Art History 397A - Impressionism and Post-Impress

Impressionist painting has been traditionally defined as a literal transcription of the artist's visual perceptions. Recent scholarship has demonstrated that this is not an accurate description. This class offers a close study of a number of major artists in the Impressionist movement - Manet, Degas, Monet, Pissarro, Morisot, Cezanne, Cassatt, Renoir, and others - in order to understand their consistent referrals to earlier traditions of art (such as 17th-century Dutch landscape, or 18th-century French aesthetics of the sketch) as well as their laborious technical procedures that created impressions of "spontaneity" and "instantaneity." We will study a variety of media, including painting, prints, drawing, and sculpture, and have a field trip to a Five College Museum to study Impressionist prints.