19th Century Europe

"-e" in Japanese means you are looking at a picture. Ukiyo-e means "floating world". You are enjoying transient, temporary things in this material life. Because life is short, you want to live it solely for its pleasures. (related to the idea of Vanitas). Cherry Blossoms bloom quickly and all of that massive beauty then goes away overnight. Other common themes were food, women, and partying. In the West, they appreciated the composition and did not know about or care about the deeper meaning. Huge difference between printmaking and woodblock prints is the color. They were produced as color prints while printmaking was always black and white. How these were made: In the Japanese prints, you would carve a relief and use a separate block for every color. They could have up to 20 colors. Very labor intensive. First, you carve the whole picture where the black lines will be, the outline. Then, you individually carve the areas in a separate block for each color.

Ando Hiroshige Ukiyo-e Japanese woodblock Prints

Originated many new ideas in sculpture. Created the notion of expressionism, which later became a movement in sculpture. Captured the internal world of inspiration that comes from the artist themselves. Expresses the concept of inspiration from the artist.

August Rodin

"those soldiers that go into battle first" They were breaking ground in the 19th century. Controversial and experimental. Worked against the interests and direction of the Academy.

Avant Garde

Whole new conception of the layout of Paris. Massive urban renewal took place mid 1800's as a response to the recent rapid urban expansion. Baron Haussmann headed this. There are huge open spaces, gave the city a new character. The streets were expanded. More parks were created. The next major movement was the French Impressionist movement, which started in Paris and then spread elsewhere carrying Parisian character with it. This urban renewal of Paris set the scene and acted as the inspiration for the French Impressionist movement because of the massive new influx of light, wide boulevards, expansive gardens, etc.

Baron Haussmann, 1853

the "beautiful age" of Paris; before the war; large middle class where lots of people had disposable income

Belle Epoque

wealthy middle class

Bourgeoisie

What the Impressionists called themselves. Exhibited together regularly and had their first show in 1874.

Corporation of Artists

This painting no longer exists; destroyed in WWII. Shows people executing the most unenviable, harshest, and lowliest work you could do in Paris; displayed most incredibly overlooked class of people. He said for art to function, it had to examine every part of life, even the unpleasant ones. You would stay in it til you died. Courbet's style also happened to be realistic. Very political dimension to this painting. Courbet wanted to show the Academy that they were painting things that didn't matter to him; glorifying angels and gods were not nearly as important or prevalent as everyday stuff that Courbet predicted.

Courbet, Stone Breakers, 1849

Influence from photography Scenes would not be perfectly centered (in photography, you often slip when taking the picture and everything moves and is blurred and the center axis is off)

Cropping

Name for the earliest type of photograph; named after one of the first photographers

Daguerreotype

"in plain air" artists painted what they saw outside. Led to the invention of paint being massed produced in tubes where it would last indefinitely; made it easier for the artists to go outside and paint. The new format of the city allowed all if this to be possible.

En Plein Air

1849 Of the Avant-Garde movement. Courbet's work started the Realism movement. Also realistic. An ordinary modern burial scene. No glorification of the person that died. Even a dog wandered into the picture. Courbet used the traditional format that the Academy reserved for history paintings to paint this scene. When you wanted to glorify a subject, you would make the painting really, really big. Courbet made this painting incredibly large scale and this really offended the Academy. Courbet submitted this to the Academy to prove that they did not accept new ideas or works.

Gustave Courbet, Burial at Ornans

Taken by putting a coated plate of metal and the light of the lens would impress a scene of whatever the light was facing onto the chemically treated plate and create a negative. Photographers had to have an incredible knowledge and skill of this new kind of medium. Early light sensitive chemicals would take a while to develop. It would take almost 30 min of exposure for the picture to form and the chemical process to take place.

How early photography was made

Characterized by: visibly loose brushwork ("painterly technique") Cropping Inspiration was taken from outside. Artists began to paint "en plein air" Emphasis on light The theme of the Impressionists: lighter and happier subject, bourgeoisie

Impressionism

Good example of the relationship between the East and West. Most of the prints were made in the 18th and 19th centuries and sent from Japan. They were made to be disposable items and not considered great pieces of art. Oblique, asymmetrical compositions. The diagonal aspects of the prints made them very appealing. Used the cropping technique, which influenced other pieces of art. Not interested in spacial awareness. Very much anti-academic. Artists would make direct one-to-one copies of these prints.

Japonisme

1837 Photography was a new form of art. This was one of the first successful photographs. Most photography gravitated to still-life.

Louis Daguerre, The Artist's Studio

Where you could see evidence of the artist's brushwork on every inch of the canvas. Characteristic of the Impressionist movement.

Painterly Technique

There is not one cohesive style movement in Post-Impressionism. The artists are a little more complicated and have individual goals. Cezanne had the longest influence on the Post Impressionists and was what led art to the modern 20th century. Much more interested in how the artists expresses things through their own emotional filter. Emotional expression was the key of what they were after. They felt impressionists lacked emotion. The goal of the artist here is to interpret their own emotional response to the object they are painting, and they do this in a variety of ways. Increase in the ABSTRACTION of the form.

Post Impressionism

Captures life as it actually is, but the artist would often stage the images. The picture itself is a selection of the bigger picture, and in a way, even a manipulation of what the artist wants the audience to see. So how authentic is this as a tool that is supposed to be objective?

Problem of photography

19th century movement that comes from the work of Courbet Subject matter is realistic People doing mundane, everyday stuff Subject matters that were a slice of life nothing Classical or mythological

Realism

General description for the realist style Precisely textured Not a detail escapes the artist

realism