CSC052 - Impressionism from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Course Description

This course will prepare you for an informed visit to the special exhibition Incomparable Impressionism from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston on view at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (November 14, 2021 – March 27, 2022).

This discussion-based course will mirror works included in the exhibition, beginning with those of the Barbizon School, painters who depicted the natural environment outside Paris in an unidealized way that anticipated the work of Claude Monet. Edouard Manet, “the painter of modern life,” exerted a profound influence on the budding Impressionists with his depictions of Parisian street life and ordinary citizens in a fluid, painterly style that rankled conservative supporters of the prevailing academic mode. Edgar Degas, Mary Cassatt, Camille Pissarro, Alfred Sisley, Auguste Renoir and Monet are all founders of the Impressionist movement that favored bright colors, visible brushstrokes, the exploration of optical phenomena and such subjects as Parisian night life, contemporary fashion, urban street views and rural leisure activities and intimate domestic life. The course will conclude with discussion of works by major artists from the Post-Impressionist period of the late 19th and early 20th centuries who extended ideas and themes from the Impressionists – the classically ordered works of Paul Cezanne, the emotionally expressive paintings of Vincent Van Gogh, and the eclectic, exotic images of Paul Gauguin.

Recommendations

• Online registration closes at 6 p.m. one day before the start of the class, unless noted on individual sections.
• Late registration is welcome! Please contact SMU CAPE at 214-768-2273 for assistance.