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Revolutions: Art and Society in France, 1770-1848

Module description

From the arms of David’s Horatii Brothers, raised up to swear upon their swords eternal allegiance to the fatherland, to the raised arm of Delacroix’s Liberty as she leads the people of Paris forwards into battle, revolutionary action dominated both the art and the politics of France between 1770 and 1830.  Spanning the Bourbon monarchy, the Revolution of 1789, the Directory, the Consulate, the Napoleonic Empire, the Hundred Days, the Bourbon Restoration, and the Revolution of 1830, this violent period of political and cultural upheaval witnessed extraordinary transformations in art’s purpose and audience.  These transformations included everything from the ‘death’ (and subsequent rebirth) of the French Academy and of history painting, to the growing influence of popular art and contemporary politics on academic work, to the increasing intermediality of Revolutionary expression, to a radical rethinking of portraiture. This course, whose major primary sources will be images, seeks not to trace stylistic changes in the abstract (eg. Rococo to Neoclassicism), but rather to look closely at the relationship between artistic and social change.  We will consider not only political and institutional pressures upon artists but also the ways art offered shifting constructions of gender, sexuality, race, slavery, nation, and empire during this time.

Module aims - intentions of the module

For the most part we will use case studies of artists, studios, and their painted production to think about the ways in which political ideology and historical circumstances are expressed visually.  The module encourages students to think broadly about art and visual culture, using such primary materials as a festival performance, a commemorative banner for a fallen martyr, a cheap coloured print of a headless Louis XVI, and an academic portrait of a Haitian Representative to the French Revolutionary government—as evidence of social revolution.  We will challenge the easy assumption that art is unproblematically mimetic, for, in a period when artists were also politicians—David was on the Revolutionary Committee of Public Safety—cultural production becomes inescapably political.

This module aims to help you develop your skills in researching, interpreting, and analysing both primary and secondary material, with a special emphasis on the interpretation of images—painting, drawing, caricature, prints, and some architecture and sculpture.  It provides you with an opportunity to explore broadly the permanence (and symbiosis!) of ideas of Revolution and Empire in modern France, and it helps you to develop the depth of understanding you will require to study more specialised areas of art and history.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. Display a detailed knowledge of the main themes of the course, together with an intimate knowledge of the areas selected for essay and presentation work.
• 2. Describe the changing nature of, and intellectual approaches to, the idea of revolution and its visual manifestations in France and its empire.

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 3. Employ various critical strategies and asses their strengths or weaknesses by considering a range of art historical and historical approaches.
• 4. Analyse key developments in a complex and alien political and social environment through visual work
• 5. Understand and deploy complex political and art historical terminology in a comprehensible manner
• 6. Hone your visual analysis skills.

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 7. Develop strategies for innovative and integrative group work, including the presentation of material for group discussion.
• 8. Present arguments orally with precision and aplomb.
• 9. Demonstrate an ability to digest, select and organise material to produce, to a deadline, a coherent and cogent argument, developed through the mode of assessment.
• 10. Think independently, research independently, and cultivate effective ways of independent study

Syllabus plan

Whilst the content may vary from year to year, it is envisioned that it will cover some or all of the following topics:

• Picturing the Ancient Regime
• David and Contemporary History Painting
• Napoleonic Portraiture
• Egyptomania
• Female patronage
• The Haitian Revolution
• The Art of Reconciliation after the Terror
• State Symbols
• Géricault and the Restoration

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Formative assessment

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Re-assessment notes

The re-assessment consists of 1 x 4,000 word essay as in the original assessment but replaces participation in the group presentation with a written script that could be delivered in such a presentation (1,500 words) and which is the equivalent of 10 minutes of speech. This written work should be properly referenced and illustrated.

Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.

Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 40%) you will be required to submit a further assessment as necessary. If you are successful on referral, your overall module mark will be capped at 40%.

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

• Scott, Katie. The Rococo Interior. Decoration and Social Spaces in Early Eighteenth-Century Paris. New Haven, Yale University Press, 1995
• Crow, Thomas. Emulation: Making Artists for Revolutionary France. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995.
• Hunt, Lynn. The Family Romance of the French Revolution. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992.
• Grigsby, Darcy Grimaldo. Extremities: Painting Empire in Post-Revolutionary France.  New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002
• Ledbury, Mark, ed. David after David: Essays on the Later Work. New Haven: Yale University Press,2002.

Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources

• ELE – https://vle.exeter.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=11488

Key words search

France, revolution, Napoleon, resistance, Restoration, history painting, gender, class