Impressionism opened the pictorial field to light, perception, science, modernity, bourgeois leisure and, famously, the material qualities of painting itself. This course will survey the movement's major contexts and proponents-Magnet, Monet, Morisot, Cezanne, Guaguin, Van Gogh, Rodin-from its origins in the 1860s to its demise in the 1890s, as well as its subsequent adaptations throughout the world until WWI. We will pay particular attention to Impressionsim's critical reception and the historical conditions, which allowed one nation, France, to claim the emergence of early Modernism so firmly for itself. Questions to be addressed include: how can an art of vision and light figure the complexities of history and politics, and especially the revolutions that marked the period? What are the gendered and sexual politics of Impressionsm's obsession with the nude female body? How did the invention of the new technologies and media effect the development of modern art?
Throughout the course, we will also analyze the effects the rapidly changing social and cultural fabric of Paris had on artistic developments. Arguable, Paris was the "capital of the nineteenth century," and it is here where most artistic innovation of the time took place. None-the-less, we will look outside of France's borders with some frequency, especially to Germany and Britain.