Humanities 30: Modernist Paris Unit 1

Louis XIV (1683-1715)

• Centralized power in France, heavily influenced French art, architecture ( Versailles), fashion, and culture; promoted the arts to glorify his rule.

• Promoted absolutism and divine right of kings.

• Had mini kingdoms basically with mini castles (feudalism)

• The king wasn’t the most important because the rules in these towns were ruling over everyone

• His father died when he was 4 years old

• He technically inherited the throne and became king but since he was still so young his Mother was the acting monarch

• Some people tried to push Louis out by going to his bedroom and breaking in where he was pretending to be asleep (he was a child atp)

• At this point he knew he had to convince others that he had to be in power

• He used propaganda (filtered/spun information) propagated/enforced absolutism was the political philosophy used by Louis XIV, France's most powerful and dominant monarch who ruled from the mid 1600s to early 1700s, to establish and maintain his power. The central tenet of absolutism is that the authority of the King comes directly from God, and that to challenge the King was equivalent to blasphemy.

• He was able to get Priests on board

• He had to get other nobles on board though because they were more likely to betray him

• Keep his enemies close he made Versailles. Constructed in 1664-1710

• Decreed that all nobles had to live there

• Had many spies there and kept a close eye on them

• Garden alone was 800 acres. Mile long artificial canal in the center of it. Reenacted war battles in there with navy boats. 200,000 trees and had water delivery systems, piped water uphill to make fountains work, oriented canals as such to rise directly in front and go back on his Birthday

What he is saying by building these things

“I control the seasons”

-Water (fountains)

-Animals (zoo)

-Sun setting

• All about control, nothing was natural, gardeners no wildflowers

• Hall of Mirrors- people had never seen anything like it. Oriented so the sun is maximally visible

• Made everyone live there and kept them busy constantly so that they had no time to plot. Many events and activities so they would be busy

• Louis was the star of the Opera (lead) Top artists came to France and worked for Louis. Would constantly want Louis' attention, everything was a ceremony. Even giving him his bedtime robe was a ceremony

• He created he Bureaucracy of arts- French academics

Impact:

• Started the idea of academic art in Paris

• Paint subjects that they said and what they considered good vs bad

• Created the bureaucracy of arts for French Academics

• Controlled the arts and who entered into the Paris Salon

• He created this anti religion for france because since he told the people that god chose him they began to not like God. To this day we see it because France is a country that has freedom from religion. Their national anthem doesn’t mention God, and their declaration of the rights of man mention power comes from the people, not God

• After bastille day hey took away Louis XIV from Versailles and they deconsecrated the churches and outlawed the Catholic Church. Deconsecrate is to take away the altar so it is no longer a holy place

Martin Luther (1483-1546)

• Initiated the Protestant Reformation, opposed Catholic hierarchy and corruption, a key shift in European religious and social structure.

• Impacted power structures & ideas about individual choice & religion, leading to Enlightenment

• 95 theses- a list of 95 questions/concerns with the corruption in the catholic church. Central issue was indulgences which rich people could pay for

Louis XVI (1754-1793)

• King of France during the French Revolution.

• Last king before republic. A symbol of monarchy’s lavishness. He was executed in 1793 as revolution shifted to a republic.

• Grandson of Louis XIV

Marie Antoinette (1755-1793) 

• She was queen of France, viewed as indifferent to the poor. She became a symbol of aristocratic privilege and was also executed.

• Wife to Louis XVI, married into the family as a teenager.

Olympe de Gouges (1748-1793)

• She was an early feminist who published the Declaration of the Rights of Woman in response to male-only rights documents. Executed during the Terror

Maximilien Robespierre (1758-1794)

• Leader of the Jacobins during the Reign of Terror. Later led in establishment of Republic.

• He promoted radical change and violence against the high class. Was overthrown and executed.

Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821)

• He rose to power after the Revolution during the Directory. Later he declared himself emperor and exported revolutionary ideas across Europe.

• Went to military school. He reinstated slavery

Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867)

• Radical poet, bad boy of modern life (Les Fleurs du Mal, his banned poems)

• He challenged moral, political, and aesthetic norms. Introduced the “dandy” character, and started the artist movement of Symbolists who embraced modern art as heroic. Emphasized beauty in everyday urban life- even in criminals, prostitutes, and poverty.

• Art critic of salons. Advocated for modern contemporary art.

• Was paradoxical due modernity vs. tradition (Ex: Despised photography, thought an actual person should create art and not a machine BUT liked being photographed) Loved both beauty and darkness of art (Wrote poems such as the “The Carcass” or “The Vampire”) He also embraced the eternal and the temporary, arguing that artist should capture what’s ephemeral, in a sense that is also timeless. He was a “dandy” who alienated himself from the crowd, but considers himself as a flaneur, someone who idles among the crowd of Paris.

• Would take drugs (opium) and sleep with a lot of women

• Journalism is how he made money, his specialism was being an art critic

Jeanne Duval (1820)

Baudelaire’s main muse and lover of his poems. Mixed race.

Edouard Manet (1832-1883)

• Highly inspired by Baudelaire’s critique on modern life and Modernist movement. Painted scenes of modern urban life.

• Rejected by THE famous Salon art contest. Featured in Salon des Refuses. Famous for controversial Luncheon on the Grass.

• Best friend to Baudelaire

• Pioneered Impressionism

Honore Daumier (1808-1879)

Political satirist of the times, a banned artist, did caricatures

Gustave Courbet (1819-1877)

• Realist painter, grew up in the working class. He was self taught and painted the Stonebreaker & A Burial at Ornans) which highlights and depicts the working class. Also painted the Origin of the World

• He was involved with the Paris Commune and supported the communist manifesto (socialist communist). He held roles as the municipal councilor, president of the Artists’ Federation. He was convicted in 1871 due to the destruction of the Vendome Column (A symbol of Napoleonic authority) Couldn’t pay his fine, so he fled to Switzerland.

• Wrote the realism manifesto

• Did not like academic art

• Painted realism. Specifically country folk, not rich people like manet and edouard painted

Maximillian I Of Mexico (1864-1867)

• Napoleon III decided to invade Mexico with Maximilian to make him emperor 

• Napoleon abandoned Maximilian who was executed

• Influenced the arts and culture of the time

Napoleon III (1852-1870)

Emperor in charge at the time of France

• Made the Salon of the Refuses to welcome rejected artists from the Paris Salon

• Last to reign as Empire

• Surrendered during Franco Prussian War to the King of Prussia

• Modernized Paris with Haussmann

• Industrial growth

• Nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte

• Largest urban renewal project

Denise Murrel (Contemporary)

Black Paris

• Wrote posing modernity: The Black model from Manet. Talked about depictions of black women in 19th century art

• Wrote her thesis on why manet used a black women in his olympia painting

• Paris was an interracial city so Manet painted what he saw, he wasnt a social activist he simply painted what he saw

• Paris was mostly a black and white city

Black Art:

• Moorish bath

• Children in the garden

• Olympia

• Portrait of Laure

• Baudelaire mistress

Alexandre Dumas (1802-1870)

• Wrote the 3 musketeers and the count of monte cristo

• Wrote the famous Solange story portraying the horrors of the Reign of Terror

General Dumas (Alex Dumas)

• He joined the side in favor of the revolution

• He served under Napoleon

• Caught by Italian pirates but was eventually released

• He was poisoned and died of stomach cancer

• Napoleon did not like his popularity and resented him. When France invaded egypt the Egypians thought Dumas was in charge since he was tall and Napoleon was short

• His dad sold his kids to slavery but kept General Dumas because he was tall

Protestant Reformation (1517)

Challenged authority of the Catholic Church, impacted power structures & ideas about individual choice & religion, leading to Enlightenment

Versailles Construction (1664-1710)

The palace was built to show off control and impress nobles by Louis XIV.

The Enlightenment (17th-18th Century)

• Intellectual movement focused on reason, science, and individual rights-

• laid the foundations for revolutions and secular ideas, artwork, etc

French Revolution (1789-1799)

• Overthrew the monarchy and aristocracy, challenged structures of power (clergy and royals against proletariat) elevated ideas of liberty and equality, radically reshaped France’s political and cultural identity.

• A constant ping pong between ideas of leadership, from royals to emperors.

Modernist Movement - Paris focused (1793-1917)

A radical shift in the arts : breaking tradition, embracing modern life and its rawness, hailing criminals and prostitutes as the heroes (Baudelaire said so) questioning beauty, embracing experimentation, heavily rooted in cultural changes in Paris (French Revolution etc)

Tennis Court Oath (June 20, 1789)

The 3rd Estate (proletariat) vowed not to disband until they created a constitution, beginning a citizen-led government.

Storming of the Bastille (July 12, 1789)

• A symbolic act of revolution. Citizens took over royal prison-fortresses, marking the Revolution’s outbreak.

• Bastille Day is France’s Independence Day

• The 14th of July is when the French people tore down the prison called Bastille (their French Revolution)

• Bastille day is like their Independence Day

• Had a constitutional monarchy after they sort of took away the King from Versailles

• They deconsecrated the churches and outlawed the Catholic Church. Deconsecrate is to take away the altar so it is no longer a holy place

Monarchy Abolished (1792)

Marked transition in monarchy to republic.

Reign of Terror (1793-1794)

Over 40,000 people were killed for being enemies of the revolution, such as royals, clergy and high class. Killed each other as well

Impact:

• Artists

• This normalized this culture of just overthrowing their rulers if they didn’t like them

• Culture of violence

• National anthem is violent and they even praise this violence

• Decades of political turmoil where they constantly had revolutions/civil war and kept overthrowing their rulers

Haussmann Renovation of Paris (1853-1870)

• Hausmann was from the part of France near Germany

• In charge of renovating city

• He made the grand boulevards by tearing down thousands of buildings/homes (streets used to be small) even the grand Opera was built by him but he tore down many houses to build roads

• Made it easy for Napoleon's army to go through Paris

• Added public parks and green space

• Destroyed many buildings which left many homeless

• Added gas, lighting, sewer system (Paris used to stink of poop on street)

• Uniform buildings with the same facade

Haussmans’s impact on Paris:

• Sewers created a much more sanitary

• Reduced disease like diphtheria

• Streets and houses smelled better

• Sanitary water so they didn't get diseases from water like cholera because the kids had to drink beer compared to the sick water due to the poop of the sewers

• Cholera was very common before the Haussmann renovation

• Paris had less people dying from waterborne diseases

• Took away the problem of disease

• Paris would be disease infested

• Haussmann’s wide boulevards also allowed faster circulation of goods, people, and military troops, fitting an industrial and capitalist economy.

Industrial Revolution (1830s)

• Drove the Haussmann Renovation

• Aimed for innovation, with new technological advances.

• Work and life changed 

  • Child labor, work days/week, city population.

• More people drawn to cities, less farmers

• Art was challenged by new inventions like the camera

• Caused many artists to move away from mythological themes and to focus on their own turbulent era

Maximilian I Executed (Late 19th Century)

• Napoleon III and Maximilian (previously archduke of Austria) worked together to invade Mexico in order to make Maximilian emperor.

• However Napoleon III abandoned Maximilian there where he was executed by Mexicans

• Impact: This drove more tension in the Franco-Prussia War, later driving Napoleon III to invade Germany

Napoleon III

Invaded Germany (August 1870 to 1871)

(FRANCO PRUSSIAN WAR)

• When Germany occupies major parts of France,

• It imposes more of a fancy leadership structure in which Parisians hate.

• This drove the Liberation of France.

The Bloody Week (May 21-28, 1871)

• 30,000 died in a week compared to the mere 3,000 in the Reign of Terror.

• a brutal period from May 21 to May 28, 1871, when French government troops recaptured Paris from the revolutionary Paris Commune, crushing the Communards in a week of intense street fighting and summary executions

• Highlights the chaos that heavily influences art & culture and the next art movement to come.

Seine River 

• Paris, France

• Crucial to Parisian life, many important artistic and intellectual sites are located along it. Symbol of cultural flow and growth 

Left Bank (Rive Gauche)

• South of Seine

• Historically home to artists, students, and intellectuals

• Associated with artistic counterculture.

Arrondissements

• Paris

• Paris can be organized in these numbered districts, and reveals class and culture differences, identity and social placement in Paris.

Island of the Seine River

• Center of Paris

• Where Paris was first started, early civilization.

  It symbolizes the Roman roots as it expanded from that island onward.

Bastille (Paris)

A prison / fortress that was stormed by rebels.

Versailles

• Outside of Paris

• A royal palace of Paris. Louis XIV made this massive palace to show off his glory, how Heaven favored him, a way of establishing his divineness, divine right, so people could not rebel against him, and convince the royals and clergy on his side. He held plays here to keep them entertained

Hall of Mirrors

• In Palace of Versailles

• Made to reflect sunlight, a advanced technology of the

  time. To symbolize Louis XIV as the Sun King.

Louvre Museum

• Paris

• The former royal palace turned museum, owned and reopened by multiple leadership over the ages.

The Paris Salon (in the Institut de France)

• Paris

• A fancy, official art exhibition held yearly by the jury (professors, etc) controlled the criteria for acceptees in social norms, very exclusive. Rejected modernism, embraced tradition. Got to study in Rome if you won the grand “Prix de Rome”

Académie des Beaux-Arts

• Paris

• Academic institution controlling art training and style; enforced strict genre rules. Held the Paris Salon

Salon of the Rejects (Salon des Refuses)

• Paris

• Est. May 15, 1863

• Created by the Emperor Napoelon III to showcase all the rejected artists, including Monet.

Zeitgeist

• A modern term originated from German Enlightenment era

• Means “spirit of the times”; helps interpret how historical and cultural context influences the arts.

  • Zeit- time

  • Geist - spirit

The Three Estates

• Medieval to Early Modern France

• Social hierarchy of France, influenced French Revolution.

  1) Clergy,

  2) Nobility,

  3) Everyone else (Proletariat) often they were poor and disadvantaged, starving.

  These set the stage for revolution and class-based critique across artforms too

Divine right of kings (1600s)

• Idea that monarchs get authority to rule from God, not the people (which will be the Republic and America) justified absolutism. Fed clergy this idea to back up too.

Enlightenment (17th to 18th centuries)

• Intellectual movement emphasizing reason, equality, liberty, and the rights of individuals, directly challenged absolutism and inspired revolutions.

• Rejected religion and spirituality.

Haussmann Renovation of Paris

• 1853

• Reconstructed by Hausmann urban center that symbolized modernity, displacement of artists and the poor, and bourgeois control. A key theme in Baudelaire and Manet’s work.

Bourgeoise

• 19th Century

• Wealthy upper-middle class (factory/business owners). Often targeted in radical art as shallow, controlling, or exploitative.

Dandy / Flâneur (19th Century)

• Well-dressed wanderer, still a bourgeoise but not attached to the class, who leisurely observes modern urban life: detached, reflective, and often critical

Modernism (19th to 20th centuries)

Led by Bauldealire, the artistic movement rejected academic rules, emphasized modern life, social critique, and personal expression.

Declaration of Rights of man (1789)

• men are born free and remain free and equal in rights. Social distinctions may be founded only upon the general good. 1789

• The whole idea of just by being human we all have rights was radical in the 18th century

• Because of French Revolution it was the first western colonial to abolish slavery but, brought slavery back. But for a while they abolished slavery.

• It says if you’re being oppressed you can fight back, an inherent violence

• Partly why things got really out of control

• In usa declaration it says that God has given us these rights

• France says that any power that anyone has comes from them- not from God

• Many radical thinkers were radical atheists

• Impact: This was a fundamental part in cementing France as a country that had freedom from religion. The national anthem later followed and did

The Paris Commune (governmental body)

• 2 Months Lasting after the Liberation of France

• Contained:

  • Communist values

  • Women with the right to vote

  • Even Courbet given Arts Commision role

  • Inspired by the communist manifesto

  • Army of france fled versailles

  • Surrounded paris and let nothing in or out

  • Would fly supplies in and out by air balloons

  • Starved paris to the point they ate their zoo animals

  • 30,000 executed in bloody week. In reign of terror only 3,000 were killed

  • Shooting of the communards

• The Paris Commune of 1871 was established due to widespread popular anger following France's defeat in the Franco-Prussian War, the collapse of Napoleon III's regime, and the subsequent installation of a new government that accepted harsh peace terms. Parisians, feeling betrayed by this new French government and fearing a monarchical restoration, organized a revolutionary government to manage the city themselves. They aimed for a more democratic and self-governing city, and in the process, introduced progressive ideas like worker's rights and secular education

• Highlighted the values that were against the traditional hierarchy and structure of France’s leadership beforehand. Showcases the split and rebellion, as well as the split in arts in culture of where the French artists stood. This Commune would later lead to great growing violence that the rest of the entire France comes after them to end their reign.

Laicite

• A principle of modern French republican law that guarantees freedom from religion and a strict separation of church and state. Although formally established in 1905, laïcité was a principle born out of the ideals of the French Revolution, which greatly challenged Catholic authority and hierarchy. Any public displays of religious devotion are deeply frowned upon. Students and teachers in public schools—as well as other public employees—in France are required by law to follow the principle laïcité to the degree they cannot wear any religious -identifying symbols. Consequently, no cross necklaces, no kippot, no hijabs in these publicly-funded spaces.

Impact:

• To this day France has freedom from religion. Teachers or public workers can't wear religious symbols. They have separation of church and state. People who wear hijabs cannot wear them if they are teachers or work for the government.

Les Marseillais

The France National Anthem

• Revolutionary Symbol: Written during the French Revolution, it was a rallying cry for citizens and soldiers, urging them to defend liberty and the Republic against tyranny.

• National Identity: It became a unifying symbol of French patriotism and republican values, embodying liberty, equality, and resistance.

• Cultural Influence: Its passionate lyrics and martial tone inspired other revolutionary movements in Europe and beyond.

• Controversy: Because of its violent imagery (“Let an impure blood water our furrows”), it has sometimes sparked debate, but it remains a powerful emblem of France’s revolutionary heritage.

👉 Impact in short: “La Marseillaise” turned music into a weapon of revolution, gave France a lasting symbol of national unity, and influenced global ideas of protest and resistance.

Declaration of Independence 1776 (USA) vs. Declaration of the Rights of Man 1789 (France)

• men are born and remain free and equal in rights. Social distinctions may be founded only upon the general good. 1789. In the USA declaration it says that God gives us these rights.

• The whole idea of just by being human we all have rights was radical in the 18th century

• Because of French Revolution it was the first western colonial to abolish slavery

• Economic engine was sugar trade. The Bahamas is where the sugar plantations were, run by France. Largely run by slaves

• Brough slavery back. But for a while they abolished slavery. (Abolished 1848)

• The aim of all political association is the preservation of the natural and imprescriptible rights of man. These rights are liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression.

• This last one captures the French

• It says if you’re being oppressed you can fight back, an inherent violence

• Partly why things got really out of control

• The principle of all sovereignty resides essentially in the nation. No body nor individual may exercise any authority which does not proceed directly from the nation.

• In us it says that God has given us these rights

• France says that any power that anyone has comes from them

• Many radical thinkers were radical atheists

Solange

• By Alexandre Dumas

• Humanized aristocrats & higher upper class

• Tied to Reign of Terror

• Alexandre Dumas's "Solange" is a short story set during the Reign of Terror of the French Revolution, where Dr. Ledru, a revolutionary scientist, saves a beautiful young aristocrat named Solange from a citizen patrol by falsely vouching for her. They fall in love and plot her escape, but the story takes a shocking and horrifying turn as Solange's true identity and a grim betrayal are revealed, leading to a tragic, suspenseful, and deeply moving ending. 

Les Fleurs du Mal 1867

• By Baudeleaire

• poetry collection exploring sex, death, and decay in modern life. Banned for obscenity, major influence on modernist writers.

The Last Judgement (16th century)

• Michelangelo 

• Banned for nudity; during this time nudity was taboo, or genitals.

Raft of the Medusa (1818-1819)

• Géricault

• painting of a shipwreck where survivors resort to cannibalism, a critique of French government’s favoritism and incompetence.

Gargantua (1831)

• Daumier

• political cartoon criticizing the monarch

• lower class feeding the monarch; banned for being too subversive

Luncheon on the Grass 1863

• Manet

• provocative painting that broke with academic rules: nude woman among clothed men in a casual setting. Caused scandal, became a turning point for modernism.

• Got rejected in 1863.

• Content included a sex scene between 2 prostitutes, showcased what was happening in their exact time, unlike the historical paintings.

Romans in the Period of Decadence 1847

• courture

• history painting that exemplified Salon ideals like tradition. Won the Prix de Rome; seen as the height of academic achievement.

• Couture's composition depicts the perceived moral and political decline of the later Roman Empire through the inebriated and exhausted aftermath of a large orgy, contrasting the weakness and degeneracy of its participants against the statues of gods or emperors proudly displayed around the classical Roman architecture of the painting's setting. Some figures continue to dance among the reclining mass while one man at the right drunkenly addresses a statue, disrespectfully hanging from its arm. Only three appear to have avoided participating in the orgy, consisting of one figure seated contemplatively upon a plinth to the left, and two upright men overlooking the scene from the right.

Oath of the Horatii 1784

• Jacques-Louis David

• neoclassical history painting emphasizing patriotic sacrifice and duty of a myth story, typical of high academic style.

Music in the Tuileries Gardens 1862

• Manet

• depicts Parisian high society enjoying leisure; an early example of capturing modern life on canvas.

Olympia 1865

• Manet

• The most controversial painting, the “killshot” of European tradition and academic art.

• Carried around and security would be there because so many were upset.

• Direct unapologetic stare, no embarrassment. Meant to imply that the men there were her clients

• Olympia was a common name for sex workers at Paris at the time

Impact:

• Paved the way for modernism

• Has become the very image of modernity

• Kill shot of European tradition and the daybreakfor an estranged visual regime

• Kilometer zero of modern art

• Contrasted the earlier painting Venus of Urbino, which showed a ethereal Venus goddess and contrasted with the Parisian prostitute (revered vs degrading)

The Origin of the World 1866

• Courbet

An extremely controversial painting.

• Showcases the female genitals and reproductive organs in full display

• Shows the message not to be ashamed of such body parts

• A modernist take on bodies, not presenting them in a ethereal light such as in goddesses, but in plain sex fashion

• Ripple effect overtime; today we are still ashamed of body parts, but this painting shows how society still reacts to it to this day

The Stonebreakers 1849

• Courbet

• The subjects in the painting wore wooden shoes bc they couldn’t afford leather. Painted his people, not the rich. We can tell by the clothes they are wearing. Painting was destroyed by bomb allies :(

  Painted a picture of HIS people (farmers and laborers) often not depicted in paintings. Showcases Modernist reality and life

Burial at Ornans 1850

Country folk at funeral. There is a guy wearing his nicest clothes (green) they are old but his nicest. He even has family members in his paintings

• His statement is that all these people are worth painting. Worth the time and effort. Worth this 22 ft by 10 ft canvas (huge canvas). They were worth all the time and money invested into it. Big statement on a big canvas

The Shooting of the Communards (1871)

Depicted the bloody shooting of The Bloody Week

• Courbet was on the side of the Communards, so he depicted his beloved Communards dying in battle to the French Army