CHAPTER 19 MODERN ERA
The Academy
Academic art was the style of art produced under the influence of the European academies. The Academy was established in 1648 and maintained a firm grip on artistic production for over two centuries. Neoclassical and Romantic styles. Academic painters strove for photorealistic representations of the figure.
The Hudson River School
An American group of artists, specialized in landscape painting. They primarily painted New York State's Hudson River Valley. Panoramic views of the landscape Exploration of the individual's and country's relationship to the land Moral question of America's direction as a civilization
Mary Cassatt
Cassatt was part of the inner circle of Impressionists. Her paintings centered on images of women and children. Her paintings are characterized by bold areas of color, line, and shape.
Postimpressionism: Paul Cézanne
Cézanne started to take representation toward abstraction. He is credited with having led the revolution of abstraction in modern art. He collapsed space even more and forced imagery to the picture plane. Objects are seen from many different angles. He moved around his subject while painting.
Daguerreotypes
Daguerreotypes create a positive image- the light and dark values appear correctly. This image is unique and can't be reproduced. The plate was the actual photograph. The future of photography depended on a negative image.
Edgar Degas
Degas was influenced by the developing art of photography. Many of his compositions have the spontaneous feeling of a snapshot. His creates dynamic, asymmetrical compositions through his use of diagonals and technique of cropping scenes. Degas was not interested in painting outdoors like most of the other Impressionists. He was interested in the human figure and capturing the characteristic gestures of the people he observed. Edgar Degas, The Rehearsal, 1877
Realism
Developed in France in the mid-19th c. The search for knowledge based on observation and direct experience The Realists' sincerity about scrutinizing their environment led them to portray objects and images that artists in recent centuries had deemed unworthy of depiction - the mundane and trivial, the working-class laborers and peasants.
William Henry Fox Talbot
Developed the calotype process Could make positive prints from calotype negatives This became the basis for photography - a negative image could produce an unlimited number of positives/prints William Henry Fox Talbot, The Open Door, 1843
Romantic Landscape Painting
Dramatic landscapes emphasized turbulent scenes, often shaken by storms, aimed to stir the viewers' emotions and arouse the feeling of the sublime The Sublime: His definition of the sublime was: feelings of awe/fascination mixed with terror. Awe-inspiring beauty
Eugène Delacroix
Eugène Delacroix was a major painter during the Romantic period. He advocated the spontaneity of painting directly on canvas without meticulous preparatory sketches.
Characteristics of Rococo
Fanciful architectural decoration Pastel colors Delicate, curving forms Mood of playfulness; lighthearted
Romanticism
Flourished from about 1800 to 1840 (between Neoclassicism and Realism) Emerged from a desire for freedom - not only political freedom but also freedom of thought, feeling, action, worship, speech, and taste. Romantics asserted that freedom was the right and property of all. They believed the path to freedom was through imagination rather than reason and functioned through feeling rather than through thinking.
Avant Garde
French for "advance guard." It refers to people or works that are experimental or innovative. Avant-garde artists pushed the boundaries of what was accepted as the norm (like the academies).
Postimpressionism: Paul Gaugin
Gaugin exaggerated color and line, as well as pattern. Van Gogh and Gaugin's use of bright color and line to express feelings and emotions foreshadowed Expressionism.
Realism
Gustave Courbet: father of the Realism He depicted realistic subjects and vigorous application of paint, which rebelled against the established Academic tradition of art. In contrast to the photographic realism of Academic art, Courbet attempted to quickly jot down his impressions of the scene in spontaneous strokes. Because of this, he is thought to have foreshadowed the Impressionist movement.
Expressionism: Edvard Munch
His art showed his view of humanity as being consumed by an increasingly dehumanized society. Munch looked for symbols of isolation that highlighted his sense of loneliness.
Romanticism
Imaginative approach to art Strong feelings of the artist who attempt to inspire those same feelings in the viewer Strongly challenged the Enlightenment's faith in reason and knowledge Celebrated emotions and subjectivity Dramatic images that were intended to stir the viewer's emotions
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres
Ingres studied under David, but interpreted David's Neoclassicism in a new way More lyrical Precise drawing, idealized forms Flat, linear forms
Käthe Kollwitz-
Kollwitz was a well known German Expressionist artist. She worked with the themes of inhumanity, injustice, and humankind's destruction of itself. She lost a son in WWI and a grandson in WWII, so she often created images that depicted the horrors of war.
Jacques-Louis David
Leading Neoclassical painter and the official painter of the French Revolution He set the course for modern art with a sudden and decisive break from the ornateness and frivolity of the Rococo
Romanticism
Loose, fluid brushwork Strong colors Dramatic contrast of light and dark Complex compositions Expressive poses and gestures
Development of Photography
Louis Daguerre experimented with silver compounds (silver and chalk mixtures that darken when exposed to light). In 1837 he developed the daguerreotype. A metal plate is coated with a light-sensitive coating and then exposed in a camera obscura. He placed a coated pewter plate in the camera obscura to preserve the image 20-30 minutes to expose the image
Rococo
Louis XIV's death in 1715 brought many changes in French high society. Rococo was the culture where private patrons dictated taste (which greatly contrasts royal patronage and Louis XIV who dominated the French Baroque). Aristocrats reestablished their predominance as art patrons. The hôtels (town houses) of Paris soon became the centers of the Rococo perfect expression of the sparkling wealth in their elegant homes
Edouard Manet
Manet is most responsible for changing the course of the history of painting. He didn't render his figures with traditional chiaroscuro. Instead, he applied flat, broad areas of paint. He attempted to capture an impression of a fleeting moment, to duplicate on canvas what they eye would perceive within that collapsed time frame. Manet's most shocking painting was Le Déjeuner sur l'Herbe (Luncheon on the Grass). He often referenced Renaissance paintings as you will see in the following comparisons.
Edouard Manet
Manet was one of the most important influences on the Impressionist painters. His painting Le Déjeuner sur l'Herbe started a period of exploration of new ideas that the Impressionist painters continued. Manet submitted this painting to the 1863 Salon, and it was rejected. Manet, among other rejected artists rebelled. This led to the Salon des Réfusés (Salon of the Rejected Painters). This was one of the most important gatherings of the avant-garde painters.
Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Most significant figure painter of the Impressionists. He was interested in the effect of light as it played across the surface of objects.
1789 Revolution
New era in France Overthrow of the monarchy Napoleon Bonaparte took over and established a different kind of monarchy. He gained control of almost all of continental Europe over the next 15 years
Realism
Objected to Academic art because the subject matter didn't represent life as it really was Their art was "real" as in what life was really like for most people (not realism as far as being realistic in style or photorealistic) Subjects that were evident in everyday life They also emphasized the two-dimensionality of the canvas and asserted the painting process itself; highlighted the physical properties of the paint.
Impressionism
Painting techniques: duplicated the glimmering effect of light bouncing off the surface of an object by applying paint in short, choppy strokes. juxtaposed complementary colors to reproduce the optical vibrations perceived when looking at an object in full sunlight. Landscape scenes and images of the middle class enjoying leisure-time activities are common subjects of the Impressionists.
Neoclassical art
Reaction against the playful Rococo style Emphasized restraint of emotion, purity of form, and subjects that inspired morality. Characterized by harsh sculptural lines, a subdued palette, and planar recession into space Subject matter was inspired by the French Revolution and designed to heighten moral standards.
Realism
Realist artists argued that only the things of one's own time, what people could see for themselves, were "real." They focused their attention on the experiences and sights of everyday contemporary life Disapproved of historical and fictional subjects on the grounds that they weren't real, visible, or from the present
Realism
Rejection of Romantic subjectivity & imagination Rejection of Neoclassical idealism Instead: accurate description of the ordinary, observable world; truthful Often had a social critique and political message Honoré Daumier, Gustave Courbet, and Edouard Manet
John Henry Fuseli
Romantic painter Glorified the irrational side of human nature Freedom of expression, originality, imaginative
Rosa Bonheur
Rosa Bonheur also worked in the Realist style, but she used animals (rather than humans) as her subjects. She dressed in mens' clothes to go to stables and slaughter houses to study the anatomy of animals. Her work had a dramatic contrast of light and dark, and painterly brushwork to add emotion and energy to the paintings.
Théodore Géricault
The French artist most association with the Romantic movement. He retained interest in the heroic and the epic, and was well trained in classical drawing.
Impressionism
The Impressionists reacted against the constraints of the Academic style and subject matter. They advocated painting "en plein air," a French word for painting outdoors. The popularity of painting en plein air increased in the 1870s with the introduction of paints in tubes. They were united in their rejection of the styles that preceded them: Academic painting, the emotionalism of Romanticism, and the depressing subjects of the Realists.
Impressionism
The Impressionists studied the dramatic effects of atmosphere and light, and attempted to duplicate these effects on canvas through a varied palette. The term Impressionism came from a hostile critic who disregarded the work of the Impressionist group as mere "impressions." The word "impression" suggest a lack of realism, and realistic representation was the standard at the time. Impressionism ran against the preferred illusionistic realism of Academic painting.
Postimpressionism
The Postimpressionist artists were united in their rebellion against Impressionism. They rebelled against the quick, spontaneous impressions and disregard for traditional compositional elements of the Impressionist painters.
Rococo (end of chapter 18)
The Rococo appeared in France around 1700 (early 18th c.), primarily as a style of interior design. The term is derived from the French word rocaille (pebble). It referred to the small stones and shells used to decorate grotto interiors. Shells and shell forms were the principal motifs in Rococo ornament.
The Academy & the Salon
The Royal Academy of Painting & Sculpture had exhibitions of member's recent work in Salons - what we call art shows today (held in the Louvre in Paris) A jury of members elected works for the show These public exhibitions in Paris were very influential for establishing officially approved styles and molding public taste Primarily male artists. Some restricted the number of women members or welcomed women only as honorary members
The Camera
The camera is a light-tight box with an opening at one end that admits light. A lens focuses and refracts the light onto a light-sensitive surface (such as film), which preserves the image. The major drawback to the camera obscura was that there was no way to preserve the image.
Photography(More details can be found in the first half of chapter 10)
The camera obscura was developed during the Renaissance Camera obscura- a box with a small hole that admits light. The beam of light projects the outside scene upside down on a surface in the box.
Angelica Kauffman, The Artist in the Character of Design Listening to the Inspiration of Poetry, 1782
The idealized facial features, severe architecture, classically rendered drapery, and rich palette place the painting firmly in the Neoclassical style.
Claude Monet
The leading and most passionate Impressionist painter At the first Impressionist exhibition in 1874, his painting Impression: Sunrise, is the painting that caused the term Impressionism to come about. Monet tried to record the feeling of a single moment in time and the effects of light. Money often worked in series to study how lighting of different seasons and times of day changed how we see the subject
Pointillism
Thousands of tiny dots or points of pure color next to each other This technique is used instead of mixing color on a palette or canvas Optical color mixture - the eyes of the viewer mix the colors optically; the eye blends them, producing a new color. Georges Seurat
Vincent van Gogh
Van Gogh explored the capabilities of colors and distorted forms to express his emotions. He was a missionary in a coal-mining town and then turned to painting. He considered himself to be a failure as an artist. He only sold one painting in his life. He shot himself at age 37.
Postimpressionism: Vincent van Gogh
Van Gogh typifies the notion of the insane artist, and he also epitomizes the cliché of the artist who achieves recognition only after death (he only sold one painting in his lifetime). Van Gogh ended up being hospitalized in an asylum, which is where he painted his most famous painting, Starry Night. Van Gogh has a very distinct style of long rhythmic brushstrokes.
Angelica Kauffman
Was a leading Neoclassical painter. She is known for portraits, history painting, and narrative works.
The Rococo
strayed even further from Classical principles than the Baroque sweetness, delicate quality, sentimental leisure activities of the upper class frivolous subject (the wealthy), soft pastel colors, and delicate, painterly brushstrokes, lush textures