Chapter 26: The Nineteenth Century: Pluralism of Style

19c. revolution, population growth, patriotism, imperialism, industrialization

Science and Technology

darwinism and the age of the earth contradicted Christianity

Cottage industries destroyed--poor industrial workers in cities

Feminism

doctrine of progress

humanity was thougth to be perfectable--the greatest good for the greatest number

The Artists: Traditional or Modern?

Artists became small capitalists as their main source of funding shifted to the middle class--number of artists doubled

mid century divide between optical realism (science) and photography; vs. psychology and spiritual abstract art

itroduction of photography, mass print, and printed reproduction fundamentally changed art making the older painters mostly obsolete--movement towards more inner/emotional content

The Early Nineteenth Century: The Role of Romanticism

Romanticism was an inner feeling--much like religious beliefs--no need for organized religion or science--the self and meaning were within the self, not outside--artistic claim to autonomy

still strong roots back to clasicism

Napoleon used it to strengthen his image

often contradictions between the idealistic and realistic (GREENOUGH’s staute "George Washington" looks like a pagan greek god)

students of david belived that the Greeks had had the ideal form adn that they should strive to copy te ideal statuesq simplicity in their paintings--light chiaroscuoro, ballanced, classical subjects

ANNE-LOUIS GIRODET-TRIOSON "The Burial of Atala" 1808--classic countours with "a dash fo the erotic sweetness of the Rococo and the dramatic illumination of the Baroque."--appeal to the "viewier’s private world of fantasy and emotion"--

"The Romantic artists, above all else, wante dto excite he emotions of the audience"

emphesis on contours-- "flat and linear forms"

"Grande Odalisque" 1814--very long back and arms and legs--making her a member of a turkish harem makes it exotic, contrast between crinkled curtains and the smooth countours of the body

"Apotheosis of Homer" 1827--classical setting (temple) includes many famouse men from all ages but they are mixed with classical people

"Princess de Broglie" 1853--amazing color and texture--idalized likeness but not too much so--AMAZING!

formal portraits but not stiff

"The Family of Charles IV" 1800--great use of color in the medium--presented them as a bunch of truly courupt people--takes after Velazquez’s "Las Meninas"

"The Third of May 1808" 1814--schocking realism, fear exaggerated, dramatic lighting--no pause for the viewer’s sensibilities

"Saturn Devouring His Children" 1819--dark, scarry, violent

"Romanticism of expressive color and passionate action"

"dramatic presentation of contemporary events"

"Raft of the Medusa" 1818--based on the accounts of saved sailors--seen as a political comment on the government--poerful lihting and x-shaped axies--"high" Romanticism in its shock value

"for the Romantic, the real was nature, wild and untamed."

"Insane Woman (Envy)" 1822--his fascination with what goes on in the mind and the dark side of the soul

first sixty years of 19c. painting: ccontest between "Ingres, the draftsman, and Delavroix, the colorist."

"Paganini" 1832--attempt to realize the person through imagination--to show more his music than himself

imagination to express himself--livelyiness-- Sublime

strong close relationship between poetry and painting

purpose was to "electrify" the viewer through emotions and to teach stories to the public

"Dath of Sardanapalus" 1826--violent scene of total destruction--intense color--slightly less clear around the edges: vignette

"Liberty Leading the People" 1830-- not an attempt to represent a specific scene-- "a full-blown allegory" -- pyramidal shape--excitement

Romantics used nature to convey their mood and sentiment

New religions of nature

CASPAR DAVID FRIEDRICH-- "Cloister Graveyard in the Snow" 1810--paint that what the artists sees within him--very meaningful in intself as a scene

JOSEPH MALLORD WILLIAM TURNER-- use of color outside of form gives an impression of the overwhelming power of nature--the scene is influenced by the artists perceptions and intuitions to the point where the landscape conveys a feeling and emotion as well as an event--power of nature

JOHN CONSTABLE--painted landscapes which retained the optical accuracy but which was also poetical--good use of atmosphere to show the constant changing of the weather--belief that things had to be accurate to be truly meaningful

JEAN-BAPTISTE-CAMILLE COROT-- use of values in a nearly technical sense to portray realism-- "The Harbor of La Rochelle" 1851--none of the athmosphere of CONSTABLE

FRANCOIS RUDE "La Marseillaise" 1833--David-esque figures, symbolic of people of the time, roman/classical dressed and posed--dramatic composition is Romantic

Neoclassical and Neo-Gothic styles dominant--developed in parallel

Mid-Century Realism: The Reaction Against Romanticism

Became the dominant style durring the middle of the century

at first it was seen as a tool to help painters, then a threat, then slowly an artistic medium in iteslf

captued an amazing realism

GASPAR-FÉLIX TOURNACHON "NADAR"--camera portraiture--wanted emotion and soul in his portraits--

recording history was changed forever

Realists opposed paintings of fictional events because they were not real--current science supported the view that what was real was only what you can see

True historians led the way to Historical paintings which accurately portrayed past events: also to include a sense of drama without distorting facts:

DELAROCHE "Death of the Duc de Guise" 1835--insists on specific facts--room layed out for just that time--photorealistic painting--trying to recapture the actuall event as accurately as possible--not centered on the duke

JEAN-LÉON GEROME "Thumbs Down!"" 1872--extream realism-not a particular event but one that happened many times making it dramatic and factual, curving wall brings us into the picture

"The Gleaners" accurate but enobled portayal of pesants, strong emphasis on them in the foreground--making the poor look bold was nearly a political statement

political statements in favor of the working class through his art--jailed

"Rue Transnonain" lithograph 1834--true to life facts convey the meaning--style uese truth but also quite personal

"The Third-Class Carriage" 1862--political commentary on the crowded miserable state of the poor

father of 19c. realism

only painted what he saw--no symbols

"Burial at Ornans" 1849--attended by figures of no importance--no real depth--no clear center as the people are spread all along the back row--rejected as over glorifying the poor

THOMAS EAKINS "The Gross Clinic" 1875--acute realism, hard to look at--encouraged by EAKINGS’ study of anatomy--scientific accuracy

JOHN SINGER SARGENT "The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit" 1882 -- more rought realist sytle, but sitll a scene taht appears right out out of a particular moment--cut off vase and rug encourage us to think of the scne continuing outside of the frame--reminisent of VELAZQUEA "Las Meninas"

ILYA REPIN "A Religious Procession in the Kursk District" 1880 extream realism, hazy atmosphere, action and realistic portrayal of life at its finest. !!! --large group

HENRY OSSAWA TANNER "The Thankful Poor" 1894--high detail on the figures,t he rest is one big wash of color, soft light--contemplative

WINSLOW HOMER "The Fox Hunt" 1893--harsh realism and imminent death for the fox

Realist views of expressing only the cold hard facts--some found this too constricting so they used the same leel of detail but on imagined scenes

MARIE-ROSALIE (ROSA) BONHEUR "The Horse Fair" 1853--uses her knowledge of realistic painting and anatomy as well as her imagination and dramatic lighting to make a stunning portrait

JOHN EVERETT MILLAS "Ophelia" 1853--realistic sytle, but not a real scene!

ADOLPHE-WILLIAM BOUGUEREAU "Nymphs and Satyr" 1873-- Rococo sexual and illustrative exhuberance combined with Realisim’s accuracy--the figures are well set in a very realistic scene and move and are held in plausable poses

JULES BASTIEN-LEPAGE "Joan of Arc" 1880--intensly realistic portrayal of a very complicated scene--again, not a real event--floating saits--off center Joan--

two schools of the time: romantic realists (used imagination to paint very realistic scenes) and realists (who painted only what they saw)

"Luncheon on the Grass" 1863--shocking--foreground nude is not perected, looks at the viewer with complete ease--would have been accepted if the men were satrys or if they had all be dressed, but this way it was too realistic--working only on the raw appearance of light--blurry background--not concentrating on form--no "finish"

"A Bar a the Folies-Bergére" 1882--non-personal image of the barmaid--interested in the play of lights and the reflection behind her--still lifes in front of her--flat, no longer supposed to be a window into another world

His images were too realistic and harsh for the public’s perception of art

"New Painting"--the well-to-do at their leasure are the subjets

BERTHE MORISOT "Villa at the Seaside" 1874--spontaneous rendering of an instantaneous moment--no "studio" details

GUSTAVE CALLEBOTTE "Paris: A Rainy Day" 1877-- "apparently chance arrangement of his figures, their motion suspended in a moment already paused"--impressionist--good evidence of th eweather through atmosphere and puddle reflections

"Viscount Lepic and His Daughters" 1873--odd angle, taken at a moment, man entereing on the left--momnetary snap shot--uses the street to integrate the viewer--cutting off the people at waste hight brings us closer to them

"Intérieur (Le Viol)" 1868--making us witness to a domestic dispute--painful, personal, private--unware of our witnessing it--Le Viol means the Rape

"Ballet Rehersal (Adagio)" 1876-- cropping, apparently random positioning of the figures, and large diagonal empty space i teh middle adds to the action adn places the viewer in the painting

"The Morning Bath" 1883--akward angles--pastel--raw light values--depth-- "rapid and informal movement" -- "purely accidental attitude"

MARY CASSAT "Tha Bath" 1892--flat, color as unifying element

work out of doors, spontaneous, atmosphere and climate--color theory and mixing via dithering creates vibrant moving light--ignored the form and worked on the color

CLAUDE MONET "Luncheon (Deocrative Panel)" 1874--composition of thw women in upper right, sicngle boy in lower left and empty space in the midle is typical of impressionist paintings--image extends beyond the frame, caught at a certian moment--birlliant interplay of light

CAMILLE PISSARRO " Place du Théatre Français" 1895--not so much a play of light as a haphazard arrangement of figures

AUGUSTE RENOIR "Le Moulin de la Galettte" 1876--energetic, shadow and shade, blurred figures, "incidental, momentary, and passibng aspects of reality" -- people doing their own things, unaware of our observation--action continues outside of the frame

JAMES ABBOTT MCNEIL WHISTLER "Nocturne in Blue and Gold (Old Battersea Bridge)" 1877

The Later Nineteenth Century: Reactions against Realism in Painting

thought that impressionism gave up too much in it’s search for exat optical representation

"La Grande Jatte" 1884--his pointillist (tecnically divisionism) method was exceedingly painstaking--far from the rapid strokes of the impressionists--precise, mechanical, organization and repeated motiefs--elegant

purely formulaic--he had a method he used to paint which was based on scientific evaluations of color and value

wanted to add some structure and significance to impressionist art

use color to define structure and depth

"Mont Santie-Victoire with Viaduct" 1885--painted in patches where each one had been closly observed rather than a sa whole

"Still Life with Peppermint Bottle" 1894--individual items loose their uniqueness in the planes of color used to constructu them

"The Boy in a Red Vest" 1888--further de-emphesis of the subjet--the patchs/planes of color take over showing themselves independently and emkphesizing the disproportions of the boy

colors and distortions to express emotion

"The Night Café" 1888--sickly colors express the "terrible passions of humanity"

"The Starry Night" 1889--projected his own feelings/meaning onto the painting

"The Vision after the Sermon" or "Jacob Wrestling with the Angel" 1888--emphesis and size are controled by memory and how you would remember it--the women are very large while Jacob and the Angle are quite small--no unifying perspective

"Spirit of the Dead Watching" 1892--strange colors, slight distortion

"At the Moulin Rouge" 1892--obliwue angle--asymetric composition--photographic influence--altered the faces to produce emotional responses