Ninteenth-Century European Art: From Classicism to Symbolism

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

This survey of 19th-century painting treats the major figures of the period within the context of the social, political, and intellectual ferment that shaped the culture--primarily, the political revolutions and the rise of industrial capitalism and the middle class in France, England, and Germany. Among the artistic movements discussed are neoclassicism, romanticism, realism, pre-Raphaelitism, impressionism, and symbolism. The major themes of the course address the relationships between tradition and innovation, and between gender, sexuality, and representation, as well as the meanings of the terms "modern," "avant-garde," and "modernism."