The Rise of Modernity: Arts of the 19th Century

Catalog description

The nineteenth century is often considered as fast-paced, politically volatile and new-media obsessed as our own age. This course explores the nineteenth century's claim to have produced the first truly modern culture, focusing on the visual arts and metropolitan spaces of Europe and North America in their intellectual and social contexts. Stretching from the American and French Revolutions to the eve of World War I, topics to be covered include: the rise of capitalist and industrialist culture, art and revolutionary upheaval, global travel and empire, the origins of modernist art and architecture, and new media such as stereoscopes, iron and glass construction, and photography. Major artistic personalities of the age, from Jacques-Louis David and Gustave Courbet to Claude Monet and Vincent Van Gogh, and from Friedrich Schinkel and, Baron Haussmann to Frank Furness and Frank Lloyd Wright, are discussed. Each lecture will be followed by a brief period of discussion, and regular field trips take students to examine art and architecture first hand, in the museums and on the streets of Philadelphia.