OSHER AT JHU, COLUMBIA : WEDNESDAY AFTERNOONS, FEBRUARY 19 TO MAY 7, 2025

ARTIST BIOS        SYLLABUS (flat)     SYLLABUS (foldable)
CLASSES:    [1]    [2]    [3]    [4]    [5]    [6]    [7]    [8]    [9]    [10]    [11]    [12]

 
French Connections

The influence of French culture can be seen everywhere in America and Britain: in architecture and planning, in opera and ballet, in cuisine and fashion, even in the words we use. But France has also impacted our countries in more practical ways. The English language would not have taken the form it has if French-speaking Normans had not overcome the Anglo-Saxons in 1066. The United States might not have won independence from Britain in 1783 without military and financial help from France. And then of course the French had their own Revolution. But this is not a history course. Instead, we examine the cultural legacy of such events in terms of art, music, literature, and style—things we can show in class, enjoy, and discuss.

Yet French culture did not generate itself. The French Renaissance, for example, resulted from the deliberate recruitment of Italian artists; French Romanticism drew heavily on trends in England and Germany. The course is about equally divided between foreign influences within France itself and French influence on the culture of other countries; think of these as French imports and exports. All this against the background of a country that did more than most to keep its culture pure, virtually inventing the Academy as gatekeeper and guardian. But in an era of globlization, even the strongest firewalls can fall.

The course is a work in progress; the class titles and details may change, but the overall scope of the course will not. As further materials on each class are prepared, the class number above and the RESOURCES tab under the appropriate image below will become active links. Clicking on one of these before class will bring up the printable handout, bios, and other relevant information. Clicking on the same links after the class will give you the script, all the images shown, and links to the relevant videos where available.

	February 19
Mona Lisa and The Statue of Liberty (details)	RESOURCES

1. Lisa and Liberty

The Mona Lisa and the Statue of Liberty, icons in their respective cities, Paris and New York. They headline this introductory class as examples of the two aspects of French culture we shall discuss in the rest of the course: import and export. "Import," because French culture is by no means all home-grown; we shall look today at the way in which Italian artists from Leonardo to Lully have left their mark on France. "Export," because French influence has spread all over the world in the last couple of centuries. The Statue of Liberty, France's gift to the United States in 1886, is tribute to a special relationship reaching back to the American Revolution. By contrast, the ways the French and British look at each other are rather different, their present friendship complicated by centuries of ancient enmity.

	February 26
Charlemagne and Philip the Good of Burgundy	RESOURCES

2. Cultural Crossroads

Charlemagne, the first Holy Roman Emperor, united virtually the whole of Europe. Two generations later, his empire broke into three parts, of which the westernmost was called Francia. But this was not yet the single country we know today, but a number of regions with different rulers, different traditions, and in some cases different languages—a cultural melting-pot. The second hour will focus on the Dukedom of Burgundy, created by the French King as a feudal dependency and eventually reassumed into France. But in the meantime, it built up territories in the Low Countries and trade in the rest of Europe, making it France's rival in both territory and wealth—and the greatest nursery for art and music outside Italy.

	March 5
Norman Invasion, 1066 (panel from the Bayeux Tapestry), and Battle of Trafalgar, 1805.	RESOURCES

3. Conquest and Quarrels

The Norman Conquest in 1066 brought a French-speaking King to the English throne. But the dual nationality of his descendants led to tensions with the French crown that would eventually launch the Hundred Years' War in 1337. From then until the fall of Napoleon in 1815, Britain and France were often in conflict, though in later centuries mostly as members of opposing coalitions. But war has a way of focusing a nation's attention upon what is important to its own culture. This class is about how the English and Scots have viewed themselves in the French mirror, in terms of language, architecture, folksongs, poetry, and the plays of Shakespeare.

	March 12
Versailles: the Orangerie and Jardin Anglais	RESOURCES

4. A Place in the Country

Louis XIV built the palace of Versailles to symbolize the magnificence of his reign, and extended the formal gardens as far as the eye could see to match the expanse of his dominions. The resulting layout, the epitome of the French grand style, went on to inspire imitations throughout Europe, even in buildings like Blenheim Palace, that commemorated victories over the French! The shoe was on the other foot when a later French Queen, Marie Antoinette, turned to the informality of English gardens to build her play village in a corner of the Versailles park.

	March 19
Denis Diderot and Catherine the Great	RESOURCES

5. To Russia with Reason

Empress Catherine the Great of Russia maintained a lifelong interest in Enlightenment philosophy. She enjoyed a thirty-year correspondence with Voltaire, and in 1773, bought the entire library of Denis Diderot, co-editor of the great Encyclopédie, appointing him curator of it until his death. The stories of Diderot and Catherine will be the subject of our second hour. The first hour will place those in context by considering an earlier Tsar, Peter the Great, and two other European rulers whose reigns overlapped with Catherine's: Frederick the Great of Prussia and the Holy Roman Emperor, Joseph II of Austria. All three—with Peter as something of a precursor—can be considered as Enlightened Despots, or rulers who use their absolute power to execute the ideals of the French Enlightenment for the benefit of their people.

	March 26
Leutze: Washington Crossing the Delaware and Schnetz: Fight in front of the Hôtel de Ville	RESOURCES

6. Two Revolutions

The leaders of the American Revolution may or may not have been influenced by French Enlightenment philosophy, but there is little doubt that without Benjamin Franklin's success in obtaining material support from France, the War might well have failed. And it is probable that success in America helped inspire the French Revolution a decade later—indeed a series of revolutions over the next 60 years (the picture shows the one from 1830). All of which has left a splendid legacy in the arts of both countries.

	April 2
Drawings by Victor Hugo and Gustave Courbet	RESOURCES

7. Romance and Reality

The drawing on the left is by Victor Hugo—yes, the Victor Hugo, author of Les Misérables—and a leading figure in the French Romantic movement. The one on the right is by Gustave Courbet, the leading artist of the Realist movement that also included writers such as Zola and Flaubert. France was a leading center of Romanticism in the earlier 19th century, but it drew inspiration from Britain and Germany. Realism, which followed in the mid-century as a reaction to it, was more home-grown, but it would influence similar movements elsewhere, especially in art and literature.

	April 9
Costume design for Faust (1859) and a scene from Giselle (1841).	RESOURCES

8. A Night at the Opéra

Two art forms in particular were associated with Paris: the concept of grand opera which began around 1830 and came to define operatic expectations for most of the rest of the world, and the Romantic ballet which dates from a similar period. Yes, Italy and Germany would compete as home of opera, but most of their composers followed the French lead and at some stage actually wrote for Paris. Russian ballet would challenge France later in the century, but the biggest single boost came when Serge Diaghilev brought a Russian troupe to Paris in 1909, and to this day ballet moves are still described in French.

	April 16
Delacroix: Women of Algiers and Gauguin: When Will You Marry? (both details)	RESOURCES

9. Scent of the South

From the earlier nineteenth century onwards, French possessions in North Africa and the Pacific were a source of inspiration to artists willing to travel far enough in search of exotic color and different lifestyles. But they did not necessarily have to go so far; works like Bizet's Carmen (1875) found similar inspiration in Spain. The lure of the South, which lasted well into the twentieth century, is probably the last great example of the "import" phase in French culture, and its effects can still be seen in French art today.

	April 23
Mary Cassatt: Self Portrait (1878) and Max Weber: The Cellist (1917).	RESOURCES

10. A Studio in Paris

An Impressionist painting and a Cubist one—what is interesting is that they are both by American expatriates who came over to Paris to be where the action was: Mary Cassatt and Max Weber. From the 1870s through the 1930s—in Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, Cubism, and Surrealism—Paris was the undisputed capital of world art, as well as being the seat of important developments in literature and music. It was not so much that France exported these new styles as that Paris became a magnet for artists, writers, and composers eager to feed at the source.

	April 30
Coco Chanel's "little black dress" (1950) and Jean-Paul Belmondo in Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless (1960).	RESOURCES

11. French Taste, French Grit

French culture is celebrated the world over for fashion and cuisine (the very word is French). Both came to the fore in the 19th century, and the French contribution remains important to this day. Both establish France as the arbiter of High Style. By contrast, the films of the Nouvelle Vague (New Wave) directors of the 1960s seemed to make a style out of its opposite, featuring ordinary protagonists in edgy situations. Their influence may have been more limited (Woody Allen is one obvious follower), but the world's leading cinema festival is still held in France, at Cannes.

	May 7
French Coca-Cola ad in the provinces and McDonald's sign in Paris.	RESOURCES

12. The Firewalls Fall

For several centuries, the Académie Française has more or less succeeded in keeping the French language and culture clear of foreign influences, but the era of globalization and the spread of youth culture on the internet has made this impossible. The pictures show the influx of American commerce into French life, which has been the case for decades at least. But spend time with young people in Paris today, and you'll hear (I'm told) English phrases peppering every conversation, and American pop playing on their headphones. While I am not yet sure how I am going to tackle this, it is a topic we clearly need to explore to complete our story of French and American interactions. rb.

 
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