What was modern about the modern art of the 18th century in France was the concept of space or representation of space. Instead of a vast unending space, the spaces are shallower, imagery is thrust toward the picture plane. We see planer recession instead of linear recession.
This painting is a good example of the use of planar recession. You see the diagonals and use of perspective that give a sense of depth, but the depth is shallow, forcing us back to the actions of the figures closest to us. The three brothers on the left swear an oath to the Roman empire as they go off to battle. The mother and sisters on the right weep in despair to see their men going off to danger and possible death. An additional twist: one of the sisters is engaged to a man who is the enemy. We see classical balance of emotion and restraint.
Delacroix believed that composition should be constructed by color. This painting was inspired by a tragedy by Byron. It depicts the murder/suicide of the Assyrian king Sardanapalus who will set fire to himself and all belongings including servants, concubines etc. You may have noticed that the dramatic appearance of this painting is reminiscent of the Baroque style.
Goya was a Spanish artist who is best known for his works involving political themes. Here we see Madrid peasants assassinated as the city fall to the French. You can see the composition divided with two groups of figures. On the right very ordered dutiful soldiers, on the left, chaotically arranged panicking victims. He uses the focus of light and color on the tragedy at hand to intensify emotional impact.
Although it was the most popular type of painting in its day, Academic Art had the least impact on the development of modern art.
Academic Art took its name because its style and subject matter were derived from conventions established by the Academie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture in Paris.
Many artists steeped in this tradition were followers rather than innovators, and the quality of their production left something to be desired.
Four nymphs urge the satyr into the water. Notice their sensuality which would have appealed to Frenchmen on the street. The painting has an almost photographic quality because of refinement and attention to detail. The sweetness of the subject matter and the extreme light-handedness were what the new painters were rebelling against.
Two reasons why the modern painters rejected the Academic approach: 1. the subject matter did not represent life as it really was. 2. the manner in which the subjects were represented did not reflect reality as seen by the naked eye.
The modern artists chose to depict subjects that were evident in everyday life.
They respected the reality of the medium they worked with.
Instead of using pigment merely as a tool to provide an illusion of three-dimensional reality, they emphasized the two dimensionality of the canvas and asserted the painting process itself.
The physical properties of the pigments were highlighted.
Uses realistic subject matter. Third class citizens crowded into a car. He had a concern for the working class and the plight of the masses. We see the influence of caricature through the dark outlines and cartoonist quality which emphasize the ordinariness and realness of the people. Daumier used his cartoons to express his disgust for the monarchy and contemporary bourgeois society.
Once again we see a common scene from life, un-idealized. Courbet really led the Realist movement and became an influence for future artists not only because of his choice of subjects, but because of his approach to technique (application of this paint).
Manet is responsible for many changes in painting and is considered the most important influence of the French Impressionists who would advocate the direct painting of optical impressions. His technique of painting from a white canvas instead of a dark under-painting as was common at the time gave his painting a luminous quality. He also lost the chiaroscuro modeling which resulted in flat, broad, shapes of color. This was his attempt to capture a fleeting moment or a collapsed time frame. Luncheon on the Grass was met with disapproval, not only because of it’s unconventional use of technique, but because of the unexplained subject matter. Here you have what look like ordinary middle class folks, but for some reason the men are dressed and the women are not. You can imagine how people would view this as very inappropriate. He has chosen to place the figures into a stable triangle formation. The men seem unaware of the women. The women closest to us gazes out of the canvas as if we are intruding.
Impressionist artists shared common philosophies about painting, although their styles differed widely.
They reacted against the constraints of the Academic style and subject matter.
They advocated painting out-of-doors and chose to render subjects found in nature.
They studied the dramatic effects of atmosphere and light on people and objects
And they attempted, through a varied palette, to duplicate these effects on canvas.
We can see that Monet is very aware of the effects of light and color (compliments blue/orange) on the surfaces. The details dissolve and leave us instead with an impression, a record of a feeling of a single moment in time. He and we, are eyewitnesses to a scene that can never be exactly duplicated.
Notice the color used in shadow areas. Yellow, red, blue are pixilated and form a hazy memory like sensation.
Renoir, of the group, was probably the most significant figure painter. We can see that he was interested in how light played across the surfaces. Notice the effects of sunlight through tree canopies. The painting is similar to a memory in that the details are softened.
Morisot came from a family of painters. Notice that the individual brushstrokes are easy to pick out. Some parts of the painting are very gestured and suggestive, giving just an indication of the form while the head is more developed and modeled.
What seems to set Degas apart from the others of the group is his use of these unusual, unpredictable compositions. He takes oblique views, includes strong diagonals, cuts off parts of objects and figures very intentionally. This aspect of his painting was strongly influenced by Japanese woodcuts.
The Postimpressionists were drawn together by their rebellion against what they considered an excessive concern for fleeting impressions and a disregard for traditional compositional elements.
Although Seurat’s style has some similarities with Impressionism, he takes a much more controlled, scientific approach. The technique he employed is called pointillism and involves applying pure color in small dots or dabs. Color mixtures are created by concentrating these dabs of pure color closely together so that the eye of the viewer actually does the mixing. Close up, the individual dotted strokes can we identified, but at a distance the mixtures of dots vibrate into mixtures of tones. His optical effects were very controlled and based on scientific color theories.
As we move forward chronologically from this point, we notice a significant move toward abstraction. We saw this start to happen with Manet and now it continues with Cezanne. Cezanne uses color in a structural way. The space he represents is shallow, flattened. The table top tips up toward us, the fruit seems like it could roll out onto our feet. Believe it or not, he is painting the subject from different angles at different times in the same piece. Notice the front edge of the table on each side of the drapery seems to be in different places, the back edge too. He spends lots of time developing the negative spaces. The brushwork is lush and follows the contours of the objects he describes.
Unfortunately when most people hear the name Van Gogh, the ear situation always comes to mind first. It is amazing how countless moments of achievement and genius can exist in the shadow of a single unfortunate event. Van Gogh was a complex individual: deep religious factors, possible mental illness and epilepsy etc. His painting was a way of him showing us things not as they really existed, rather as he wanted them to be experienced. His use of bright color and textural long strokes of paint leave us with an emotional reaction.
Gauguin was similar to Van Gogh in that he included emotionalism in his work. He does this in this case, by using large areas of intense color. The inspiration for this work was an account of Breton women who believed they had a vision of Jacob wrestling the Angel (biblical). Gauguin combines reality and symbolism. The space is very flattened and pushed toward us.
Toulouse-Lautrec is best known for his depictions of cabarets, theaters, cafes and Parisian night life. This approach to composition reminds us of what Degas was doing. Toulouse-Lautrec adds an element of lighting that feels a bit artificial.
Munch’s style reflects an anguished preoccupation with fear and death. The Scream is one of his best know works. The main figure is very skeletal looking- again pain and isolation are his central themes. The landscape has a rippling quality perhaps in reaction to the pitch of the implied scream.
Kollwitz’s work includes themes of inhumanity, injustice, and humankinds destruction of itself. Outbreak is one of a series of 7 prints representing 16th century peasants war. Black Anna led laborers against oppressors. This work remembers a specific historical event but holds a universal sense of inspiration to all who have been oppressed or who strive for freedom against all odds. The blurred forceful lunging of the mass is balanced by the dominant shape of the back side of Anna.
Cassatt was born in Pittsburgh but spent most of her life in France and was part of the inner circle of the Impressionist group. She was very close to and influenced by Degas. Like the other Impressionists, she was also influenced by Japanese prints and photography. The central theme of most of her work is women and children. Here we see a woman and her child as the main focus, balanced by the large dark shape of the rowers back side and the sail on the left side. The space is collapsed and has a very solid feel partially because of the simplified shapes.
This composition is one of the best know in the history of art. It combines both realism and abstraction. It is a pleasing arrangement of shapes in ones of black, gray and white.
Eakins is considered to be the most important American painter of the 19th c. He was strongly influenced by his experience in Paris. The painting was not well received because of the unpleasant nature of the theme. The theme, however reflects Eakins’ interest and pursuit of anatomy. The contrast between the men’s matter of fact approach and the mothers agony is part of the reason the painting was not embraced. The extreme lighting which keeps us in the foreground is reminiscent of the Baroque style.
Cole was the leader of the Hudson River School- a group of artists whose favorite subjects included the scenery of the Hudson River Valley and the Catskill Mountains in New York State. Cole magnifies the grandeur of nature in this painting of a natural oxbow formation. Attention to detail can be seen in the foliage and farmland.
The Art Nouveau style is seen in painting, sculpture as well as architecture, furniture, jewelry, fashion and glassware. Art Nouveau is marked by a lyrical linearity, the use of symbolism, and rich ornamentation.
There is an overriding sense of the organic in all of the arts of this style.
Auguste Rodin, was able to apply the principles of modern painting to sculpture. His work revolved around the human figure. He was able to both represent the figure extremely realistically, but he also worked with processes that allowed him to manipulate the textures of the surfaces which would then activate light and shadow.