Late 19th Century

Impasto

Applying paint really thickly like frosting on a cake Used by Courbet, Rembrandt, Van Gogh

Le Joie de Vivre

Joy of life

Realism

Late 19th century (1850s-60s) - Courbet, Millet, Eakins

Impressionism

Late 19th century (1870s-80s) - Monet, Renoir, Degas, Cassatt

Post-Impressionism

Late 19th cenutry (1880s) - van Gogh, Gauguin, Cezenne, Seurat

Post-Impressionism

Like Impressionism but w/ more meaning

Degas

SUBJECT: ballet dancers

Cassatt

SUBJECT: family scenes

Renoir

SUBJECT: people

Beardsley, The Peacock Skirt

• Work was @ intersection of Symbolism & Art Noveau • Dazzlingly decorative composition - perfectly characteristic of his style • Japanese print influence obvious but assimilated it into his unique manner o Banished Realism & Impressionists' & Post-Impressionists' emphasis on color & confined himself to patterns of black & white (no shading) o Tense, elastic line encloses sweeping curvilinear shapes that lie flat on the surface o Unfailing sense of linear rhythms & harmonies supports his mastery of calligraphic line

Van Gogh, Night Cafe

• Wrote about painting • "I have tried to express the terrible passions of humanity by means of red & green." • Explored the abilities of colors & distorted forms to express emotions • Thickness, shape, & direction of brush strokes create tactile counterpart to intense colors

Symbolism/Art Nouveau

c. 1890-1910 - Redon, Munch, Beardsley, Tiffany

Cezanne

~basis of art was his unique way of studying nature ~aim was to seek a lasting structure behind formless/fleeting visual information the eye absorbs ~sought to order lines, planes, & colors that comprised nature ~focused carefully on selecting colors - juxtaposed colors on canvas = volume/depth in works ~still-lifes ~analytical approach to painting

Van Gogh

~figures, landscapes, cityscapes, scenery ~explored capabilities of colors & distorted forms to express his emotions as he confronted nature ~moved brush vehemently back & forth/at right angles, giving textile like effect, even squeezing dots or streaks directly onto his canvas from paint tube (enhanced colors' intensity) ~heavy, thick brush strokes

Seurat

~pointilism: carefully observing color & separating it into its component parts --> applied to canvas in daubs ~Impressionist subjects: recreational themes ~rigid/remote interest in analyzing light & color... pointilism = carefully composed & painted image

Gauguin

~women of simple faith, Tahitian life ~flat-2D forms ~flatter color areas, often visually dissolving into abstract patches/patterns ~believed color above all must be expressive and that artist's power to determine colors in a painting was central element of creativity ~influenced by Japanese prints, stained glass, & cloisonne enamels

Art Nouveau

• Aims o Synthesize all arts in determined attempt to create art based on natural forms that could be mass-produced for larger audience • Influences o Developed out of ideas of Arts & Crafts movement • Techniques o Style adapted twining-plant form to needs of architecture, painting, sculpture, & all of decorative arts

Academic Art

• Art established in art schools o Royal Academy of Painting & Sculpture in France, Royal Academy of Arts in Britain o Provided instruction for art students & sponsored exhibitions, exerting tight control over art scene o Annual exhibitions called "Salons" in France o French Royal Academy was subsidized by government & supported limited range of artistic expression, focusing on traditional subjects & highly polished techniques

Renoir, La Moulin de la Galette

• Artist almost always painted people • Blended paint • More variation in colors (deeper) moment of time • Le joie de vivre: joy of life

Gaudi, Casa Mila

• Artist conceived a building as a whole & molded it almost as a sculptor might shape a figure from clay • Wondrously free-form mass wrapped around a street corner • Lacy iron railings enliven swelling curves of cut-stone façade • Dormer windows peep from undulating tiled roof o Chimneys poke energetically into air above • Rough surfaces of stone walls suggest naturally worn rock • Entrance portals look like eroded sea caves o May reflect excitement that swept Spain following discovering of Paleolithic paintings @ Altamira • Felt that each of his buildings was symbolically a living thing

Gauguin, Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?

• Artist loved women's simple faiths • Lived w/ van Gogh • Moved to Tahiti b/c offered him a life far removed from materialistic Europe & an opportunity to reconnect w/ nature • Used native women & tropical colors to present pessimistic view of inevitably of the life cycle

Cassatt, The Bath

• Artist painted mostly family scenes • Influence by Degas & Japanese prints • Flattens out surface

Realists

• Focused their attention on experiences & sights of everyday contemporary life o Especially that which up until then had been considered inappropriate for depiction • Disapproved of historical & fictional subjects on grounds that they were neither real & visible nor of the present

Manet, Dejeuner sur l'Herbe

• Foreground nude - distressingly unidealized figure type & disturbingly unabashed & at ease, gazing directly at viewer w/o shame/flirtatiousness • Seemed merely to represent ordinary men & promiscuous women in Parisian park • Rendered figures in soft focus & broadly painted landscape • Loose manner of painting contrasts w/ clear forms of harshly lit foreground trio & pile of discarded female attire & picnic foods @ lower left • Used colors to flatten form & to draw attention to painting surface • Public only saw crude sketch w/o customary finish • Style of painting + unorthodox subject matter = controversy

Barbizon School

• Group of French painters of country life o Specialized in detailed pictures of forest & countryside

Millet, The Gleaners

• Group of French painters of country life o Specialized in detailed pictures of forest & countryside • Depicted 3 peasant women performing the backbreaking task of gleaning last wheat scraps o Members of lowest level of peasant society • Monumental figures in foreground against broad sky • Aftermath of 1848 revolution invest the poor w/ solemn grandeur did not meet approval of prosperous classes • In sympathetic portrayal of poor, many saw political manifesto

Salon des Refuses

• Growing dissatisfaction w/ decisions of French Academy's jurors prompted Napoleon III to show all works not accepted for exhibition in regular Salon

Caillebotte, Paris: A Rainy Day

• Haussmannization: redesigning of Paris by Baron Haussmann • Painting o Junction of spacious boulevards that resulted from redesigning of Paris that began in 1852 o City's population had reached nearly 1.5 million by midcentury accommodate congregation of humanity & facilitate movement of troops in event of another revolution Napoleon III ordered Paris rebuilt New waterways & sewage sewer system, street lighting, new residential/commercial buildings Creation of wide, open boulevards • Construction caused demolition of thousands of old buildings & streets • Medieval Paris present modern city w/ superb vistas & wide uninterrupted arteries for flow of vehicular & pedestrian traffic • Chose to focus on these markers of city's rapid urbanization

Munch, The Cry

• Image - man standing on bridge/jetty in landscape - comes from real world o Treatment of image departs from visual reality • Evokes visceral, emotional response from viewer b/c of painter's dramatic presentation o Man in foreground (simplified to almost skeletal form) emits primal scream o Landscape's sweeping curvilinear lines reiterate curvilinear shape of mouth & head like an echo as cry seems to reverberate throughout setting o Fiery red & yellow stripes that give sky eerie glow also contribute to work's resonance • Original title was Despair

Degas, Ballet Rehearsal

• Impressionists depicted more formal leisure activities • Used several devices to bring observer into pictorial space o Frame cuts off spiral stair, windows in background, & group of figures in right foreground o Figures not in center of classically balanced composition - arranged in seemingly random manner o Diagonals of wall bases & floorboards carry viewer into & along directional lines of dancers o Large, off-center empty space - illusion of continuous floor • Photography influence o Studied photography of others o Used camera to make preliminary studies for his works (photographing figures in interiors) • Japanese woodblock prints influence o Cunning spatial projections probably derived in part from Japanese prints Diverging lines used to organize flat shapes of figures & direct viewer's attention into picture space

Arts and Crafts

• Industrialism o Many artists embraced manifestation of "modern life" or at least explored its effects o Other artists decried impact of rampant industrialism • From latter response came the ____ ___ _______ movement in England o Developed during last decades of 19th century o Shaped by John Ruskin & William Morris o Shared a distrust of machines & industrial capitalism, which they believed alienated workers from their own nature o Advocated an art "made by the people for the maker & the user" o Condemnation of capitalism & support for manual leaders socialism • Dedicated themselves to producing functional objects w/ high aesthetic value for wide public o Style - based on natural forms & often consisted of repeated designs of floral/geometric patterns

Courbet, The Stone Breakers

• Life of rural menial laborers o 70 year old man & young man in act of breaking stones Traditionally the lot of the lowest in French society Juxtaposing youth & age - suggested those born in poverty were to remain poor their entire lives o Depicted thankless toil w/ directness & accuracy o Dirty browns & grays dreary/dismal nature of task o Angular position of older man's limbs mechanical monotony • French Revolution of 1848 raised issue of labor as national concern & placed workers on stage both literally/symbolically o Timely & populist

Rodin, Walking Man

• Like Impressionist painters was interested in surface of sculpture o Represented momentary in cast bronze o Portrayed headless/armless figure in midstride at moment when weight is transferred across pelvis from back leg to front o Captured sense of transitory & demonstrated mastery of realistic detail in meticulous rendition of muscle, bone, & tendon

Cezanne, Mont Saint-Victoire

• Like Monet's view of cathedrals

Monet, Saint-Lazare Train Station

• New urban Paris o Expanding railway had made travel more convenient, bringing throngs of people into Paris o Captured energy & vitality of Paris's modern transportation hub o Train emerges from steam & smoke emitted & rumbles into the station o In background haze - tall buildings that were becoming a major component of Parisian landscape o Agitated paint application contributes to sense of energy & conveys atmosphere of urban life

Seurat, A Sunday on La Grande Jatte

• Pointillism: tiny dots • Consistent w/ Impressionist recreational themes • Shared Impressionists' interest in analyzing light & color • Played on repeated motifs to create flat patterns & suggest spatial depth o Female form, parasol, & cylindrical form

Redon, The Cyclops

• Projected figment of imagination as if it were visible o Whimsically colored w/ rich profusion of fresh saturated hues that harmonized w/ mood artist felt fitted subject • Fetal head of Polyphemus rises above sleeping Galatea • Image born of dreaming world & color analyzed & dissociated from waking world come together here at artist's will

Toulouse-Lautrec, At the Moulin Rouge

• Reveals influences of Degas, Japanese print, & photography in oblique/asymmetrical composition, spatial diagonals, & strong line patterns w/ added dissonant colors o Emphasized/exaggerated each element so that tone is new • Cheap/tawdry mood o Scene is nightlife w/ glaring artificial light, brassy music, & assortment of corrupt, cruel, & masklike faces o Distortions by simplification of figures/faces anticipated Expressionism

Impressionist

• Scientific studies of light & color influenced ____________ painting? o Also invention of chemically synthesized pigments o Increased artists' sensitivity to multiplicity of colors in nature & gave new colors for their work o Concluded that local color (an object's true color in white light) becomes modified by quality of light shining on it, by reflections from other objects, & by effects juxtaposed colors produced o Shadows not gray/black - composed of colors modified by reflections or other conditions o Complementary colors side by side over enough large areas colors intensify each other o "Mixing" of colors by juxtaposing them on canvas produces more intense hue vs. mixed on palette o Achieved brilliant effects w/ short, choppy brush strokes, which so accurately caught vibrating quality of light

Tanner, The Thankful Poor

• Studied art w/ Eakins before moving to Paris o Combined belief in careful study from nature & desire to portray dignity of life of ordinary people he had been raised among as son of African American minister in PA • Mood - quiet devotion not far removed from Realism of Millet • Painted grandfather, grandchild, & main objects in greatest detail o Everything else dissolves into loose strokes of color & light o Expressive lighting reinforces painting's reverent spirit Deep shadows intensifying man's devout concentration Light pouring in window illuminating quiet expression of thanksgiving on younger face • Deep sense of sanctity expressed here in terms of everyday experience became increasingly important for artist painted biblical subjects grounded in direct study from nature & in love of Rembrandt

Carpeaux, Ugolino and His Children

• Subject o Based group on passage in Dante's Inferno in which Count & his four sons starve to death while shut up in tower o In Hell, Count in extreme despair bit both his hands in grief o Children thought he did that b/c of hunger, offered own flesh as food • Influences o Artist combined interest in Realism w/ love of ancient, Renaissance, & Baroque sculpture o Powerful forms are twisted intertwined, & densely concentrated Artist was also careful student of Michelangelo's male figures Had Laocoon group in mind

Rodin, Burghers of Calais

• Subject o Commemorated heroic episode in Hundred Years' War when six Calais citizens offered their lives to save their city • Style o Each of bedraggled-looking figures is convincing study of despair, resignation, or quiet defiance o Enhanced psychic effects thru choreographic placement of group members Seem to wander aimlessly o Roughly textured surfaces add to pathos of figures & compel viewer's continued interest o Designed w/o traditional high base in hopes that citizens would be inspired by sculptural representation of their ancestors standing @ eye level in city center & preparing eternally to set off on their sacrificial journey

Daumier, Rue Transonain

• Subject o Lithography o Title refers to street in Paris where unknown sniper killed civil guard, part of government force trying to repress worker demonstration o Shot came from workers' housing block, so remaining guards massacred all of its inhabitants • Portrayal o W/ Goya's power, created view of slaughter from sharp, realistic angle of vision o Depicted not dramatic moment of execution but terrible, quiet aftermath o Broken, scattered forms lie amid violent disorder, as if newly found o Significance lies in factualness

Millais, Ophelia

• Subject from Shakespeare's Hamlet o Drowning of... who, in her madness, is unaware of her plight • To make pathos of scene visible artist became faithful/feeling witness of every detail, reconstructing it w/ lyricism worthy of original poetry • Fictitious scene but artist worked diligently to present it w/ unswerving fidelity to visual fact o Painted background on site @ spot along Hogsmill R. in Surrey o For figure - friend lay in heated bathtub full of water for hours @ a stretch

Van Gogh, Starry Night

• Tree & church break horizontal thrust but not in landscape in real life • Pantheism: God in nature • Corresponded to view available to painter from window of his room in asylum • Impasto: applying paint really thickly like frosting on a cake

Daumier, The Third-Class Carriage

• Unfinished painting • Artist frequently depicted plight of disinherited masses of 19th-century industrialism

Symbolism

1. mystical/dreamlike imagery 2. images depict states of soul - expressing deep sensitivity 3. free use of color

Impressionism

1. painted in dabs 2. light/bright colors (Japanese influence - flattening out surface) 3. painting the way light hits on objects (thought they were "realists") 4. captured a moment of time (no message/symbolism)

Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood

Chose to represent fictional, historical subjects but w/ significant degree of convincing illusion

Monet

Father of Impressionism SUBJECT: landscapes

Cezanne, Seurat

Post-Impressionists who influenced Cubism, Plasticism, Precisionism

Van Gogh, Gauguin

Post-Impressionists who influenced Fauvism, Expressionism

Pointillism

Tiny dots

Eakins, The Gross Clinic

• Artist studied both painting & medical anatomy in Philadelphia then studied under French artist Gerome • Aimed to paint things as he saw them rather than as public might wish them portrayed • Work presents renowned surgeon Dr. Samuel Gross in operating amphitheater of Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia o Testifies to public's increasing faith in scientific & medical progress o Lectures about surgery on young man's leg w/ bloody fingers & scalpel o Patient suffered from bone infection o Colleagues & patient's mother watching him o Indicative of contemporaneity of scene is anesthetist in background • Artist believed that knowledge was prerequisite to art • Insistence on scientific fact corresponded to dominance of empiricism during latter half of 19th century • Concern for anatomical correctness investigated human form & humans in motion • Collaboration w/ Muybridge in photographic study of animal & human action of all types anticipated motion picture

Monet, Impression: Sunrise

• Artist was father of Impressionism • Very obvious brush strokes (like an incomplete sketch) - captured a moment of time • Brighter colors • Subject of painting could be light • Nothing eternal • Dabs

Manet, A Bar at the Folies Bergere

• Centrally placed - disinterested/lost in thought bar maid • Blurred & roughly applied brush strokes o Especially background • Effects of modeling & perspective - minimal • Calls attention to surface by forcing viewer to scrutinize work to make sense of scene o Initially seems easily recognizable mirror behind barmaid confusion throughout rest of painting o Creates spatial inconsistencies (such as relationship b/w barmaid & her apparent reflection in a mirror) o Visual contradictions reveal artist's insistence on calling attention to pictorial structure of his painting

Tiffany, Lotus Table Lamp

• Constructed of leaded glass (often Favrile), mosaic, & bronze • Based on curvilinear floral forms of lotus (Art Noveau) • Could only make 1 at a time b/c of attention to detail required - high quality artisanship that Arts & Crafts movement so prized

Symbolists

• Created free interpretations of nature, concerned solely w/ expressing their individual spirit • Favored fantasy worlds of forms they conjured in their free imagination, w/ or w/o reference to things conventionally seen • Color, line, & shape = symbols of personal emotions in response to world • Deliberately chose to stand outside of convention/tradition • Task was not to see things but to see thru them to a significance & reality far deeper than what superficial appearance gave • Extreme subjectivism led them to cultivate all resources of fantasy & imagination • Urged artists to stand against materialism & conventional mores of industrial/middle-class society • Wished to cultivate an exquisite aesthetic sensitivity & make "art for art's sake" • Subjects o Esoteric, exotic, mysterious, visionary, dreamlike, & fantastic

Whistler, Nocturne in Black and Gold

• Daring painting w/ gold flecks & splatters that represent exploded firework punctuating darkness of night sky • More interested in conveying atmospheric effects than in providing detail of scene emphasis on creating harmonious arrangement of shapes & colors on rectangle of canvas • Court case o Critic responded to paintings w/ scathing review, accusing artist of flinging a pot of paint in the public's face" w/ his style o In reply, artist sued him for libel & won o Judge awarded artist less than a penny in damages & required him to pay for all of court costs (got ruined financially)

Japonisme

• Definition: French fascination w/ all things Japanese b/c of its beauty & exoticism • What caused it o Emerged in 2nd half of 19th century o Commodore Matthew Perry & American naval forces exacted trading & diplomatic privileges from Japan increased contact Westerners became familiar w/ Japanese culture • What it influenced in art o Influenced Impressionists & Post-Impressionists o Japanese presentation of woodblock prints intrigued these artists o Broad areas of flat color w/ limited amount of modulation or gradation interested modernist painters, who sought to call attention to picture surface o Decorative quality of images also appealed to artists associated w/ Arts & Crafts movement in England

Courbet, Burial at Ornans

• Depicts a funeral set in a bleak provincial landscape outside of home town • Monumental scale of traditional history painting but subject's ordinariness & antiheroic composition horrified contemporaneous critics

Manet, Olympia

• Depicts a young white prostitute reclining on bed that extends across foreground • Entirely nude except for ribbon around her neck, bracelet on her arm, orchid in her hair, & mule slippers • Black maid presents her w/ flowers from client • Meets viewer's eyes w/ look of cool indifference • Shamelessness & look that verges on defiance shocked viewers • Black maid + nude prostitute = moral depravity, inferiority, & animalistic sexuality • Black servant w/ fair-skinned courtesan made reference to racial division • Rougher brush strokes & shifts in tonality are more abrupt than those found in traditional academic painting