Chapter 21: Late-Nineteenth-Century Art

Japonisme

an attraction for Japanese art and artifacts that were imported into Europe in the late nineteenth century

Lithography

a printmaking technique that uses a flat stone surface as a base. The artist draws an image with a special crayon that attracts ink. Paper, which absorbs the ink, is applied to the surface and a print emerges

Caricature

a drawing that uses distortion or exaggeration of someone’s physical features or apparel in order to make that person look foolish

Modernism

a movement begun in the late nineteenth century in which artists embraced the current at the expense of the traditional in both subject matter and in media. Modernist artists often seek to question the very nature of art itself

Plein-air

painting in the outdoors to directly capture the effects of light and atmosphere on a given object

Positivism

a theory that expresses that all knowledge must come from proven ideas based on science or scientific theory; a philosophy promoted by French philosopher Auguste Comte (1798–1857)

Skeleton

the supporting interior framework of a building

Zoopraxiscope

a device that projects sequences of photographs to give the illusion of movement

Avant-garde

an innovative group of artists who generally reject traditional approaches in favor of a more experimental technique

Drypoint

an engraving technique in which a steel needle is used to incise lines in a metal plate. The rough burr at the sides of the incised lines yields a velvety black tone in the print

Aquatint

a kind of print that achieves a watercolor effect by using acids that dissolve onto a copper plate

Realist painters

They believe in depicting things that can be experienced with the five senses.

The Stone Breakers

* By Gustave Courbet (1849)
* Browns and ochres are dominant hues reflecting the drudgery of peasant life.
* Reaction to labor unrest of 1848, which demanded better working conditions.

Nadar Raising Photography to the Height of Art

* By Honoré Daumier (1862)
* Originally appeared in a journal, Le Boulevard, as a mass-produced lithograph.
* The print satirizes the claims that photography can be a “high art;” irony implied in title.

Olympia

* By Édouard Manet (1863)
* The maid delivers flowers from an admirer; a cat responds to our entry into the room.
* Manet creates a dialogue between the nude prostitute and the clothed black servant

The Valley of Mexico from the Hillside of Santa Isabel (El Valle de México desde el Cerro de Santa Isabel)

* By Jose María Velasco (1882)
* The painting depicts Tepeyac and offers a sweeping view of the Valley

Jose María Velasco

He rejected the realist landscapes of Courbet; he preferred the romantic landscapes of Turner.

Leland Stanford

**The Horse in Motion** is hired by ________ to settle a bet to see if a horse’s four hooves could be off the ground at the same time during a natural gallop.

The Horse in Motion

* By Eadweard Muybridge (1878)
* Albumen Print
* zoopraxiscope is used; very fast shutter speeds, nearly 1/2000th of a second.


* One photograph with sixteen separate images of a horse galloping.

avant-garde

Impressionism is a modernist movement led by ____ artists.

bourgeois

Impressionism was originally anti-academic and anti-bourgeois, but it is now seen as the hallmark of ____ taste.

The Saint-Lazare Station

* By Claude Monet (1877)
* The painting depicts the interior of a train station in Paris
* Shows modern life in Paris with great industrial iron output

The Coiffure

* By Mary Cassatt (1890–1891)
* The work contains contrasting sensuous curves of the female figure with straight lines of the furniture and wall.
* Japanese influence

Starry Night

* By Vincent van Gogh (1889)
* Heavy application of paint called impasto.
* Dutch church, crescent moon, Mediterranean cypress tree.

Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?

* By Paul Gauguin (1897–1898)
* Gauguin thought the painting was a summation of his artistic and personal expression.
* The figures in foreground represent Tahiti and an Eden-like paradise; background figures are anguished, darkened figures.

Mont Saint-Victoire

* By Paul Gauguin (1902–1904)
* Used perspective through juxtaposing forward warm colors with receding cool colors.
* One of 11 canvases of this view painted near his studio in Aix in the south of France; the series dominates Cézanne’s mature period.

The Scream

* By Edvard Munch (1893)
* The figure cries out in a horrifying scream; the landscape echoes his ­emotions.
* Said to have been inspired by an exhibit of a Peruvian mummy in Paris.

The Kiss

* By Gustav Klimt (1907–1908)
* The bodies are suggested under a sea of richly designed patterning.
* The work suggests all-consuming love; passion; eroticism.
* The use of gold leaf is reminiscent of Byzantine mosaics

Louis Sullivan, Carson, Pirie, Scott Building

* Horizontal emphasis on the exterior mirrors the continuous flow of floor space on the interior.
* The architect designed maximum window areas to admit light, but also to make displays visible from the street.
* A department store on a fashionable street in Chicago.

The Burghers of Calais

* By Auguste Rodin (1884–1895)
* Commissioned by the town of Calais in 1885 to commemorate six burghers who offered their lives to the English king
* Concentrates on the figures’ misery, doubt, and internal conflict.