AHT 234 Painting in France in the 19th Century: Reality, Impressions, Simultaneity
This course sets out to chart and discuss the development of painting in France from the emergence of Romanticism in the early 19th Century to the critical recognition of post-impressionist practices at the turn of the 20th Century. It looks at the changing relations to reality that were developed by the impressionist group, leading to the emergence of a new visual understanding of the world in cubists practices that resolutely abandoned the aesthetics space inherited from the Renaissance. The course considers both the continuous evolution of a classical tradition sustained by state institutions and its progressive superseding by an avant-garde relying on the growth of the private commercial sector. Throughout this course, the relationship between the visual arts and other forms of cultural expression will be highlighted.