Art History Final Fall 2025

ARHI 2400 Units 3 and 4

Rococo

lightness, pastels, dainty forms, painterly brushstrokes

• shift from Baroque style

• began as an architectural style

• shift from classical subject matter to modern themes (leisure activities)

• smaller scale paintings

Antoine Watteau, The Pleasures of the Ball (Les Plaisirs du Bal), c. 1715–17, oil on canvas, 65.2 x 52.5 cm

• father of Rococo painting

• light, loose feathery brushwork

• asymmetry, no specific focal point—viewer floats through painting

• upper class leisure activities - expensive dress, dancing, chatting, dog, music (assumed)

• two young black men - striped clothes (servants)—Watteau’s main patrons were plantation owners (slave trade)

• Watteau applied to the Academy as a history painter but accepted as Fêtes galantes (less prestigious, couldn;t teach)

Jean-Honoré Fragonard, The Swing, oil on canvas, 1767

• Rococo

• commissioned by a wealthy man

• shift to more erotic undertones, leisure activities allow artist to show legs (she’s swinging, etc)

• girl on swing, old man pushing the swing (her husband)

• Affair: young man sitting looking up her skirt, woman making eye contact with him

• dog is symbol of fidelity but is barking (disloyalty—affair)

• angel statue shushing (secret of the affair)

• inverted V composition

Neoclassicism

“correct forms,” clear attention to detail, somber colors, strong lines (timeless), classical subject matter

Jacques-Louis David, Oath of the Horatii, 1784, oil on canvas, 3.3 x 4.25 m

• classical education, trains in studio, wins Priz de Rome (studies in Italy)

• neoclassicism

• Roman legend - conflict, representatives selected to fight—Horatii - 3 brothers fighting for Rome (left), swearing to protect

• women (right) grieving because no matter what they will lose someone (married into other family)

• moment that must have preceded the battle

• geometric composition - 3 arches frame brothers, father, women

• lesson/moral - country valued over obligations

• displayed in salon (people were able to see the art), arranged by category

Benjamin West, The Death of General Wolfe, 1770, oil on canvas, 152.6 x 214.5 cm

• raised in America but trains in Italy and lives in London to found Royal Academy of Art 

• neoclassicism

• history painter but departs from conventions—not from bible (contemporary event: 7 yrs war), contemporary outfits instead of suggested togas (wanted to portray the “truth”)

• major general wounded in battle, man running in to announce win

• general posed like Christ, alluding him to a sacrifice

Romanticisim

loose, fluid brush strokes, expressive gestures, dramatic contrasts, strong colors (reminiscent of Baroque)

Eugène Delacroix, The Death of Sardanapalus, 1827, oil on canvas, 12 ft 10 in x 16 ft 3 in. (3.92 x 4.96m)

• Romanticism

• subject of a play - King orders for violent destruction of everything that brings him joy before his suicide

• dominated by red color

• composition: swirling movement with King on top, diagonals

• death and destruction—woman being murdered, horse violently pulled

• different cultures depicted - artist traveled the world (orientalism)

Jean-Léon Gérôme, Snake Charmer, c. 1879, oil on canvas

• naked boy performing with serpent while man plays the flute

• orientalism—depicts scene as if he witnessed it himself, implies nudity is normal there; scene is invented; merged many different cultures into one stereotypical monolith

• Arabic country, background resembles mosque (nudity inappropriate)

• detailed, naturalistic style

Realism

accurate, objective depiction of everyday life and ordinary people

Gustave Courbet, A Burial at Ornans, begun late summer 1849, completed 1850, 124 x 260 inches, oil on canvas

• realism

• funeral - dressed in black/gray (shown “as it was”)

• large scale (typically depicted divine but this is everyday people)

• shift in idea of who can be painted—everyone

Édouard Manet, Olympia, 1863, oil on canvas, 130 x 190 cm

• realism

• inspired by Titian’s Venus of Urbino

• real woman (not mythology), features not idealized

• sex worker (Olympia is a pseudonym for prostitutes)

• maid presenting her flowers; jewelry, fancy sheets, etc (wealth)

• expression (looking at viewer—intruder), hand placement -  shows she does not enjoy the male eye

• flower offering implies visitor (viewer?)

• pale contrasting skin tone draws eye to her

• disliked by public, thought she was ugly

Impressionism

landscapes, moment in time, visible brush strokes, bright pure color, playing with light

• considered “ground breaking,” 30 artists organized an exhibit because they kept getting rejected from salon—didn’t fit with ideals (blending, historical, etc); highly critiqued, work thought of as “sketches”

• Americans accepted movement before Europeans

• continued from realism: landscapes, middle class leisure, everyday life

Claude Monet, Impression: Sunrise, 1873

• impressionism - landscape, bright colors, visible brushstrokes

• quickly painted outdoors (plein air)—oil paint now in tubes (transportable)

• purchased from impressionist exhibit

Mary Cassatt, Woman in a Loge (At the Opera), 1879

• American but lived in Paris

• subjects she has access to - domestic social life of upper middle class women

• Paris Opera House - “go and be seen about,” scenes for impressionists

• shows intermission at opera (illuminated)

• woman is look at the other people, man is looking at her, (we form 3rd point—places us in the scene)

• loose brushwork (black dress)

Georges Seurat, Saturday Afternoon on La Grande Jatte, 1884–6

• post impressionism - pointillism

• optical color theory - experimented with placing colors side by side

• illusionistic perspective

• upper-middle class leisure, green space in the modern city

Paul Cézanne, Mont Sainte-Victoire, 1902-04, oil on canvas, 73 x 91.9 cm (Philadelphia Museum of Art)

• how we perceive the world as we walk through it, expressed in one painting

• painted multiple times, more abstracted than the first

• looks unfinished, can see through to canvas

• lends to cubism

Germain Boffrand and Chalres-Joseph Natoire, Salon de la Princesse, Hôtel de Soubise (Paris, 1736–9)

• Rococo - elaborate and large, light and airy (many windows to let light in, ornamentation, mirrors), flamboyance

• room is for the princess for entertaining purposes

William Thornton, B. H. Latrobe, Charles Bulfinch, and Thomas U. Walter, and others, United States Capitol (Washington, D.C., c. 1793– 1828, 1851–7, and 1856–63)

• Neoclassical architects found Rococo to gaudy and thought architecture should be returned to its purest form

• grand scale, simple geometric forms

• little ornamentation—blank walls

• Greek/Roman details - inspired by the Pantheon (Rome)

• combined ideas from multiple architects

• made with material to look like marble 

Karl Friedrich Schinkel, Altes Museum (Berlin, 1823–30)

• Neoclassical—Greek revival - 18 ionic collumns

• interior has rotunda (not greek)

Charles Barry and A.W.N. Pugin, Houses of Parliament (London, 1835– 68)

• old building burns down, rebuild it in Neoclassical or Gothic style? Gothic because:

  • harmony, return to orderly society of the middle ages

  • believed style originated in England (English nationalism)

  • honest form of architecture - everything structural contributed to building, spires contribute to form

• Barry (neoclassical architect) designs structure, Pugin (Gothic) adds ornamentation (but was unhappy with the combination)

Gilman, Kendall & Post, Equitable Life Assurance Company Building (New York City, 1868–70)

• first skyscraper (not called that at the time)

• not crazy tall but significantly taller than is wide

Joseph Nicéphore Niépce, View from the Window at Le Gras, 1826

• “heliography” (sun drawing)

• first permanently fixed image on paper

• chemicals and light to create a reaction (early photography)

• secretive about how he took the image

• very long exposure (multiple days) so fuzzy appearance

• works with Daguerre, who shortens exposure time and creates Daguerreotypes

Alexander Gardner, Home of a Rebel Sharpshooter, 1863

• dead confederate soldier killed during battle—shows aftermath from Civil War (exposure time too slow to capture battle)

• published photographic sketchbook of Civil War

• photo was posed and he used his own gun (lied and said the scene was still there when he returned months later)

Eadweard Muybridge, Horse Galloping, 1878

• sets up multiple cameras attached to a trip wire to get contiguous photos; looks like moving images

• showed society that during a gallop there is a point where none of the horse’s hooves touch the ground

• scientific side of photography

Lewis Hine, Child in Carolina Cotton Mill, 1908

• muckraker - documented poor working conditions for societal change

• after Civil War they needed labor so they hired children who they could pay less; dangerous machinery

• documents child labor for for National Child Labor committee

• Congress passes minimum age and maximum hours

• conveys idea that these photos are what is actually happening (photojournalism)

Alfred Stieglitz, The Steerage, 1907

• pictorialist - elevate photography to the status of fine art

• ship of people but more interest in shapes and lines for overall composition than the specific subject matter

• ideas of abstraction (like with European art at the time)

Academy (Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture)

France’s leading national institution for artistic training and exhibition; emphasized classical, traditional, hierarchical genres of art, and precision in drawing, rejecting avant-garde tendencies

• paintings over sculpture

hierarchy of genres

Academy’s ranking of types of art:

• History painting - classical tradition (bible/allegories), largest; most impressive since they could not use a reference

• Portraiture - likeness (copying nature)

• Genre painting - scenes of everyday life (no moral message)

• Landscapes - representation or rural/urban topography, real or imagined

• Still life paintings - inanimate object (luxury goods), no figures or invention (least impressive)

Enlightenment

European intellectual movement of the 17th/81th centuries with revolutionary developments in art, philosophy and politics; criticized monarchs/elites 

• paintings should have a message and convey ideas of the Enlightenment (criticized Rococo)

• reason, liberty, individual rights

French Revolution

period of political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the Coup of 18 Brumaire in 1999

orientalism

the Western portral of Eastern cultures (“Orient”) marked by stereotypes, cultural superiority, and a binary distinction that positions the “Orient” as exotic and backward compared to the “Occident”

Industrial Revolution

a period of scientific and technological development in the late 18th century that transformed largely rural, agrarian societies (especially in Europe and North America) into industrialized urban ones

en plein air

“out of doors” practice of painting entire finished pictures outdoors

• impressionism (Monet)

haussmanisation

the rebuilding of Paris by chief architect Baron Haussmann in the mid 19th century

• Paris was “nasty,” so he opened up the city (connected it), improved sanitation, water supply, traffic circulation

• became a subject for Impressionists

Japonisme

experimentation with a wide range of pictorial modes, and printmaking techniques inspired by the growing popularity of Japanese woodcuts during the 1890s

• ukiyo-e prints

• Van Gogh and Cassatt heavily inspired by

pointillism

painting technique that uses tiny dots of various pure colors, which become blended in the viewers eye; developed by Seurat to produce greater degree of luminosity and brilliance in color

Grand Tour

a cultural tour of Europe typically taken by 18th century young upper-class men as part of their education

• exposure to classical art and architecture influenced the Neoclassical movement (Greek and Gothic revival)

• The Antiquities of Athens - book by englush architects to teach architects about Greek/Neoclassical styles (Greek revival)

skyscraper

a building with significant height, passenger elevators, and a metal frame (iron allows for building taller, invention of steel)

• originates in urban America (NYC, Chicago)

• land was expensive so built up rather than out

camera obscura

a darkened room with a small hole (lens) at one side through which an image is projected onto a wall or table opposite the hole (upside down)

• since the 15th century (before Daguerre)

Daguerreotype

first publicly available photographic process; direct positive process, creating a highly detailed image on a sheet of copper plated with a thin coat of silver without use of a negative

• widely used 1840s-50s

• fragile, had to be framed

• detailed, shorter exposure time (10 min?)

Calotype

early photographic process introduced in 1841 by William Henry Fox Talbot, using paper coated with silver iodine; creates a negative that can be printed to a positive (basis of all photography pre-digital)

• exposure time shortened to 30s-1min

Pictorialism

an approach to photography that emphasizes the beauty of subject matter, tonality, and composition rather than documentation of reality (artistic side of photography)

Henri Matisse, Le Bonheur de Vivre (The Joy of Life), 1905–6

• fauvism

• inspo from Cezanne (post-impressionist)

• unnaturalistic/radical color palette

• harsh outlines

• distorted scale invites you to enter the space

• primitivism (pre-industrialized society)

Pablo Picasso, Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (The Young Ladies of Avignon), 1907

• cubism

• large pinkish shapes form figures, angular lines

• inspo from African art

• subjects are sex workers

• Picasso’s misogynistic tendency to objectify women

Wassily Kandinsky, Composition VII, 1913

• expressionism, abstraction

• chaotic, loud

• doesn’t really depict anything in particular

• clatter, conflict, violent energies

• comparing art to music (tone, harmony)

Umberto Boccioni, Unique Forms of Continuity in Space, 1913

• futurism

• figure made of swirling forms

• one of Italy’s most celebrated works (displayed on coin)

Marcel Duchamp, Fountain, 1917

• Dada

• urinal “repurposed” for art

• didn’t make it himself but he “chose” it (ready made)—controversial, rejected from galleries

• questions what can be considered art?

Pablo Picasso, Three Women at a Spring, 1921

• Return to Order - more naturalistic and rendered than previous works; after war, less interest in fragmented figures

• stable, solid, heavy figures

• Neoclassism inspo - togas (resemble columns)

• post war - eventually returns to cubism

Theo van Doesburg, Composition VIII (The Cow), 1918, oil on canvas, 37.5 x 63.5 cm

• neoplasticism

• 14 colored rectangles scattered evenly, none overlapping but some touching

• started with idea of a cow but deconstructed it until it was more and more abstract (not pure abstraction because it still represents a subject)

• biol down art to simplest forms

André Masson, Battle of Fishes, 1926

Mario Sironi, Italia tra le arti e le scienze (Italy Among the Arts and Sciences), 1935, 140 square meters

George Bellows, Cliff Dwellers, 1913

Horace Pippin, Mr. Prejudice, 1943

Aaron Douglas, From Slavery Through Reconstruction from the mural cycle Aspects of Negro Life, 1934

Jackson Pollock, Full Fathom Five, 1947

Mark Rothko, No. 3/No. 13, 1949

Robert Rauschenberg, Erased de Kooning Drawing, 1953

Andy Warhol, Marilyn Diptych, 1962

Barbara Kruger, Untitled (Your body is a battleground), 1989

Yoko Ono, Cut Piece, 1964

Joseph Kosuth, One and Three Chairs, 1965

Eleanor Antin, Carving: A Traditional Sculpture, 1973

Judy Chicago, The Dinner Party, 1974–9, Brooklyn Museum

Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Untitled (Ross), 1991

Yinka Shonibare CBE, The Swing (after Fragonard), 2001, mannequin, cotton costume, 2 slippers, swing seat, 2 ropes, oak twig and artificial foliage

Fauvism

Primitivism

Cubism

Expressionism

A

Abstraction

Dada

Readymade

Return to order

Neoplasticism

Surrealism

Automatism

Fascism

Ashcan School

Social Realism

Harlem Renaissance

WPA

Abstract Expressionism

Action Painting

Color Field

Neo Dada

Pop Art

Appropriation

Postmodernism

Performance Art

Conceptual Art

Culture Jamming