This module will consider images by leading artists and photographers of mid-nineteenth century France such as Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, Rosa Bonheur, Gustave Courbet, Jean-François Millet, Nadar, Édouard Manet and Jean-Léon Gérôme. It will also analyse key aesthetic and critical categories and genres, including Neo-Classicism, Realism, 1860s Naturalism and Orientalism, and the male and female nude, and link art to a broader visual culture, including the early years of photography. It will also consider the institutional structure of the French art world, focusing on the École des Beaux-Arts, the Salon, the issue of access and viable careers for women artists, and debates about Realism and the Academic Ideal in the context of these institutions. Finally, by analysing representation in relation to the key themes of the 1848 revolutions, Republicanism and imperialism, proletarianism and peasantry, plus class, gender and ethnicity, the module will locate artistic practice and debates about art within the social-political terrain of the period.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the module students should be able to:
• Demonstrate an in-depth knowledge of the key artistic practices addressed in the module.
• Demonstrate an understanding of the place of those practices in terms of the wider cultural and social context.
• Display a sound knowledge of the relevant critical debates over the question of how to interpret them.
• Apply knowledge of those debates to the analysis of individual artists and works of art.
• Identify primary and secondary sources relevant to the understanding and interpretation of art featured in the module and subject them to critical analysis.
Assessment
24003-01 : 4,000 Word Essay : Coursework (100%)
Assessment Methods & Exceptions
Assessment: One 4000-word essay (100%) Reassessment: Re-submission of 4,000-word essay (100%)