Dr. Jeanne S. M. Willette – 3/12/19
Dr. Jeanne Willette unfortunately passed away in early 2019. She supported thousands of students in their exploration of art history during her career and was a valued colleague. This site, Art History Unstuffed, was one of her major contributions to those studying this field. Without Dr. Willette this site is not being updated with new content. While her web master, with support from her two sons, continues to maintain the site for the time being, a new generation of Art Historians is needed to carry the site into the future. If you are interested in participating or have other suggestions for this site, please click here to leave a note.
On line. At your convenience. In your own time. On your own terms.
For too long art history has been held hostage by scholars speaking to scholars and not to people. The purpose of this site is to educate and to inform and to do so with respect to the intelligence of the readers. Designed as a site for serious students of art history in need of solid substantive material, Art History Unstuffed is written for Twenty-First-century learners who prefer reading “text-bytes” and “sound-bytes” of targeted information.
Written by Dr. Jeanne S. M. Willette, a published scholar who has researched and consolidated both well-respected classical sources and vetted the latest research, this site creates a middle ground between arcane scholarly jargon and informed discourse and presents a detailed account of Modern, Postmodern, Philosophy and Theory that is accessible to all readers interested in the history of the modern and contemporary periods.
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Art History Unstuffed is listed on the ACI Scholarly Blog Index.
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Episode 19: Romanticism and Constable
CONSTABLE, THE PICTURESQUE, AND ENGLISH ROMANTICISM
Less famous and dramatic than his British rival, Joseph Turner, John Constable preferred the humble English countryside of his native Stour Valley. In his humble rural paintings, Constable captured his “careless boyhood” on the eve of the Industrial Revolution and froze these scenes in a nostalgic time, creating a much-loved “Constable Country.” Compared to Turner who faced change, Constable turned away and retreated into the past of his boyhood. Even though his carefully delineated and detailed depictions of the Stour Valley, Constable often painted from memory as much as from observation. “Constable Country” is a elegy to a golden past that may have never been.
Also listen to “Romanticism in England, Part One” and “Romanticism in England, Part Two” and “English Romanticism and Turner”
Episode 18: English Romanticism and Turner
TURNER, THE BEAUTIFUL, THE SUBLIME, AND ENLISH ROMANTICISM
Joseph William Mallord Turner was the most famous exponent of English Romanticism. A product of an era of war with Napoléon, the artist celebrated the rise of the British empire. Although many of his landscapes featured classical and ancient subject matter in the foreground, Turner was fascinated with the dramatic modern events. His manner of painting was innovative and unprecedented but his patriotic and often moralizing content won Turner the support of England’s most powerful art critic, John Ruskin. Turner was the painter of the beautiful but he is mostly remembered as being one of the most prominent artists of the new and unprecedented Industrial Sublime.
Also listen to “Romanticism in England, Part One”and “Romanticism in England, Part Two” and “Romanticism and Constable”
Episode 17: Romanticism in England, Part Two
NAMING LANDSCAPES IN ENGLAND
Part Two
“Nature” in England acquired a new identity after the Napoléonic Wars. In response to the completion of the Enclosure Movement and the spread of private ownership of vast expanses of land, an economic response to profit opportunities was interpreted through several new aesthetic theories that are uniquely English. Landscapes were divided into categories: the Sublime and the Beautiful and the Picturesque. Linked to English literature—novels and poetry—the “picturesque” is a very English form of landscape which inspired many important theoretical writings that defined the nostalgic elegiac English countryside.
Also listen to “Romanticism in England, Part One” and “English Romanticism and Turner” and “Romanticism and Constable”
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The Construction of a Discourse, 1910-1914
Creating a Culture of Cyber Criticism
Volume One: Blindness (Volume 1)
Dr. Willette is currently completing an entirely new kind of book on design, a book that is multi-modal. Offering multiple modes of output, this book offers the readers several ways of receiving information, slide shows, podcasts, texts and images. The interactive book, Design and the Avant-Garde, 1920-1940, will be divided into several volumes. Volume One will focus on the interconnections between art and design at the fine-de-siècle period, leading up to the creation of “modern” design.