NATASHA RUIZ-GÓMEZ
History of Art Department
University of Pennsylvania
Fall 2002 – ARTH 280
Wednesdays 5:30–8:30 PM
Meyerson B2
THE CITY OF PARIS
Between the Revolution and the Second World War, Paris emerged as the most influential progenitor of
modern cultural ideas in the West. This course will focus on the painting, sculpture, architecture, and
photography of the time with peripheral forays for the purposes of contextualization into literature and
philosophy. The course will also carefully consider the bold ideas implemented by the city’s urban
planners and the ways in which the physical reconfiguration of Paris was inextricably bound to its
intellectual and artistic life. In short, the course will seek to examine how Paris became the cultural hub of
the West during this 150-year period.
COURSE SCHEDULE
September 11 –
Introduction
September 18 –
The Academy, Neoclassicism, and the French Revolution
Reading:
 David P. Jordan, Transforming Paris: The Life and Labors of Baron Haussmann (New
York: The Free Press, 1995) 13-40.
 Thomas Crow, Painters and Public Life in Eighteenth-Century Paris (New Haven:
Yale University Press, 1985) 1-22.
 Stephen F. Eisenman et al., Nineteenth Century Art: A Critical History (London:
Thames and Hudson Ltd., 1994) 14-34.
September 25 –
Philadelphia Museum of Art Visit
(We will be meeting in the lobby of the museum’s West entrance at 5:30 PM; please
bring pencils, as you are not allowed to write in pen in the museum’s galleries.)
Reading:
 Andrew McClellan, Inventing the Louvre: Art, Politics, and the Origins of the Modern
Museum in Eighteenth-Century Paris (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1994) 91-123.
 Arlette Farge, Fragile Lives: Violence, Power and Solidarity in Eighteenth-Century Paris,
trans. Carol Shelton (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press,
1993) 9-20.
 Valerie Steele, Paris Fashion (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988) 43-77.
 Frances Trollope, Paris and the Parisians in 1835 (New York: Harper and
Brothers, 1836) 71-85, 359-364.
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October 2 –
Napoleon, Romanticism, Realism
Research Paper Topic Due
Reading:
 Stephen F. Eisenman et al., Nineteenth Century Art: A Critical History (London:
Thames and Hudson Ltd., 1994) 34-77.
 Linda Nochlin, Realism (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1971) 13-56.
 Victor Hugo, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, trans. Walter J. Cobb (New York:
Signet Classic, 1964) 114-138.
October 9 –
Napoleon III & Haussmann
Reading:
 Donald J. Olsen, The City as a Work of Art: London, Paris, Vienna (New Haven:
Yale University Press, 1986) 35-57.
 Shelley Rice, Parisian Views (Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 1997)
30-117.
October 16 –
Napoleon III, Haussmann, and the Flâneur
Reading:
 T.J. Clark, The Painting of Modern Life: Paris in the Art of Manet and His Followers
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984) 23-78.
 Anne Middleton Wagner, Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux: Sculptor of the Second Empire
(New Haven: Yale University Press, 1986) 209-256.
 Charles Baudelaire, “The Swan,” Complete Poems, trans. Walter Martin
(Manchester: Carcanet, 1997) 226-229.
October 23 –
The Arcades and the Department Store
Midterm Exam
Reading:
 Walter Benjamin, “Arcades,” The Arcades Project, ed. Rolf Tiedemann, trans.
Howard Eiland and Kevin McLaughlin (Cambridge, Massachusetts: The
Belknap Press, 1999) 871-872.
 Tamar Garb, Bodies of Modernity: Figure and Flesh in Fin-de-Siècle France (London:
Thames and Hudson Ltd., 1998) 80-113.
October 30 –
Café Culture, Dance Halls, Ballerinas, and the Prostitute
Research Paper Synopsis Due
Reading:
 Charles Baudelaire, “The Painter of Modern Life,”The Painter of Modern Life and
Other Essays, ed. and trans. Jonathan Mayne (New York: Phaidon Press Ltd.,
1964) 1-15, 26-40.
 T.J. Clark, The Painting of Modern Life: Paris in the Art of Manet and His Followers
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984) 79-146.
 Anthea Callen, The Spectacular Body: Science, Method and Meaning in the Work of
Degas (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995) 1-35.
 Émile Zola, Nana, trans. George Holden (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books,
1972) 19-48.
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November 6 –
Expositions, Colonialism, and the Engineer
Reading:
 Debora L. Silverman, “The 1889 Exhibition: The Crisis of Bourgeois
Individualism,” Oppositions 8 (Spring 1977): 71-91.
 Zeynep Çelik and Leila Kinney, “Ethnography and Exhibitionism at the
Expositions Universelles,” Assemblages 13 (1990): 35-59.
 Abigail Solomon-Godeau, “Going Native,” Art in America 77.7 (July 1989):
118-129, 161.
November 13 –
Sculpture, Cubism, Abstraction, and World War I
Reading:
 Anne M.Wagner, “Rodin’s Reputation,” Eroticism and the Body Politic, ed. Lynn
Hunt (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991) 191-236.
 Jeffrey Weiss, The Popular Culture of Modern Art: Picasso, Duchamp, and AvantGardism (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994) 1-47.
 David Cottington, Cubism in the Shadow of War: The Avant-Garde and Politics in
Paris 1905-1914 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998) 37-53.
November 20 –
Philadelphia Museum of Art Visit
(We will be meeting in the lobby of the museum’s West entrance at 5:30 PM; please
bring pencils, as you are not allowed to write in pen in the museum’s galleries.)
Reading:
 Briony Fer et al., Realism, Rationalism, Surrealism: Art between the Wars (New
Haven: Yale University Press, 1993) 30-39, 170-199.
 Molly Nesbit, “Ready-Made Originals: The Duchamp Model,” October 37
(Summer 1986): 53-64.
November 27 –
No class/Thanksgiving break
December 4 –
The Entre-Deux-Guerres and World War II
Research Paper Due
Reading:
 Kenneth Silver, “Purism: Straightening Up after the Great War,” Artforum 15.7
(March 1977): 56-63.
 Le Corbusier, Towards a New Architecture, trans. Frederick Etchells (New York:
Dover Publications, Inc., 1986) 1-20, 129-148, 199-223.
 Jean-Paul Sartre, “Introduction,” Exhibition of sculptures, paintings, drawings (New
York: Pierre Matisse Gallery, 1948). (Handout – not in bulk pack)
TBA
Final Exam
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COURSE REQUIREMENTS
Readings: There is no textbook for this course – readings are drawn from a number of sources in a
variety of disciplines. They are available for purchase in a bulk pack at Campus Copy (3907 Walnut Street,
215.386.6410) and individually at the Reserve Desk at the Fisher Fine Arts Library.
The readings are an essential component of this course and are intended to complement the lectures.
Your research paper, midterm and final exams, and class participation will require that you demonstrate a
strong comprehension of these course materials. Your final grade will be determined according to the
following criteria.
Class Participation (10%): Each lecture session will explore themes, concepts, and content from the
readings, and I will expect you to come to class prepared to discuss them.
Midterm Exam (15%): Format to be announced. The images shown and discussed in class will be
available on the web.
Final Exam (25%): Format to be announced. The images shown and discussed in class will be available
on the web.
Research Paper (50%): In addition to the readings and class participation, this course will emphasize the
creation of a research paper: an imaginary art exhibition of your own design, to be developed over the
course of the entire semester. Early on, I will hand out a preliminary list of topics, from which you will be
asked to select five in order of preference. From these selections I will assign each student a paper topic.
You will then write a two-page description of your exhibition, construct a preliminary bibliography, and
select six to ten pieces – paintings, sculptures, photographs, writings – related to your topic (due October
30th – 15%). The final paper will consist of a 12-15 page “catalogue essay,” in which you delineate your
exhibition’s themes and discuss the significance of the pieces that you have selected (due December 4th –
35%). Each of these steps will be discussed in more detail as the semester progresses.
Please note:
Late Papers: Late papers will be marked down one grade per day. If you anticipate any problems turning
in your paper on time, you must contact me at least one week before the due date. I will grant extensions
only in extreme circumstances, and I will not accept last-minute excuses.
Attendance: Faithful attendance is required to pass this class. Only one excused absence is allowed; your
grade will decrease with each additional absence.
Plagiarism: Plagiarism in either the paper or the exams constitutes an automatic failure for the course
and will be reported to the appropriate University office immediately.
CONTACT INFORMATION
Office Hours: For the time being, I will meet with students by appointment only. Please e-mail me at
natashar@sas.upenn.edu to set up an appointment.