Topics in 19th-Century Art: Artists and Their Subjects

This seminar explores the relationships between artists and their subjects in European art of the long nineteenth century. How were these relationships visualized artistically? How did they change over the course of the century with the rise of Neoclassicism, Realism, Impressionism, and Post-Impressionism? We will examine a diverse group of artists and sitters (ranging from professional models to patrons to close relations) to consider questions of intersubjectivity and the representation of identity. Artists include Ingres, Courbet, Manet, Cézanne, Valadon, and Seurat. The seminar includes two field trips to museums in New York.