Ordinary People - Paintings and Prints of Everyday Life from Bruegel to Hopper

Overview

What you will study

Compared with the narrative complexities and learned references of history painting, the art of everyday life appears uncomplicated, and itself often contributed to the fiction of an unmediated representation of the ‘here and now’. Particularly in the early modern period, this art was widely characterised by an exceptional naturalism, or even illusionism that signalled authenticity to the viewer, suggesting that the depiction faithfully reflected the actuality of its real-world referents. On closer inspection, we see that many of these works are in fact underpinned by sophisticated artistic strategies, and variously contain symbolism, rhetorical flourishes, moral messages, and provocations to the viewer. Possessing considerable ideological heft, such art contributed to wider contemporary debates about the poor, the place of women in society, ‘modernity’, industrialisation and urbanisation, and other important contexts to be explored by our lecturers. This Ordinary People - Paintings and Prints of Everyday Life from Bruegel to Hopper course offered by The Courtauld Institute of Art will explore this subject.