Portraits and Self-Portraits Series: Questioning the Self, From Symbolism to Expressionism

Event Description

An online art history lecture by Gilles Genty

The 18th century had placed its faith in reason, but by the late 19th century, that certainty was beginning to crack. As industrial modernity accelerated and old beliefs crumbled, a quiet existential dread crept into the minds of artists and writers alike. Could science and logic alone explain suffering, madness, or the meaning of life? From Van Gogh to Munch and George Grosz, the self-portrait became a haunted, mesmerizing space of inquiry: a mirror held up not to status or likeness, but to the fragmented inner self. 

A compelling aesthetic and social journey through the works of Renoir, Degas, Manet, Girodet, Delacroix, and Courbet.

This lecture is part of the series Portraits and Self-Portraits: From Jacques-Louis David to Andy Warhol (1770–1970). This series explores the art of portraiture through the evolution of artistic media and approaches to representation, from painting to photography, while examining the changing relationship between artist and subject across time.

Presented in French

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