Art Movements from Romanticism to Impressionism

Romanticism

  • Upturning of the classical hierarchy of subjects/genres:
    • Focus on
    • Everyday life
    • Landscapes
    • Portraiture of lower classes
    • Current events/politics
    • Activism
  • Hierarchy of Genres/Subject Matter
    • TOP levels include:
    • Allegory (myths, etc.)
    • Important people
    • Scenes from everyday life / still life
    • Landscape
    • Animal painting
  • Prominent figures across disciplines include Chopin, Wordsworth, etc.
  • Timeline of Romanticism:
    • 1815-1850
    • 1850-1880 (crossover into Modern)
  • Artistic comparisons:
    • Poussin vs Rubens:
    • Emphasizes line vs color
    • Ingres vs Delacroix:
    • Ingres's focus on classical form
    • Delacroix's expression of emotion and movement
    • Notable works include:
      • Odalisques
      • Goya's influence:
      • Preceded and inspired by Velasquez
      • "3rd of May"
      • "Black Paintings"
      • Gericault's "Raft of the Medusa"
      • Delacroix's notable works:
      • "Massacre at Chios"
      • "Liberty Leading the People"
      • "Women of Algiers"
      • Fantin-Latour’s "Homage to Delacroix" (includes references to Whistler, Manet, Baudelaire in the painting)

Industrial Revolution and the Landscape

  • Early 19th Century:
    • 90% of the population were agrarian
  • Late 19th Century:
    • Demographic reversal favoring cities and factories
  • William Blake’s phrase: "Dark Satanic Mills"
  • Prominent landscape artworks that illustrate changing perspectives:
    • Constable's "Hay Wain"
    • Salisbury Cathedral
    • Thomas Cole's "The Oxbow"
    • Architect’s Dream (Course of Empire)
    • Hudson River School artists:
    • Church
    • Bierstadt
  • Topics of colonialism/imperialism and Manifest Destiny
  • Caspar David Friedrich's notable works:
    • "Abbey in the Oakwood"
    • "Wanderer over a Sea of Fog"
    • "Sea of Ice"
    • "Monk by the Sea"
  • Turner’s impactful works:
    • "Fisherman at Sea"
    • "The Great Western Railway"
    • "Steamboat Harbour Mouth"
    • "Slave Ship"
    • "Landscape with Water"

Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood

  • Founding Artists:
    • JE Millais: "Christ in the House of His Parents", "Ophelia"
    • Dante Rossetti and Jane Siddal
    • Edward Burne-Jones
    • William Holman Hunt
    • JW Waterhouse: "Lady of Shalott"
    • Alma-Tadema
    • Lord Frederic Leighton
    • William Morris and Jane Morris

Early Photography

  • Key Innovations:
    • Niepce's "Window at Le Gras" (1826/27)
    • Daguerre's glass process, no multiples:
    • "Boulevard du Temple" (1836)
    • Still life in artist’s studio
    • Fox Talbot's calotype:
    • Negative-positive, multiples
    • "Open Door" (1841/42)
  • Photography's influence on painting conventions:
    • Emphasis on authenticity and directness
    • Portraiture examples include
    • Lincoln (ca. 1865)
    • Edgar Allan Poe
    • Nadar

Aerial Photography and Realism

  • Advances in techniques:
    • Aerial photographs of Paris
    • Darkroom gondola
  • Realism:
    • Context: France's political turmoil and social progressivism, relevant literary figures include Dickens, Hugo, Baudelaire
    • Karl Marx (1818-1888):
    • Notable works: "Communist Manifesto" (with Engels), "Das Kapital" (unfinished)
    • Relevant vocabulary:
    • bourgeoisie
    • proletariat
    • flaneur
    • class struggle
    • class consciousness
    • means of production
    • surplus value
    • historical materialism
    • alienation
  • Key Figures and Works:
    • Courbet and the "Realist Manifesto: An Open Letter"
    • Daumier
    • Millet (Carolus-Duran)
    • Edouard Manet associated with the avant-garde movement

Realism Continuing

  • Notable Artists and Works:
    • Courbet:
    • "The Stonebreakers"
    • "Burial at Ornans"
    • "The Painter’s Studio"
    • Daumier's works:
    • "Gargantua"
    • "First Class/Third Class Carriage"
    • Millet:
    • The Barbizon School (with Corot, etc.)
    • "The Gleaners"
    • "Plowing in the Nivernais"
    • "The Horse Fair"
  • Influence of the Avant-Garde (1850s–1870s):
    • Aesthetic influence on visual arts and literature
    • Political reflections in the Philippine Revolution (Rizal, Luna, Bonifacio)
    • "alla prima" technique linkages to Velasquez, Goya, Hals, Carolus-Duran, Manet, Sargent
    • Edouard Manet's social class references, including the concept of the flaneur (Baudelaire, Benjamin)
    • Fantin-Latour's "Absinthe Drinker"

The Salon de Refusés

  • Debates about artistic merit and established institutions:
    • Academie des Beaux-Arts (French Academy)
    • Official salon and direct comparisons:
    • Henri Gervex's Painting Jury
    • Daumier’s Venus satires
    • Notable Exhibits:
    • "Luncheon on the Grass"
    • "The Bath" vs Cabanel’s "Venus"
    • Manet's "Olympia"
    • Portrait of Zola
    • Works including "Tuilleries", "Dead Christ", "Bullfighter"
    • "The Balcony" by Manet

Artworks by Whistler

  • Towards flatness in compositions, emphasizing abstraction
  • Notable works include:
    • "Symphony in White No.1"
    • "Symphony in White No.3"
    • "Princess from the Land of Porcelain"
    • "Arrangement in Grey and Black No.1"
    • "Nocturne in Grey and Silver"
    • "Nocturne in Blue and Gold — the Battersea Bridge"
    • "Nocturne in Black and Gold — the Falling Rocket"

Impressionism

  • Overview of the movement's beginnings and societal influences:
    • Salon de Refusés and avant-garde/flaneur group
    • Middle class patronage and class dynamism (despite Marx)
    • Encouraged experimentation within the middle class
    • Rise of independent galleries
  • Influences from early photography
  • Access to materials improved by Industrial Revolution:
    • E.g., metal paint tubes
  • Massive importation of Asian art, notably Japanese prints
  • Key event:
    • 1874 Exposition (First Impressionist Salon)
    • Held in the former Nadar studios
  • Artistic characteristics:
    • "Just impressions"
    • Techniques include quick strokes, color patches, and "unfinished" perspectives
    • Color vibrancy, optical veracity (especially Monet) versus literal representation/symbolism
    • Efforts to capture truth/nature, linking back to past traditions
    • Impressionism lasted approximately 10 years (1874–1886)
    • Themes of time, spontaneity, movement, and environmental changes representing the "4th dimension"
  • Legacy of Impressionism:
    • Focused on the artist’s prerogative regarding subject matter, style, and rendition of physicality
    • Resulted in the complete collapse of the hierarchy of genres and institutional directives
  • Key Artists and Works:
    • Claude Monet’s works include:
    • "Le Grenouillère"
    • "Boulevard des Capucines"
    • "Impression: Sunrise"
    • "Woman with a Parasol"
    • "Haystacks, Field"
    • "Rouen Cathedral"
    • "Houses of Parliament, UK"
    • "Japanese Bridge" (1899 vs 1920)
    • "Water Lilies"

Notable Artists of Impressionism

  • Pierre-Auguste Renoir:
    • Focused on en plein air painting
    • Key works include:
    • "La Loge"
    • "Bar du Moulin de la Galette"
  • Edgar Degas's contributions:
    • Various themes including:
    • "At the Races in the Country"
    • "Absinthe"
    • "Dancing Class"
    • "Stage Rehearsal"
    • "The Star"
    • Sculptural works include:
    • "Little Dancer" (wax, cloth, later bronze)
    • "The Tub"
    • "The Jockey"
  • Berthe Morisot's pieces include:
    • "The Cradle"
    • "Summer’s Day"
    • "In the Loge"
    • "Lydia in the Loge"
    • Theme of mother and child
  • Key Prints Influenced by Japanese prints:
    • Alfred Sisley's "Bridge at Villeneuve la Garenne"
    • Camille Pissarro's contributions:
    • "Hoar Frost"
    • "Red Roofs, Corner of a Village, Winter"

Post Impressionism

  • Notable Artists and Works:
    • Paul Cézanne:
    • "House of the Hanged Man"

Notes for Gardner’s Book

  • Coverage spans from Romanticism to Impressionism with beginnings of Post-Impressionism:
    • Reference: Gardner’s Art Through The Ages, Chapters 27 and 28 (pages 801–849)
  • Key considerations:
    • Understanding the societal reasons behind shifts in the art world
    • Reasons for transitions between movements
    • Key figures representative of each movement
    • Key works reflecting societal changes