Vue générale de l'Exposition Universelle de Paris, 1889

Image here from: https://www.toureiffel.paris/fr/actualites/histoire-et-culture/15-choses-essentielles-savoir-sur-la-tour-eiffel

Explore five wonderfully dynamic decades of European history, via the lens of its remarkably varied and vigorous culture.

We shall trace a period of rapid industrial change and urbanisation throughout much of Europe. Though Paris remained very much the cultural capital, other nations were increasingly finding their voice. Starting with the new-found vogue for social and natural realism in painting and literature, we shall meet such talismanic figures as Gustave Courbet, Émile Zola, Édouard Manet, and Charles Baudelaire.

On the political front, France is first an empire, and then it is not, while Germany goes in the opposite direction. This is the era of Napoleon III and Otto von Bismarck. Meanwhile, from Scandinavia to Bohemia, and from Italy to Russia, the painters, composers, and playwrights are forging new styles - often inspired by a sense of national identity.

The latter part of our period has been given many names: the Gilded Age by Americans, the Naughty Nineties by the British…. To the French, it was simply the Beautiful Era. Each of these names speaks of excitement, pleasure, and rapid cultural change.

We shall explore some of the many cultural highlights of this era. From the Moulin Rouge to the Paris stage of the “divine Sarah”, we shall enjoy both lowbrow and highbrow entertainments, and enter the worlds of art, fashion, dance, and pure pleasure, whilst keeping an eye on the changing political scene and the awful clouds which we, with the benefit of hindsight, know were gathering.

RJW F222316 Online course (via Zoom)

10 weeks, Tuesday 10 January - Tuesday 21 March (incl., with half-term break on 14 February)

£110 (individual registration); £198 (for two people sharing one screen).