We will study together the advent of modernity in the arts, especially in painting. The objects of our examination will be works produced between the mid-nineteenth and the twentieth centuries. Those works are indicative of profound societal changes. Art always accompanies and sometimes, as we will see, precedes the evolutions of the society. This period laden with tragic stories, marked by three wars and colonialism, is also the one in which great libertarian ideals emerged. This course, which offers an iconographic reading of French society in a given time, is inspired by theories borrowed from the history of art as well as the history of ideas. To better understand the works and the time in which they came to be, we will rely on historical and literary texts, which we will comment on together. Finding balance between the transmission of notions and the collective exchanges on these notions (discussions and round tables,) is what will animate our daily sessions.<br />
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This course does not require any special knowledge of art history.