This module addresses what is perhaps the most famous epoch in the history of art, French Impressionism and Post-Impressionism. No other period has been so popular with the public, and exhibitions about these artists tend to attract the largest visitor numbers to museums internationally. You will learn about developments in French art between 1848 and 1900, with a focus on two things: the social context of Impressionism and Post-Impressionism; and how the period has been written about by art historians in the past and present. Artists and makers studied include: Courbet, Monet, Berthe Morisot and Mary Cassatt, Manet, Degas, Renoir, Cézanne, Gauguin, Van Gogh and Toulouse-Lautrec. Topics include: the representation of the city and the countryside; labour and prostitution; photography and the image; the painting of modern life; dealers and the market; women artists and ideas about female ‘spaces’; and the modernisation of Paris.
Assessment: 100% coursework