Class Description
In this five-week course we will consider the rising popularity and social significance of the animal painting genre throughout the nineteenth century in Western Europe, with particular focus on France, Germany, and England. Animal painters in those countries occupied a well-defined niche by virtue of their skill with creaturely anatomy, expression, and temperament. At the beginning of the class, we explore how pre-Darwinian science, especially German Romantic approaches to natural history and early French iterations of evolutionary theory, embodied a growing preoccupation with species change. This fascination with hereditary shifts in organisms (often aided by human intervention) was prominently visualized in painted and printed depictions of both European livestock breeds and “exotic,” imported species. In the closing weeks, we consider the influence of Darwinism and the nascent field of ecology and how artists attempted depictions of non-human subjects without simply anthropomorphizing them. Key artists to be discussed include Rosa Bonheur, Edwin Landseer, Anton Braith, George Stubbs, and Theodore Géricault.
Stephanie Triplett received her PhD in the History of Art from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and performed postdoctoral research at the Freie Universität in Berlin. She has published her research in the journal Art History and other scholarly venues and contributes academic content for a general audience to Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
All virtual classes are recorded and made available to participants registered in the class. These recordings are password-protected and available for up to two weeks after the class ends.
What to Expect
Format: Virtual
Class Capacity: 30
Class Style: Mix of lecture and discussion; participation encouraged
Materials List
Required
- Instructor-Distributed Materials
First Reading
No Required Reading
A Brief Syllabus
- Animal Painting Before the Nineteenth Century
- The Equine Figure
- Birth of the Public Zoo
- The Sentimental Animal and Modern Pet Ownership
- Queer Ecologies
Cost and Registration
5 Sessions, $200 ($180 for Newberry members, seniors, and students). Learn about becoming a member.
We offer our classes at three different price options: Regular ($200), Community Supported ($185), and Sponsor ($215). Following the models of other institutions, we want to ensure that our classes are accessible to a wider audience while continuing to support our instructors. You may choose the price that best fits your situation when registering through Learning Stream.
To register multiple people for this class, please go through the course calendar in Learning Stream, our registration platform. When you select the course and register, you’ll be prompted to add another registrant.
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