: Sources and Documents, edited by Linda

4 2. Museum session: Impressionist galleries Nochlin, 14-20. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1966. Thursday, 3 August Modern Spaces 1. Required reading Fournel, Victor. The Art of Flânerie. In Art in Theory, 1815-1900, edited by Charles Harrison, Paul Wood, and Jason Gaiger, 491-92. London: Blackwell, 1998. Harrison, Charles. Monet at La Grenouillère. In Modernity and Modernism: French Painting in the Nineteenth Century, by Francis Frascina, et al. 167-80. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1993. Clayson, Hollis. "The Sexual Politics of Impressionist Illegibility." In Dealing with Degas: Representations of Women and the Politics of Vision, edited by Richard Kendall and Griselda Pollock, 66-79. New York: Universe, 1991. Varnedo, J. Kirk T. with Peter Galassi. Caillebotte s Space. In Gustave Caillebotte: A Retrospective Exhibition, 20-26. 2. Museum session: Monet, Caillebotte 3. Further reference Collins, Bradford, ed. 12 Views of Manet s Bar. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996. Friday, 4 August Women Impressionists 1. Required reading Nochlin in EISENMAN, pp. 299-316 (re: Cassatt) Garb, Tamar. "Berthe Morisot and the Feminizing of Impressionism." In Perspectives on Morisot, edited by T. J. Edelstein, 57-66. New York: Hudson Hills Press, 1990. 2. Museum session: Morisot, Cassatt 3. Further reference Pollock, Griselda. "Modernity and the Spaces of Femininity." In Vision and Difference, 70-127. London and New York: Routledge, 1988. Monday, 7 August Field Project Research / Study Day No regular class session. Day reserved for independent research and gallery interviews. Tuesday, 8 August Examination I Wednesday, 9 August From Politics to Packaging 1. Required reading Smith, Paul. Pissarro s Political Vision. In Impressionism: Beneath the Surface, 113-43. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1995. 2. Museum session: The Gift Shop

5 3. Further reference Clark, T. J. "We Field-Women." In Farewell to an Idea: Episodes from a History of Modernism, 55-138. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1999. Thursday, 10 August Obsessive Impressionism: Monet and Degas 1. Required reading Smith, Paul. Monet and the Moment of Art. In Impressionism: Beneath the Surface, 13-111. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1995. Callen, Anthea. The Invisible Man: Voyeurism and the Narratives of Sexual Conquest. In The Spectacular Body: Science, Method, and Meaning in the Work of Degas, 71-110. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1995. 2. Museum session: Monet s Haystacks 3. Further reference Levine, Steven Z. "Monet's Series: Repetition, Obsession." October 37 (1986): 65-75. [available on JSTOR] Clayson, Hollis. "In the Brothel." In Painted Love: Prostitution in French Art of the Impressionist Era, 27-55. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1991. Friday, 11 August Rodin and the Question of Impressionist Sculpture 1. Required reading Geffroy, Gustave. The Sculptor Rodin [1889]. In Rodin in Perspective, edited by Ruth Butler, 62-73. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1980. [version of catalogue essay for 1889 Monet/Rodin exhibition at Georges Petit] Jeantet, Félix. Review of the Monet/Rodin Exhibition at Georges Petit and Rodin s Work at the Exposition Universelle [1889]. In Rodin in Perspective, edited by Ruth Butler, 74-76. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1980. 2. Museum session: Rodin, Degas, Rosso, Matisse 3. Further reference Hargrove, June. Degas s Little 14-year-old Dancer: Madonna of the Third Republic? Sculpture Journal 2 (1998): 97-105. Callen, Anthea. Degas s Little Dancer of Fourteen Years. In The Spectacular Body: Science, Method, and Meaning in the Work of Degas, 21-29. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1995. Rosso, Medardo. About Impressionism in Sculpture [1902] In Impressionism and Post-Impressionism 1874-1904: Sources and Documents, edited by Linda Nochlin, 76-79. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1966. Monday, 13 August Cézanne 1. Required reading EISENMAN, pp. 389-402. Denis, Maurice. Cézanne [1907/1910]. In Art in Theory, 1900-1990, edited by Charles Harrison and Paul Wood, 40-47. Shiff, Richard. Corot, Monet, Cézanne, and the Technique of Originality [excerpt]. In Cézanne and the End of Impressionism, 111-23. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1984.

6 2. Museum session: Cézanne Tuesday, 14 August From Neo- to Post-: Seurat, Toulouse-Lautrec 1. Required reading EISENMAN, pp. 318-39 Fénéon, Félix. The Impressionists in 1886 [1886] and Neo-Impressionism [1887]. In Art in Theory, 1815-1900, edited by Charles Harrison, Paul Wood, and Jason Gaiger, 963-69. London: Blackwell, 1998. Nochlin, Linda. Seurat s Grande Jatte: An Anti-Utopian Allegory. In The Politics of Vision: Essays on Nineteenth-Century Art and Society, 170-93. New York: Harper & Row, 1989. 2. Museum session: Seurat, Toulouse-Lautrec Wednesday, 15 August Gauguin and Van Gogh 1. Required reading EISENMAN, pp. 340-64, 379-88 Gauguin, Paul. Letter to Emile Bernard [1889] and Notes on Painting [c.1890]. In Impressionism and Post-Impressionism 1874-1904: Sources and Documents, edited by Linda Nochlin, 160-65. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1966. Aurier, G.-Albert. "The Isolated: Vincent Van Gogh [1890]." In Art in Theory: 1815-1900, edited by Charles Harrison, Paul Wood and Jason Gaiger, 948-52. London: Blackwell, 1998. Aurier, G.-Albert. Symbolism in Painting: Paul Gauguin [1891, excerpt]. ]." In Art in Theory: 1815-1900, edited by Charles Harrison, Paul Wood and Jason Gaiger, 1025-29. London: Blackwell, 1998. 2. Museum session: Gauguin and Van Gogh 3. Further reference Brettell, Richard. Coda: Was Van Gogh an Impressionist? In Impressionism: Painting Quickly in France, 1860-1890, 223-32. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2000. Thursday, 16 August Impressionism as Entertainment: the Blockbuster Exhibition 1. Required reading Solomon-Godeau, Abigail. "Going Native: Paul Gauguin and the Invention of Primitivist Modernism [1989]." In Modern Art and Society: An Anthology of Social and Multicultural Readings, edited by Maurice Berger, 73-94. New York: Icon Editions, 1994. Spear, Richard. "Art History and the 'Blockbuster' Exhibition." Art Bulletin 68, no. 3 (1986): 358-59. 2. Examination review Friday, 17 August Final Examination