ART discussion

The Modern World: Romanticism, Realism, Impressionism

& Post-Impressionism ART-6, Q. Bemiller, Norco College

Louis Daguerre, Boulevard du Temple (first photograph of a living person in Paris), 1838, daguerreotype

1800-1945 = major changes! • 1785-1813 Power Loom • 1807 Steamboat • 1814 Steam Locomotive • 1826 Photograph • 1837 Telegraph • 1876 Telephone • 1870s-80s Phonograph, Light Bulb, Motion Pictures • 1885 Automobile • 1895 Radio • 1903 Airplane • 1927 Television • 1935 Electric Guitar • 1942 Nuclear Reactor

Romanticism • Romanticism was named after the adventurous stories told in the

“Romance” languages (Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian and Romanian.) "Romance languages" originate from Latin, the language spoken in the Western Roman Empire.

• Romanticism reacted against the logical, rational and objective truths of Neoclassicism. Instead, Romanticists focused on individual freedom, imagination, emotions, subjective reality, intuition and originality.

• Romanticism lasted from about 1800-1890 and led to avant-garde movements in the 20th century.

• Artists include Francisco Goya, Caspar David Friedrich, Henry Fuseli, John Constable, J.M.W. Turner, Eugène Delacroix and Théodore Géricault.

Francisco Goya, The Third of May, 1808, 1814, oil on canvas

Caspar David Friedrich, The Abbey in the Oakwood, 1809- 10; Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog, 1818, oil on canvas

Henry Fuseli, The Nightmare, 1781 and 1790-91, oil on canvas

John Constable, Salisbury Cathedral from the meadows, 1831, oil on canvas

J.M.W. Turner, The Burning of the Houses of Lords and Commons, 1834/35, oil on canvas

Sir Charles Barry and Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin, Houses of Parliament, London, a complex of Gothic Revival buildings, 1837–60

Eugène Delacroix, Liberty Leading the People, 1830, oil on canvas

Théodore Géricault, The Raft of the Medusa, c. 1819 oil on canvas, and study of severed heads, 1818.

Realism • “It is not a question, here, of seeking for an 'absolute' of beauty. The artist is neither

painting history nor his soul. What is termed 'composition' does not exist for him, and he has not set himself the task of representing some abstract idea or some historical episode. And it is because of this that he should neither be judged as a moralist nor as a literary man. He should be judged simply as a painter.” –Émile Zola, (1840-1902)

• The Realism movement rejected both Romanticism and Neoclassicism. They focused on everyday life, the reality of life. For them, art and life were one.

• Realist artists dared to make paintings of lower-class people, drawing attention to social inequities. They also showed the animals and workers of the land, reminding the “city folks” where their food came from, and the natural landscape that could be forgotten in the cities.

• The Realist artists were perhaps the first “modern” artists. The movement was roughly 1848-1900. Key artists were Gustave Courbet, Édouard Manet, Jean-François Millet, Honoré-Victorin Daumier, Rosa Bonheur, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, llya Yefimovich Repin, Winslow Homer and Thomas Eakins.

Gustave Courbet, The Stone Breakers, 1849, oil on canvas

Jean-François Millet, Gleaners, 1857, oil on canvas

Honoré-Victorin Daumier, Rue Transnonain, le 15 Avril 1834, 1834, lithograph

Honoré-Victorin Daumier, The Third Class Carriage, c.1862–64, oil on canvas

Rosa Bonheur, The Horse Fair, 1853-55, oil on canvas

Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Ville-d'Avray, 1870, oil on canvas

Édouard Manet, Olympia, 1863, oil on canvas

Édouard Manet, Luncheon on the Grass, 1863, oil on canvas

llya Yefimovich Repin, Bare Haulers on the Volga, 1870-73, oil on canvas

Mathew Brady, Civil War period photos, 1861-65

Winslow Homer, The Gulf Stream, 1899, oil on canvas

Thomas Eakins, The Agnew Clinic, 1889, oil on canvas

Thomas Eakins, Taking the Count, 1898, oil on canvas (and sketch)

Impressionism • Salon des Refusés, (French: Salon of the Refused), art exhibition held in 1863 in

Paris by command of Napoleon III for those artists whose works had been refused by the jury of the official Salon. Many of these “refused” artists would become Impressionists.

• Impressionist painters depicted modern scenes of real life. • Impressionist paintings were often painted in plein air, outdoors, capturing a

particular moment in time. • Impressionist painters had tubed paints, foldable easels and trains to take them

to new locations; they also had a larger variety of colors thanks to chemistry and manufacturing.

• Impressionism was the first Modern Art movement, whose avant garde painters included Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, Auguste Renoir, Edgar Degas, Berthe Morisot, Mary Cassatt, Alfred Sisley and many more. The movement lasted about 1870-1890, but Impressionistic approaches continue today.

Claude Monet, Impression, Sunrise, 1872, oil on canvas

Claude Monet, Rouen Cathedral, 1892-93, oil on canvas (30+ canvases)

Claude Monet, Haystacks, Sunrise, 1890/91, oil on canvas

Claude Monet, Waterlily Murals, 1915-26, oil on canvas

Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Dance at Le moulin de la Galette, 1876, oil on canvas

Edgar Degas, Little Dancer, Aged Fourteen, 1878-81, Painted bronze with cotton and silk on a wooden base; Dancers in the Wings, c.1976-78, Pastel, gouache, distemper, and "essence" on paper, mounted on board

Post-Impressionism • Post-Impressionism grew out of Impressionism, in the sense that these artists

built upon the use of color and looser brushwork established by the Impressionists.

• Post-Impressionism was unlike Impressionism in other important ways. Post- Impressionism generally was not concerned with everyday scenes of life or capturing “impressions” of leisure activities. Instead, these artists returned to some classic themes in art while also expressing their inner vision and the structure of painting.

• Post-Impressionism was a movement of various stylistic approaches, whereas Impressionism was mostly a unified style.

• Symbolism (Gauguin) and Pointillism, a.k.a. Divisionism (Seurat/Signac) were two branches of Post-Impressionism.

• Key artists were Paul Gauguin, Vincent van Gogh, Paul Cézanne, George Seurat and others. The movement lasted roughly from 1886-1905.

Paul Gauguin, Vision After the Sermon (Jacob Wrestling with the Angel), c.1888, oil on canvas

Paul Gauguin, Mahana no atua (Day of God), c.1894, oil on canvas

Vincent van Gogh, Starry Night, 1889, oil on canvas

Vincent van Gogh, Portrait of a Peasant (Patience Escalier) 1888; Self-Portrait, 1889, oil on canvas

Paul Cézanne, Mont Sainte-Victoire, 1902-04, oil on canvas

Paul Cézanne, Still Life with Cherries and peaches, 1885-87, oil on canvas

George Seurat, Study for "A Sunday on La Grande Jatte", 1884, oil on canvas

George Seurat, "A Sunday on La Grande Jatte", 1884, oil on canvas (and detail, showing Pointillism technique)