Themes and Movements Quiz 3

Juste Milieu

“Ideal compromise,” a style that represented a happy medium between traditional academic classicism & more radical styles of Romanticism, Realism, & Impressionism. Alexandre Cabanel “The Birth of Venus”, Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux “The Dance”

Orientalism

1800s, the depiction of aspects of North African and Middle Eastern cultures by Western artists. These fabricated depictions often incorporated broad stereotypes that represent the subjects as overly erotic or barbaric and ultimately as inferior to European cultures. Paintings act as propaganda to justify colonial presence in these countries. Jean-Leon-Gerome was the most famous orientalist painter.

4 Things missing from Orientalist Painting

1. History - Suggests the civilizations don’t progress like European ones do

2. European people

3. Art - Artists like Gerome wanted their works seen as authentic documentation rather than created or fabricated work

4. Industry - Depicts these people as lazy, unproductive, state of disrepair

Jean-Leon Gerome

The most famous orientalist painter, very meticulous style, he captured all of the details of people and their environments, his paintings looked less like paintings and more like documentary as he disguised his brushstrokes. The realism suggests it is authentic, so the public took it as such. However it was not entirely accurate and was a fabricated world. Women are almost always represented as objectified and eroticized, nude, vulnerable, figures. Suggested men had dominance over women, and that European men were above those men. Many of these men worked for the state, so there was a reason for these narratives to be pushed. “The Snake Charmer” 1870, “The Slave Market” 1865

Daguerreotype

The 1st commercially viable form of photography, it consisted of a silver-coated copper plate exposed to light in a camera, then fumed w/mercury vapor & fixed by a solution of common salt, forming a permanent image - Daguerre

Calotype

An early photographic process in which a sheet of paper coated w/silver chloride was exposed to light producing a negative image that could be made positive and reproduced - Henry Fox Talbot was the first person to make a book using photography

Avant-Garde

“Advanced guard,” originally a French military term used to describe scouts who surveyed ahead of the army, later used to describe artists working in advance of accepted styles & subject matter. Prior to the mid part of the 1800s, the taste in art was held in the hands of Academies, but people began challenging this status quo. If something is ahead of its time or challenging the status quo it is avant garde, same if its unique and original in style or subject matter.

Gustave Courbet

Pioneered Realism, one of the first avant-garde artists. Depicted subjects truthfully as they were, without artificiality, idealization or glorification. Focused on common French people and those of the lowest classes. Can’t see faces, forces viewers to identify with the people. “The Stone Breakers” 1849, “A Burial at Ornans” 1849

Realism

An art movement beginning around 1850, that rejected the exotic subject matter & exaggerated emotionalism & drama of Romanticism & the idealization of Academic painting, attempting instead to represent subject matter truthfully without artificiality or artistic conventions, accredited to Gustave Courbet. From this point on art is made not for a patron but for the public in hopes of it being sold.

Flaneur

“Stroller,” an individualistic figure of 19th century France who carried a set of rich associations: the man of leisure, the idler, the urban explorer, the connoisseur of the street.

Edouard Manet

Transitional paintings between realism and impressionism. Embodies the painter of modern life (Flaneur). His paintings often critique what was going on in current culture. Loose and expressive brushstrokes, no chiaroscuro or atmospheric perspective. He’s rejecting the standards of academic painting. A realist painter, though he didn’t consider himself one. Avant-garde, painted common people like laborers. “Olympia” 1863, “Music in the Tuileres” 1862

En Plein Air

Painting executed outdoors on-site, usually Impressionism

Impressionism

Influenced heavily by Manet, describes a fleeting moment, especially the quality of light and color, energetic, more abstract, rejected line and form and painted color. Claude Monet “Woman With a Parasol”, Camille Pissarro “Boulevard Montmartre at Night”

1. Defined by the rejection of chiaroscuro and atmospheric perspective

2. Focuses on momentary effects of light and color as painted en plein air

3. Emphasis of brush strokes

4. Modern Subject matter

   1. Less self aware and politically charged though, just lighthearted subject matter, the pleasures of modern life

Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Impressionist, painted the figure and groups of people, captured the social energy of the time. Light dancing reflects the people’s dancing. More formally constructed figures, but the edges were feathered. His pieces read as sentimental, contemporary take on the banquet scenes of the Renaissance. “Luncheon of the Boating Party” 1880-1881, “Moulin de la Galette” 1876

Claude Monet

One of the first impressionist artists, defines people by the color that lights them, not line or chiaroscuro. Credited with the name Impressionism as a critic said his piece felt like an impression. Often painted modern subject matter. “Impression: Sunrise” 1872, “Woman with a Parasol” 1875