Art History
1848-1907 Industrial Revolution II
The art of this period is familiar, since the world of the Realists, Impressionists and Post-Impressionists is much like our own. More and more people lived in cities and worked in factories or shops for wages. Scientific and technological advances increased dramatically during this period and although there was dislocation and privation, standards of living increased sharply. In essence, modern mass culture was born. Artists responded sometimes by embracing these radical changes, and at other times by resisting them. Key here is understanding the authority of the various art academies in Europe, which controlled matters related to taste and art, and which were, to some extent, always connected to the government. A small number of artists rebelled against the strictures of the academy, and against the demand for art to tell clear stories for a middle class audience, and formed what we know as the “avant-garde.”
Pre-Raphaelites
In 1848, a small group of young artists banded together and formed “The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood,” a name which sounds intentionally backward-looking and medieval. The Pre-Raphaelites looked back to art before the time of Raphael (before about 1500 that is)—before the art of the Renaissance was reduced to formulas followed for centuries by artists associated with the art academies of Europe. Their idea was that the art before Raphael was more sincere, more true to nature and how we see, and therefore less formulaic. These artists also embraced a wide range of subjects, including modern life, biblical and literary subjects, and even history. By looking backwards, the Pre-Raphaelites led British art into the modern era.
- Hunt, Claudio and Isabella
- Hunt, Our English Coasts ("Strayed Sheep")
- Hunt, The Awakening Conscience
- Sir John Everett Millais, Ophelia
- Sir John Everett Millais, Christ in the House of His Parents
- Millais, Mariana
- Millais, The Vale of Rest
- Dyce's Pegwell Bay, Kent - a Recollection of October 5th 1858
- John Roddam Spencer Stanhope, Thoughts of the Past
- Burne-Jones, King Cophetua and the Beggar Maid
- Burne Jones, The Golden Stairs
- Burne-Jones, Hope
- Wallis, Chatterton
- William Butterfield, All Saints, Margaret Street
Late Victorian
British art saw a return to the classical after the 1860s, not just in terms of style, but also subject matter. Alma Tadema created sensual Victorian visions of the ancient Greeks and Romans, and Leighton too rendered classicizing figures and subjects. Both of these artists, together with Sargent, were influenced by the Aesthetic Movement, where the subject or narrative of a work of art was minimized in favor of a focus on issues of form (color harmonies, line, composition).
Realism
In the mid-Nineteenth Century, great art was still defined as art that took it’s subjects from religion, history or mythology and its style from ancient Greece and Rome. Hardly what we would consider modern and appropriate for an industrial, commercial, urban culture! Courbet agreed, and so did his friend, the writer Charles Baudelaire who called for an art that would depict, as he called it, the beauty of modern life. Courbet painted the reality of life in the countryside—not the idealized peasants that were the usual fare at the exhibits in Paris. The revolution of 1848, in which both the working class and the middle class played a significant role, set the stage for Realism. Later, Manet and then Degas painted modern life in Paris, a city which was undergoing rapid modernization in the period after 1855 (the Second Empire).
- Courbet, Burial at Ornans
- Courbet, The Artist's Studio, A real allegory summing up seven years of my artistic and moral life
- Bonheur, Plowing in the Nivernais
- Bonheur, Sheep in the Highlands
- Millet, L'Angelus
- Millet, The Gleaners
- Degas, The Dance Class
- Degas, The Bellelli Family
- Degas, At the Races in the Countryside
- Degas, Visit to a Museum
- Manet, Le déjeuner sur l'herbe
- Manet, Olympia
- Manet, Émile Zola
- Manet, The Balcony
- Manet, The Railway
- Manet, Plum Brandy
- Manet, In the Conservatory
- Manet, Corner of a Café-Concert
- Manet, A Bar at the Folies-Bergère
- Homer, The Fog Warning (Halibut Fishing)
- Homer, The Life Line
Art & the French State
Despite the brief dismantling of the Royal Academy during the French Revolution, art remained an extension of the power of the French State which regularly purchased art that it favored (often art that supported its political objectives). Through the Royal Academy (originally been founded by Louis XIV), the state extended its reach to the official exhibitions (salons) and to matters of style and subject matter through the École des Beaux Arts (School of Fine Arts). These were not just the official institutions of art, they were, in essence, the only institutions available for living artists to train and to make their work known. This tutorial looks at a crucial moment for painting, on the eve of the Revolution of 1848. We also examine one of the great State commissions of the Second Empire, The Opera House, as well as The Dance, a sculpture that adorned its façade.
Impressionism
Impressionism is both a style, and the name of a group of artists who did something radical—in 1874 they banded together and held their own independent exhibition. These artists described, in fleeting sensations of light, the new leisure pastimes of the city and its suburbs It’s hard to imagine, but at this time in France, the only place of consequence that artists could exhibit their work was the official government-sanctioned exhibitions (called salons), held just once a year, and controlled by a conservative jury. The Impressionists painted modern Paris and landscapes with a loose open brushstrokes, bright colors, and unconventional compositions—none of which was appreciated by the salon jury!
- Monet, The Argenteuil Bridge
- Monet, Gare St. Lazare
- Monet, Cliff Walk at Pourville
- Monet, Rouen Cathedral Series
- Monet, Poplars
- Monet, Water Lilies
- Gustave Caillebotte, Paris Street; Rainy Day
- Caillebotte, The Floor Scrapers
- Caillebotte, Man at his Bath
- Cassatt, In the Loge
- Cassatt, The Loge
- Cassatt, Woman with a Pearl Necklace in a Loge
- Cassatt, Breakfast in Bed
- Cassatt, The Child's Bath
- Morisot, The Mother and Sister of the Artist
- Renoir, Moulin de la Galette
- Renoir, La Loge
- Renoir, The Grands Boulevards
- Renoir, The Large Bathers
Post-Impressionism
The work of van Gogh, Gauguin, Cézanne and Seurat together constitute Post-Impressionism and yet their work is so varied and unrelated, we might never otherwise think of these four artists as a group. Certainly van Gogh and Gauguin were friends and they briefly painted together, but each of these artists was concerned with solving particular issues that had to do with their own individual sensibility. Ironically, if anything ties these artists together it is this focus on subjectivity. This tutorial explores the sketchy multiperspectival views of Cézanne, Seurat’s systematized critiques of upper middle-class Paris, Gauguin’s fascination with the primitive and exotic, and van Gogh’s unerring ability to convey deeply human experiences.
- Seurat, A Sunday on La Grande Jatte
- Seurat, Bathers at Asnières
- Seurat, Young Woman Powdering Herself
- Cézanne, Still Life with Apples
- Cézanne, Still-Life with Plaster Cupid
- Cézanne, The Red Rock
- Cézanne, Bathers
- Cezanne, The Large Bathers
- Gauguin, The Red Cow
- Gauguin, Nevermore
- Van Gogh, Portrait of the Joseph Roulin
- Van Gogh, Self-Portrait Dedicated to Paul Gauguin
- Van Gogh, The Bedroom
- Toulouse-Lautrec, At the Moulin Rouge
Symbolism & Art Nouveau
The 1880s saw a shift away from the modern-life focus of Impressionism, as artists turned toward the interior self, to dreams, and myth. There was a sense that Impressionism had been too tied up with the materialism of middle-class culture. In some ways, van Gogh and Gauguin can also be seen as Symbolists. Many Symbolist belonged to groups of artists who broke away (or seceded) from the art establishment in their respective countries, to hold their own exhibitions. For example, Klimt belonged to the Vienna Secession (he was its first president), Khnopff to a similar group in Belgium called Lex XX (The Twenty), and Stuck co-founded the Munich Secession.