Listening 1: General Introduction Scripts
Activity 1.3: Art History Lecture
Narrator: Professor:
Listen to part of a lecture in an art history class.
We’ve been talking about the art world of the late nineteenth century in Paris, and today I’d like to look at the women who went to Paris at that time to become artists . Now, um, from your reading, what do you know about Paris … about the art world of Paris during the late nineteenth century?
Male Student: Female Student:
People came there from all over the world to study.
It had a lot of art schools and artists who taught painting . There were … our book mentions classes for women artists . And, uh, it was a good place to go to study art . If you wanted to become an artist, Paris was not a good place to go—Paris was the place to go. And women could find skilled instructors there. Um, before the late nineteenth century, if they … women who wanted to become artists had to take private lessons or learn from family members . They had more limited options than men did . But around 1870, some artists in Paris began to offer classes for female students . These classes were for women only. And by the end of the nineteenth century, it became much more common for women and men to study together in the same classes . So … so within a few decades, things had changed significantly. Uh, OK, let’s back up again and talk about the time period from the 1860s to the 1880s, and talk more about what happened in women’s art classes. In 1868, a private art academy opened in Paris—and for decades it was probably the most famous private art school in the world . Its founder, Rodolphe Julian, was a canny businessman and quickly established his school as a premiere destination for women artists. What he did was, after an initial trial period of mixed classes, he changed the school policy; he completely separated the men and women students.
Professor:
Female Student:
Any reason why he did that?
Professor:
Well, like I said, Julian was a brilliant businessman with progressive ideas—he saw that another small private art school where all the students were women was very popular at the that time, and that’s probably why he adopted the women-only classes . These classes were typically offered by, um … by established artists and were held in the studio, the … the place where they painted . This was a big deal because finally women could study art in a formal setting . And there was another benefit to the group setting of these classes . The classes included weekly criticism . And the teacher would rank the art of all the students in the class, from best to worst . How would you like it if I did that in this class?
Male student: Female student:
No way!
But our textbook said that the competitive … the competition was good for women . It helped them see where they needed to improve . Isn’t that interesting? One woman artist, um, her name was Marie Bashkirtseff.
Professor:
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