Late 19th Century Art

- submitted to the Salon of 1850-1851

- breaking stones down to rubble to be used for paving

- poverty emphasized

- figures born poor and will remain poor their whole lives

- reaction to labor unrest of 1848: demanding better working conditions

- large size of painting usually reserved for grand historical paintings, elevating commonplace into realm of legend and history

- men turned away: lack of individuality

The Stone Breakers

- Nadar was famous of taking aerial photos of Paris beginning in 1858

- presents Nadar as a quaky photography; in his excitement to get a daring shot he almost falls out of his balloon and loses his hat

- every building has the word "photographie" on it

- mocks claims that photography can be a "high art"; irony implied in title

- done after court decision in 1862 that determined that photographs could be considered works of art

- originally appeared in a journal: Le Boulevard

- intrusive photography: Nadar's balloon reused in the 1870 Siege of Paris

- foreshadows modern surveillance photographs

Nadar Raising Photography to the Height of Art

- created a sandal at the Salon of 1865

- traditional subject of reclining nude; inspired by Titian's Venus of Urbino

- figure cold and uninviting, no mystery/joy

- maid delivers flowers from an admirer

- common name for prostitutes of the time

- frank, direct, uncaring, and unnerving look startled viewers

- simplified modeling; active brushwork

- stark contrast of colors

- a mistress was common to upper class Parisian men

Olympia

- primarily an academic landscape painter

- specialized in broad panoramas of the Valley of Mexico

- keen observer of nature: rocks foliage, clouds, waterfalls

- rejected realist landscapes of Courbet; romantic landscapes of Turner

- settled in Villa Guadalupe w. overview of the Valley of Mexico

- dramatic perspective; small human figures

- glories Mexican countryside

The Valley of Mexico from the Hillside of Santa Isabel

- photography now advanced enough that it can capture moments the human eye cannot

- cameras snap photos at evenly spaced points along a track, giving the effect of things happening in sequence

- bridge the gap between still photography and movies

- used a zoopraxiscope

- great influence on painters

- showed "rocking horse" position in art was unrealistic

The Horse in Motion

- exhibited at the Impressionist exhibition of 1877

- one of a series depicting this train station

- Monet famous for painting series of paintings on same subject at different times of day and different days of the year

- originally meant to be hung together for effect: Haystacks were his first group to be hung this way

- effects of steam, light, and color; not really about the machines or travelers

- subtle gradation of light on the surface

- forms dissolve and dematerialize; color overwhelms the forms

The Saint-Lazare Station

- Cassatt's world filled w/ women

- no posing or acting; figures possess a natural charm

- decorative charm influenced by Japanese art

- Japanese hair style; Japanese point of view: figure seen from the back

- tenderness foreign to other Impressionists

- part of a series of ten prints exhibited together

- contrasting sensuous curves of female figure w/ straight lines of furniture and wall

- pastel color scheme

The Coiffure

- thick short brushstrokes

- mountains in distance that Van Gogh could see at his hospital room in St.-Remy, steepness exaggerated

- composite landscape: Dutch church, crescent moon, Mediterranean cypress tree

- at one w/ forces of nature

- parts of canvas can be seen through the brushwork; artist need not fill every space

- strong left-to-right wavelike impulse in work, broken only by tree and church steeple

- trees like green flames reaching into sky exploding w/ stars over a placide village; cypress tree a traditional symbol of death and eternal life

- houses w/ touches of yellow to symbolize signs of life

- church spire bridges sky and people

The Starry Night

- painted during second stay in Tahiti between 1895-1901

- suffered from poor health and poverty; obsessed by thoughts of death

- learned of death of daughter, Aline, in April 1897; deeply shaken; determined to commit suicide and have this painting be his artistic will and testament

- story of life, right to left

- right: birth, infant and three adults

- center: mid-life; picking the fruit of the world

- left: death (a figure derived from Peruvian mummy exhibited in Paris); Blue Idol represents "The Beyond"

- figures in foreground represent Tahiti and an Eden-like paradise; background figures are anguished darkened figures

- rejection of Greco-Roman influence; Egyptian figures used for inspiration; Japanese prints in solid fields of color and unusual angles; Tahitian imagery in Polynesian idol

- Gauguin thought of painting as summation of artistic and personal expression

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

- one of eleven canvases of this view, series dominates Cezanne's mature period

- had contempt for flat painting, wanted rounded and firm objects but ones that were geometric constructions made from splashes of undiluted color

- used perspective through juxtaposing forward warm colors w/ receding cool colors

- landscape rarely contains humans

0 not in countryside of Impressionism, more interested in geometric forms than dappled effects of light

- not a momentary glimpse of atmosphere as in the Impressionists, but a solid and firmly constructed mountain and foreground

- landscape seen from an elevation

- invited to look at space, but not enter

Mont Sainte-Victoire

- figure walking along a wharf, boats are at sea in the distance

- long thick brushstrokes swirl around composition

- figure cries out in horrifying scream, the landscape echoes his emotions

- said to have been inspired by an exhibit of a Peruvian mummy in Paris

- discordant colors symbolize anguish

- emaciated twisting stick figure w/ skull-like head

- prefigures Expressionist art

- painted of a series called The Frieze of Life

- Art Nouveau swirling patterns

The Scream

- little of human form is actually seen: two heads, four hands, two feet

- bodies suggested under a sea of richly designed patterning

- male figure has large rectangular boxes; female figure has circular forms

- suggests all-consuming love; passion; eroticism

- spaced in indeterminate location against flattened background

- gold leaf reminiscent of Byzantine mosaics

The Kiss

- horizontal emphasis symbolizes continuous flow of floor space

- maximum window areas to admit light, also to display store wares

- non supportive role of exterior

- cast iron decorative elements transformed store into beautiful place to buy beautiful things

- influence of Art Nouveau in decorative touches

- Sullivan motto: "form follows function"

- exterior coated in decorative terracotta tiles; original interior ornament elaborately arranged around lobby areas, hallways, elevator

- some historical touches in the round entrance arches and heavy cornice at top of building

Carson, Pirie, Scott and Company Building

- six burghers offer their lives to the English king in return for saving their besieged city during the Hundred Years' War; English king insister burghers wear sackcloths and carry the key to the city

- parallels between Paris besieged during the Franco=Prussian War of 1870 and Calais besieged by the English in 1347

- figures sculpted individually, then arranged as the artist thought best

- figures suffer from privation; weak and emaciated

- each w/ different emotion

- central figure: Eustache de Saint-Pierre, who has large swollen hands an noose around neck, ready for execution

- details reduced to emphasize overall impression

- meant to be placed at ground level so people could see it close up; viewer forced to confront humanized individuals

- rejected by town council of Calais as being inglorious; they wanted single allegorical figure

- BIG BECAUSE NOT HAILED AS HEROES, BUT JUST PATHETIC HUMANS

The Burghers of Calais