Europe of the Empires: The Arts of the Nineteenth Century

From the collapse of the ‘Ancien Regime’ and the ravages of a 25 year war, the “Long 19th Century” took us to the outbreak of a very different war in 1914, in a very different world.

This course examines the expression of change in the arts – from Goya in Spain, Blake in England and the Impressionists in France. As Empires expanded we will look at the impact of trade and new materials and of new and exotic influences on artists from Delacroix to Picasso.

The 18th Century Background and the French Revolution

In this lecture, you will see how the 18th century was the age of moderation and philosophy, the “Age of Reason” and of classical discipline in the arts. As events darkened in France, heralding a war which would engulf the Continent, the mood changed radically to reflect a world in which the security of the past disappeared and art became the instrument by which the French, the English and the Spanish broadcast propaganda to the elite and to the people. Through the cutting, satiric caricature of English artists like Gillray and Rowlandson and the semi-deification of Napoleon by his own painters, the arts proclaimed their allegiance.

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