Prelude

Cats got a cat's claw house, (My daughter calls these "housetrees") Saratoga St. Central City, New Orleans, LA. photo: Francine Stock

The primeval landscape of South Louisiana fosters a gooey, sticky and otherwise fabulously verdant culture in which inspiration grows. Romantic thought and practice is evident in the Art and Architecture of the 19th and 20th centuries in New Orleans, and especially relevant in a contemporary city nostalgic for its homeland - re-imagining its future in its past.

This blog is a companion to the class ROMANTICISM in ART and ARCHITECTURE of LOUISIANA: A CASE STUDY taught by Francine Stock at Tulane University School of Architecture Fall 2011. In the class we will investigate the European roots of Romanticism and the varied aspects of Romantic thought: including a spiritual relationship to nature, fascination with the mystical and exotic, nostalgia for the primitive, melancholic engagement with death, surreal and utopian visions, paradises lost and found. Throughout the course we will track the legacy of Romanticism - its birth and re-birth in social and political revolutions.