Realism, Early Photography, and Impressionism in France, Britain, and the United States, c. 1850-1880

Flashcards cover Realism, early photography, and Impressionism across France, Britain, and the United States, highlighting key figures, works, techniques, and debates from 1850–1880.

What is Realism in mid-19th-century art?

An artistic tendency emphasizing empirical observation and truthful representation of everyday life, reacting against Neoclassicism and Romanticism.

Which ideas and developments helped Realism rise in Europe and the United States?

Positivist philosophy of Auguste Comte; urbanization and industrialization; the advent of photography; Marx and Engels' scientific socialism; and the 1848 revolutions.

How did photography influence Realism?

Photographic technologies were seen as producing truthful images of the world, encouraging empirical observation and influencing artists to adopt new approaches; photography also sparked debate about art’s status.

What did Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels predict in the Communist Manifesto (1848)?

The proletariat would overthrow the bourgeoisie, leading to a classless society; Realist art often depicted peasant and lower-class life.

How did Realism challenge academic art and Salon exhibitions in France?

Realist and Impressionist works were often rejected by Salon juries for being uninteresting or offensive, prompting independent exhibitions like Du Réalisme and later Impressionist shows.

Who are Gustave Courbet and Jean-François Millet in Realism?

Courbet depicted working-class and rural life with a democratic, sometimes radical, approach (e.g., The Stonebreakers, A Burial at Ornans); Millet focused on peasants (e.g., The Gleaners) and rural labor.

What is The Stonebreakers (1849) and why is it significant?

Courbet’s monumental Realist work showing two laborers breaking stones; emphasizes material reality with thick paint and rejects Romantic drama.

Describe A Burial at Ornans (1849-50) and its significance.

A large-scale, democratic depiction of a village funeral with identifiable local people, challenging academic history painting and signaling Realist social engagement.

What is The Gleaners (1857) and its thematic meaning?

Millet’s large-scale portrayal of three peasant women gleaning; elevated poverty into a dignified, almost classical image while commenting on resource inequality.

How did Rosa Bonheur contribute to Realism?

Bonheur specialized in naturalistic animal painting (e.g., Plowing in the Nivernais); her work balanced conservative taste with her independent lifestyle, earning the Légion d’honneur in 1865.

What urban renewal project shaped Realism in Paris under Napoleon III?

Haussmann’s modernization of Paris—broad avenues, parks, and new public buildings—creating new urban life contexts for Realist painters.

What was the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (PRB) and its aims in Britain?

A group founded in 1848 by Hunt, Millais, and Rossetti that rejected Raphael-era conventions, sought fidelity to nature, and painted moral or literary subjects.

Who were John Everett Millais and his Christ in the House of His Parents about?

A leading PRB painter; 1849-50; a highly detailed, modern, religious scene that provoked controversy for its stark realism.

What was Ford Madox Brown’s Work (1852-65) about?

A crowded epic celebrating labor and social reform, juxtaposing navvies with children and the upper class, infused with moral and biblical inscriptions.

How did the PRB evolve after 1853 under Rossetti and Burne-Jones?

The movement shifted toward romantic, historical, and mythic subjects with a more lyrical, less contemporary focus.

What is the Aesthetic Movement and how did Whistler contribute?

A Britain-wide movement (1870-1900) advocating art for art’s sake; Whistler’s Nocturnes and His emphasis on formal qualities over moral subject matter.

Explain Whistler’s Nocturnes and his clash with Ruskin.

Whistler painted moody, abstracted night scenes with limited palettes; Ruskin accused him of charging high prices for “flinging a pot of paint,” leading to a famous libel suit.

What is japonisme and who were its key influences?

A fascination with Japanese art (ukiyo-e) that inspired Western artists to adopt asymmetrical compositions, cropped forms, and flat shading; notably influencing Whistler, Manet, Degas, Cassatt, and Monet.

What are the daguerreotype and calotype processes, and who invented them?

Daguerreotype (Daguerre, 1839) produced sharp, unique images on polished metal; Calotype (Talbot, 1840s) used negatives on paper, allowing multiple prints.

What is the wet collodion process and its significance?

Developed by Archer (1851); produced detailed negatives on glass with short exposure times, enabling multiple prints but required a portable wet bath.

What is an albumen print and who perfected it?

Albumen prints, perfected by Blanquart-Evrard (1850), used egg-white-coated paper for high detail and contrast; the standard until the 1890s.

Who were Oscar Rejlander and Gustave Le Gray in photography?

Rejlander (The Two Ways of Life, 1857) used combination printing to create a moralized composite; Le Gray created painterly landscapes and seascapes, including Brig upon the Water (1856) from a single negative.

Why is photography debated as art versus documentation?

Photographers claimed art status through composition and interpretation; critics like Baudelaire debated its role; legal protections (1862 copyright ruling) acknowledged photography as art in some cases.

Who were Nadar and Julia Margaret Cameron in photography?

Nadar (Gaspard-Félix Tournachon) made candid, intimate portraits (George Sand); Cameron crafted imaginative, morally elevating portraits blending real and ideal, elevating photography to high art.

What is A Harvest of Death (Gettysburg, 1863) and its significance?

Timothy O’Sullivan’s Civil War photograph showing dead soldiers post-battle; published by Gardner to convey the horrors of war and oppose pageantry.

How did Manet contribute to Modern Life painting and what are Déjeuner sur l’herbe and Olympia about?

Manet’s works critique academic illusionism and reveal modern urban life: Déjeuner sur l’herbe (1863) provocatively pairs clothed men with a nude woman in a rural setting; Olympia (1863) presents a contemporary courtesan with stark realism and social critique.

What is The Bar at the Folies-Bergère (1882) and its formal significance?

Manet’s late work showing a barmaid with a complex reflected image in a store-front mirror, challenging perspective and suggesting ambiguous social relations in modern life.

What sparked the formation of the Impressionist movement in 1874?

A group of painters rejected the Salon, formed Société Anonyme, and held independent exhibitions to showcase modern life directly to the public and press.

Name some principal Impressionists and their focus.

Monet (landscape, en plein air), Renoir (figures), Degas (ballet and scenes of modern life), Morisot (domestic interiors and gardens), Pissarro, Cézanne, Cassatt (American; domestic scenes), Sisley (landscapes).

What techniques define Monet’s en plein air painting and his Rouen Cathedral studies?

Rapid, broken brushstrokes; color placed side by side to blend optically; series of the same motif under different light; Rouen Cathedral studies emphasized atmosphere and light.

Describe Renoir’s Ball at the Moulin de la Galette (1876).

A lively outdoor scene of a Parisian dance hall in Montmartre with dancing couples, warm light, and a harmonious blend of blues and purples to convey movement and leisure.

What is notable about Berthe Morisot’s In the Loge (1878)?

A pivotal image of a woman observing others with opera glasses; emphasizes female agency and a feminist reading of spectatorship within the Impressionist circle.

How did Degas approach subjects like ballet and the theater?

Degas studied dancers in studios and theaters, using unusual perspectives, cropped compositions, and a detached, observational stance akin to a flâneur.

What theme connects Winslow Homer’s Snap the Whip (1872) with American Realism?

A national icon celebrating teamwork, vigor, and optimistic growth in a rural/childhood setting after the Civil War, rendered with a bold, blunt American style.

What challenges did Thomas Eakins face with The Gross Clinic (1875)?

A brutally realistic depiction of surgery that was rejected by Philadelphia’s Centennial jury for its frankness, illustrating tensions between realism and propriety.

Who is Henry Ossawa Tanner and what is The Banjo Lesson (1893) about?

An African American artist who studied in Philadelphia and Paris; The Banjo Lesson portrays intergenerational learning and dignity in a southern domestic setting, with a reverent, impressionist-inflected handling.