19th-Century European Art & Architecture

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

This introductory course focuses on crucial developments in European art and architecture of the “long” nineteenth century. Drawing on a diverse range of case studies—including painting, sculpture, architecture, print and the decorative arts—it will explore intersections between art and political upheaval, industrialisation and colonialism, changing attitudes toward religion and the natural world, the changing role of the artist in society and the emergence of art institutions (academies, museums, universities). We will also engage in conversations about the ways in which art has constituted and challenged ideas surrounding gender, sexuality, race, class and the environment. Students will examine major movements of the period through the work of renowned artists—such as Vigée Le Brun, Caspar David Friedrich, William Blake, J.M.W. Turner, Gustave Courbet, Claude Monet, Paul Gauguin, and Camille Claudel—as well as artists traditionally excluded from the canon. Although focused on European centres of artistic production, a particular emphasis will be placed on transcultural interactions between Europe and the wider world. Finally, the course will introduce students to the discipline of art history and its knowledge-making techniques including formal analysis, comparative analysis and critical contextualisation. This course includes visits to the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art and will be exam based.