Art & the History of Art 452 - Earthly Paradise

Shortly after the Franco-Prussian War - when there were more bloody corpses in the streets of Paris than at the height of the French Revolution - Monet and some others invented Impressionism.  Rather than grab horror by the throat, as Goya and Picasso did in Spain, they created an earthly paradise.  To this end, some ecstatically immersed themselves in nature; others tapped the gas-lit pleasures of the demi-monde. 

We will revel in the different visions of Monet, Degas, Renoir, as well as of Van Gogh, Gauguin, Cézanne, Toulouse-Lautrec, Matisse – the Symbolist and Fauvist artists who followed.  We will feast on the artists’ images, originals whenever possible (including Monet’s Matinée sur la Seine at the Mead). We will study their words - Van Gogh’s letters, Gauguin’s Noa Noa, Matisse’s “Notes of a Painter” - and analyze the ways in which they transformed their experiences into art.

There will be at least one required field trip, on a Friday.  This is a research seminar: each student will choose an artist, whose paradise she will study in depth, and share as a class presentation and substantial paper.

We will consider the centrality of beauty and joy in the creation of art and life.

Limited to 15 students. Spring semester. Professor Staller.