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Unit outline_

ARHT2618: French Art, Salon to Cezanne

Semester 2, 2024 [Normal day] - Camperdown/Darlington, Sydney

This unit treats French Art in terms of the cultural structures that allowed academic art, Realism, Impressionism and Post-Impressionism to emerge. Mainstream art is studied alongside emerging avant-gardes. Other topics include nationalism, exoticism, and peripheral versus metropolitan modernism.

Unit details and rules

Academic unit Art History
Credit points 6
Prerequisites
? 
12 credit points at 1000 level in Art History or 12 credit points at 1000 level in Critical Studies
Corequisites
? 
None
Prohibitions
? 
ARHT2018
Assumed knowledge
? 

None

Available to study abroad and exchange students

Yes

Teaching staff

Coordinator Roger Benjamin, roger.benjamin@sydney.edu.au
Tutor(s) Roger Benjamin, roger.benjamin@sydney.edu.au
Ksenia Radchenko, ksenia.radchenko@sydney.edu.au
Jos Hackforth-Jones, jos.hackforth-jones@sydney.edu.au
The census date for this unit availability is 2 September 2024
Type Description Weight Due Length
Skills-based evaluation Visual Analysis
n/a
30% Week 06
Due date: 06 Sep 2024 at 23:59

Closing date: 06 Sep 2024
1,500 words
Outcomes assessed: LO1 LO5 LO4 LO3 LO2
Assignment Essay
n/a
60% Week 12
Due date: 25 Oct 2024 at 23:59
2,500 words
Outcomes assessed: LO4 LO5 LO1 LO2 LO3
Participation Class Participation
n/a
10% Weekly weekly tutorial
Outcomes assessed: LO2 LO4 LO3

Assessment summary

Detailed information for each assessment can be found in the Canvas site for this unit.

Assessment criteria

The University awards common result grades, set out in the Coursework Policy 2014 (Schedule 1).

As a general guide, a High distinction indicates work of an exceptional standard, a Distinction a very high standard, a credit a good standard, and a pass an acceptable standard.

Result name

Mark range

Description

High distinction

85 - 100

 

Distinction

75 - 84

 

Credit

65 - 74

 

Pass

50 - 64

 

Fail

0 - 49

When you don’t meet the learning outcomes of the unit to a satisfactory standard.

 

For more information see sydney.edu.au/students/guide-to-grades

For more information see guide to grades.

Late submission

In accordance with University policy, these penalties apply when written work is submitted after 11:59pm on the due date:

  • Deduction of 5% of the maximum mark for each calendar day after the due date.
  • After ten calendar days late, a mark of zero will be awarded.

Academic integrity

The Current Student website provides information on academic integrity and the resources available to all students. The University expects students and staff to act ethically and honestly and will treat all allegations of academic integrity breaches seriously.

We use similarity detection software to detect potential instances of plagiarism or other forms of academic integrity breach. If such matches indicate evidence of plagiarism or other forms of academic integrity breaches, your teacher is required to report your work for further investigation.

Use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) and automated writing tools

You may only use generative AI and automated writing tools in assessment tasks if you are permitted to by your unit coordinator. If you do use these tools, you must acknowledge this in your work, either in a footnote or an acknowledgement section. The assessment instructions or unit outline will give guidance of the types of tools that are permitted and how the tools should be used.

Your final submitted work must be your own, original work. You must acknowledge any use of generative AI tools that have been used in the assessment, and any material that forms part of your submission must be appropriately referenced. For guidance on how to acknowledge the use of AI, please refer to the AI in Education Canvas site.

The unapproved use of these tools or unacknowledged use will be considered a breach of the Academic Integrity Policy and penalties may apply.

Studiosity is permitted unless otherwise indicated by the unit coordinator. The use of this service must be acknowledged in your submission as detailed on the Learning Hub’s Canvas page.

Outside assessment tasks, generative AI tools may be used to support your learning. The AI in Education Canvas site contains a number of productive ways that students are using AI to improve their learning.

Simple extensions

If you encounter a problem submitting your work on time, you may be able to apply for an extension of five calendar days through a simple extension.  The application process will be different depending on the type of assessment and extensions cannot be granted for some assessment types like exams.

Special consideration

If exceptional circumstances mean you can’t complete an assessment, you need consideration for a longer period of time, or if you have essential commitments which impact your performance in an assessment, you may be eligible for special consideration or special arrangements.

Special consideration applications will not be affected by a simple extension application.

Using AI responsibly

Co-created with students, AI in Education includes lots of helpful examples of how students use generative AI tools to support their learning. It explains how generative AI works, the different tools available and how to use them responsibly and productively.

Support for students

The Support for Students Policy 2023 reflects the University’s commitment to supporting students in their academic journey and making the University safe for students. It is important that you read and understand this policy so that you are familiar with the range of support services available to you and understand how to engage with them.

The University uses email as its primary source of communication with students who need support under the Support for Students Policy 2023. Make sure you check your University email regularly and respond to any communications received from the University.

Learning resources and detailed information about weekly assessment and learning activities can be accessed via Canvas. It is essential that you visit your unit of study Canvas site to ensure you are up to date with all of your tasks.

If you are having difficulties completing your studies, or are feeling unsure about your progress, we are here to help. You can access the support services offered by the University at any time:

Support and Services (including health and wellbeing services, financial support and learning support)
Course planning and administration
Meet with an Academic Adviser

WK Topic Learning activity Learning outcomes
Week 01 Introduction: the academic system and its opponents Lecture (2 hr)  
NO TUTORIAL IN FIRST WEEK Tutorial (1 hr)  
Week 02 Reading Manet’s Olympia: The salon nude, popular culture & pornography Lecture (2 hr)  
Manet's Olympia and the Salon nude Tutorial (1 hr)  
Week 03 Early landscapes of Monet, Pissarro, and Cézanne Lecture (2 hr)  
Early Impressionism Tutorial (1 hr)  
Week 04 Haussmann’s Paris: Degas, Caillebotte, Morisot and Cassatt Lecture (2 hr)  
Hausmann's transformation of Paris and the 'spaces of femininity' Tutorial (1 hr)  
Week 05 The impact of photography Lecture (2 hr)  
Photography and the Impressionist sensibility Tutorial (1 hr)  
Week 06 The East as Career: Orientalist art Lecture (2 hr)  
Orientalist art Tutorial (1 hr)  
Week 07 Art & politics: Neo-Impressionism & anarchism Lecture (2 hr)  
Neo-impressionism and politics Tutorial (1 hr)  
Week 08 Van Gogh and the production of ‘genius’ Lecture (2 hr)  
Vincent van Gogh Tutorial (1 hr)  
Week 09 Gauguin in Brittany and Polynesia Lecture (2 hr)  
Paul Gauguin Tutorial (1 hr)  
Week 10 Symbolists and decadents Lecture (2 hr)  
ESSAY PREPARATION AND DISCUSSION Tutorial (1 hr)  
Week 11 Monet’s series and decorations Lecture (2 hr)  
Monet: seriality and the decorative Tutorial (1 hr)  
Week 12 Late Cézanne and Cézannism Lecture (2 hr)  
The painting of the Late Cézanne Tutorial (1 hr)  
Week 13 The New Century: Matisse and Picasso Lecture (2 hr)  
Modern art and the New Century Tutorial (1 hr)  

Attendance and class requirements

According to Faculty Board Resolutions, students in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences are expected to attend 90% of their classes. If you attend less than 50% of classes, regardless of the reasons, you may be referred to the Examiner’s Board. The Examiner’s Board will decide whether you should pass or fail the unit of study if your attendance falls below this threshold.

If a unit of study has a participation mark, your attendance may influence this mark.

For more information on attendance, see http://sydney.edu.au/policies/showdoc.aspx?recnum=PDOC2014/345&RendNum=0.

Study commitment

Typically, there is a minimum expectation of 1.5-2 hours of student effort per week per credit point for units of study offered over a full semester. For a 6 credit point unit, this equates to roughly 120-150 hours of student effort in total.

Required readings

2 articles per week, with digital copies available via Canvas (see 'Modules' for available copies). The list for 2024 is:

Week 1: the Academic system and its opponents

  • Baudelaire, Charles, “The Painter of Modern Life” (1863, excerpts), Modern Art and Modernism: a Critical Anthology, ed. F. Frascina and C. Harrison, London: Harper & Row, 1982, pp. 23-29.
  • Courbet, Gustave ‘The Realist Manifesto”, in Linda Nochlin, Realism and Tradition in Art, 1848-1900, Englewood, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1968, pp. 33-36.

Week 2: Reading Olympia: The salon nude, pornography & popular culture

  • Clark, T.J., The Painting of Modern Life. Paris in the art of Manet and his followers, London/Princeton 1984, ch. on Olympia, esp. pp. 78-112.
  • Thomson, Richard, “Introduction” to N. Bakker et al., Splendors and Miseries: images of prostitution (1850-1910), Paris: Musée d'Orsay & RMN, 2015.

Week 3: Early Impressionism: Monet, Pissarro, Cézanne

  • Duret, Théodore, Manet and the French Impressionists, London, 1910, selections (esp. pp. 70-74 ‘The Open Air’ and 105-25 ‘The Impressionist Group). [Internet Archive]
  • Eisenman, Stephen F., “The Intransigent Artist or How the Impressionists Got Their Name”,

in The New Painting. Impressionism 1874-1886, ed C. Moffet, Washington and San Francisco:

R. Burton, 1986, pp. 51-57.

Week 4: The impact of Photography  

  • Batchen, Geoffrey, Burning with desire: the conception of photography, Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1997, pp. 127-143.
  • Baudelaire, Charles, “The Modern Public and Photography”, in), Modern Art and Modernism: a Critical Anthology, ed. F. Frascina and C. Harrison, London: Harper & Row, 1982, pp. 19-21.

Week 5:  Haussmann’s Paris and the Visual Arts

  • Pollock, Griselda, “Modernity and the spaces of femininity” in her Vision and Difference. Femininity, Feminism and the Histories of Art, London: Routledge, 1988, pp. 50-90.

Week 6:  The East as a career: Orientalist art

  • Benjamin, Roger, “The Oriental Mirage”, in Orientalism: Delacroix to Klee, ed R. Benjamin, Sydney: Art Gallery of NSW, 1997, pp. 7-22.
  • Said, Edward, “Introduction”, in Orientalism, New York, 1979, pp 1-14.

Week 7:  Art and Politics: Neo-impressionism and  anarchism

  • Félix Fénéon, Georges Seurat, and Paul Signac, texts on colour theory and on anarchism, in L. Nochlin, Impressionism and Post-Impressionism 1874-1904, Sources and Documents, Englewood: Prentice-Hall, 1966, pp. 111-129.
  • Osadtschy, Olga and Jelle Imkampe, “Liberty in the Fields”, in Camille Pissarro: the Studio of Modernism, eds. C. Duvivier and J. Helfenstein, Munich, London, NY: Prestel, 2021, pp. 110-25.

Week 8: Van Gogh and the production of ‘genius’

  • Aurier, Georges-Albert, "The Lonely Ones: Vincent Van Gogh" (1890), in Henri Dorra (ed), Symbolist Art Theories: a Critical Anthology, Berkeley: U of California Press, 1994, pp. 218-226.
  • Zemel, Carol, “What becomes a Legend Most”, Art in America, July 1988, pp. 88-93, 151.

Week 9: Gauguin in Brittany and Polynesia

  • Broude, Norma, “Gauguin and his art in the age of cancel culture: reception and reassessments,” in Loyrette, Henri (ed), Gauguin’s World, Tona Iho Tona Ao, Canberra: NGA, 2024, pp. 105-116.
  •    Solomon-Godeau, Abigail, "Going Native", Art in America, Vol. 77 (July 1989), from N. Broude and M. Garrard, eds, The Expanding discourse: feminism and art history, New York: Icon, 1992, pp. 312-329.

Week 10: Symbolists and Decadents

  • Texts by Laforgue, Huysmans, Hennequin, and Redon in Henri Dorra (ed),  Symbolist Art Theories: a Critical Anthology, Berkeley, U of California Press, 1994, pp. 40-56.
  • Huysmans, Karl-Joris, Against Nature (À Rebours), 1891, selections.

Week 11: Monet’s series and decorations

  • Spate, Virginia, The Colour of Time. Claude Monet, London: Phaidon, 1992, pp. 201-217.
  • Tucker, Paul Hayes, Monet in the '90s: the Series Paintings, Boston Museum of Fine Arts 1989, ch reprinted as “Monet and the Challenges to Impressionism in the 1880s”, pp. 227-49.

Week 12: Late Cézanne

  • Denis, Maurice, “Cézanne”, tr. Roger Fry, Burlington Magazine 1907, in Francis Frascina (ed), Modern Art and Modernism, Open U Press, pp. 57-63.
  • Shiff, Richard, Cézanne and the End of Impressionism, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984, pp. 111-123.

Week 13: The new century: Matisse, Picasso

  • Matisse, Henri, “Notes of a Painter” (1908), in Jack D. Flam, Matisse on Art, London: Phaidon, 2nd ed., 1995.

 

 

Learning outcomes are what students know, understand and are able to do on completion of a unit of study. They are aligned with the University's graduate qualities and are assessed as part of the curriculum.

At the completion of this unit, you should be able to:

  • LO1. To provide students with a solid understanding of the history of art produced in France between 1850–1900.
  • LO2. To introduce students to the key art historical skill of visual analysis through the interpretation of art.
  • LO3. To develop students’ verbal and written skills to interpret art in its historical and cultural context.
  • LO4. To engage students with current debates about the canon of French art from the Salon to the Post-Impressionism of Cézanne.
  • LO5. To provide a foundational knowledge base for the more advanced study of the history of art in senior level courses within the Department of Art History.

Graduate qualities

The graduate qualities are the qualities and skills that all University of Sydney graduates must demonstrate on successful completion of an award course. As a future Sydney graduate, the set of qualities have been designed to equip you for the contemporary world.

GQ1 Depth of disciplinary expertise

Deep disciplinary expertise is the ability to integrate and rigorously apply knowledge, understanding and skills of a recognised discipline defined by scholarly activity, as well as familiarity with evolving practice of the discipline.

GQ2 Critical thinking and problem solving

Critical thinking and problem solving are the questioning of ideas, evidence and assumptions in order to propose and evaluate hypotheses or alternative arguments before formulating a conclusion or a solution to an identified problem.

GQ3 Oral and written communication

Effective communication, in both oral and written form, is the clear exchange of meaning in a manner that is appropriate to audience and context.

GQ4 Information and digital literacy

Information and digital literacy is the ability to locate, interpret, evaluate, manage, adapt, integrate, create and convey information using appropriate resources, tools and strategies.

GQ5 Inventiveness

Generating novel ideas and solutions.

GQ6 Cultural competence

Cultural Competence is the ability to actively, ethically, respectfully, and successfully engage across and between cultures. In the Australian context, this includes and celebrates Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures, knowledge systems, and a mature understanding of contemporary issues.

GQ7 Interdisciplinary effectiveness

Interdisciplinary effectiveness is the integration and synthesis of multiple viewpoints and practices, working effectively across disciplinary boundaries.

GQ8 Integrated professional, ethical, and personal identity

An integrated professional, ethical and personal identity is understanding the interaction between one’s personal and professional selves in an ethical context.

GQ9 Influence

Engaging others in a process, idea or vision.

Outcome map

Learning outcomes Graduate qualities
GQ1 GQ2 GQ3 GQ4 GQ5 GQ6 GQ7 GQ8 GQ9

This section outlines changes made to this unit following staff and student reviews.

Minor changes have been made since this unit was last offered (2022). Bibliographies have been updated and lecture topics tweaked.

Disclaimer

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