Art AppreciationTopic VIII:

Art Movements in the Later 19th Century

c.1840-c.1914

French Academic Art (c.1840-1900)

Realism (c.1850-1900)

Victorian Art (c.1837-1901)

The Pre-Raphaelites (c.1848-1910)

Impressionism (c.1870-c.1900)

Postimpressionism (c. 1880-c.1910)

Neoimpressionism (c.1885-1900)

Symbolism (c.1885-1910)

The Nabis (c.1890-1900)

Art Nouveau (c.1890-1914)

The term “Academic Art” can be used to refer to all art

influenced by the various established Academies, which began to

proliferate throughout Europe during the early 18th

century, but it is

often meant to refer to artists influenced by the standards of the

French Académie des beaux-arts. The French Academy had a

tremendous influence on the Salons in 19th century Paris between

c.1840-c.1900.

As the main forum for academic art, the Paris Salons were held

in the Salon d'Apollon in the Palais du Louvre. These state-sponsored

exhibitions were enormously influential in establishing officially

approved styles and molding public taste, and they helped consolidate

the Royal Academy’s dictatorial control over the production of fine art.

For much of the 19th

century, the Salon had a conservative outlook,

which discouraged new trends. French academic art used to be viewed

as the rather dull art of the establishment, but in recent years opinion

has shifted somewhat.

The most prestigious form of academic art was “history

painting,” which encompassed religious, mythological, and allegorical

subjects as well as history. Landscapes, portraits, and genre scenes

(paintings of everyday life) were deemed to be less important, while

modern subjects were frowned upon. The question of “finish” was even

more crucial. Academic artists favored a detailed, enamel-like finish

that appeared realistic even when viewed close up.

The Romans of the

Decadence by Couture

A Game of Piquet by Meissonier

The

Campaign

of France,

1814

by

Meissonier

Portrait of

Alexandre

Dumas fils

by

Meissonier

Homage to Delacroix by Fantin-Latour

Black

Bashi-

Bazouk

by

Gérôme

Pygmalion

and

Galatea

by

Gérôme

The Birth of

Venus

by

Bouguereau

The Wave by Bouguereau

The Realist movement emerged in France in the mid-19th

century as a reaction against the outdated strictures of academic art,

and it signaled a definitive break from the artistic traditions of the past.

The movement was spearheaded by Gustave Courbet and Jean-François

Millet.

In the late 1840s, a circle of writers, artists and intellectuals

held regular meetings at a Parisian bar, the Brasserie Andler. They

dubbed their meeting place the “Temple of Realism,” and it was this

nickname that Courbet adopted for his art.

Although they appear anything but revolutionary today, the

paintings of Courbet provoked a storm of protest at the Salon, largely

because they contravened normal academic practice. Instead of

tackling noble themes, Realist artists painted the harsh conditions of

rural life. While such scenes were expected to be small and picturesque

to provide a sense of escapism, the peasant pictures of Courbet and

Millet were on a large scale normally reserved for major historical

themes or religious subjects, and they focused on the hardship of

modern working conditions.

The Realists attracted equal scorn for their figures, which often

featured double chins and rolls of fat or wizened caricatures. For the

delicate sensibilities of critics accustomed to the idealized forms in

academic art, this was not realism but a deliberate quest for ugliness.

Woman

with the

Pearl

by

Corot

Lady in

Blue

by

Corot

The Stone Breakers by Courbet

The Origin of the World by Courbet

Ratapoil

by Daumier

The Third-Class Carriage by Daumier

The Angelus by Millet

The

Bookworm

by

Spitzweg

http://gallerix.ru/pic/National-Gallery-London-1/glrx-752977285.jpg

Three

Women in

Church

by

Liebl

The Boatmen on the Volga

by Repin

During the lengthy reign of Queen Victoria (1837-1901),

Britain enjoyed an unrivaled period of economic prosperity and

political influence, and the arts in Britain scaled new heights. The

leading painters of the Victorian age became rich and famous,

and many Victorians felt they were living during a golden age in the

arts.

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert were knowledgeable art

collectors, and there was a growing interest in art on the part of

the middle classes as well. Britain’s Royal Academy, which

remained the chief marketplace for artists, regularly attracted

more than a quarter of a million visitors to its annual exhibition and

the academic tradition remained one of the surest routes to

success.

New trends emerged in the field of genre painting, which

enjoyed a surge in popularity even before Victoria came to the

throne. The Victorian public loved pictures that contained a moral

or told a story, but the tone of the resulting art could vary

considerably. Art could have a patriotic theme, but the Victorians

were equally fond of moral or sentimental subjects. Above all, they

enjoyed seeing reflections of their own society.

Male

Nude,

arms up

stretched

by

Etty

The Sirens and Ulysses by Etty

Empress

Josephine

and the

Fortune-

Teller

by

Wilkie

The

Monarch

of the

Glen

by

Landseer

Trafalgar

Square

Lions

by

Landseer

Flaming

June

by

Leighton

The Pre-Raphaelites burst upon the English

art scene in the mid-19th

century. In a youthful act of

rebellion, they vowed to counter the stifling

predictability of academic art by seeking to recapture

the honest simplicity of the early Italian painters who

had flourished before Raphael, hence “Pre-Raphaelite.”

The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was formed in 1848 by

a group of seven young artists who sealed their pact by

adding the initials “PRB” to their paintings.

The Pre-Raphaelites tackled a wide variety of

themes. They shared the Victorian appetite for color

and romance of the Middle Ages, taking themes from

Arthurian legend. However, they were also interested in

covering modern issues and social problems, such as

emigration, prostitution, and religious reform.

The group often focused on a moral or a story,

many of which were drawn from literary sources. They

avoided classical authors, but Shakespeare, Keats and

Tennyson were popular choices.

Ophelia

by

Millais

The

Blind

Girl

by

Millais

The

Last of

England

by

Brown

The

Awakening

Conscience

by

Hunt

The Scapegoat by Hunt

Beloved

by

Rossetti

Lady

Lilith

by

Rossetti

The

Beguiling

of Merlin

by

Burne-

Jones

The Lady of Shallot by Waterhouse

The Impressionist movement originated and achieved its fullest

development in France, although its impact was felt throughout the West. It

was never a school in the narrowest sense of the word, with a precise

manifesto and a common style.

The Impressionists set out to paint the effects of light. To this end,

they used visible brushstrokes of pure color, painting scenes of daily life

around Paris. People at the time thought Impressionist pictures looked

unfinished and the subject matter pointless. But the new artists spelled the

end of a tradition that had held sway since the Renaissance.

Visually, the Impressionists were inspired by the boldness and

simplicity of Japanese woodblock prints, which had only reached the West,

and their use of pure, bright colors, the lack of modeling in their figures,

and their casual attitude to the laws of perspective. They were also

influenced by developments in the world of photography.

In their revolt against academic art, the Impressionists developed

their own subject matter, celebrating modern life and painting scenes of

everyday urban and suburban pastimes, chores and landscapes. At some

stage, all of the Impressionist painters experimented with plein-air

(outdoor) painting, completing entire pictures on the spot. This enabled

them to capture the most fleeting sensations of light and weather

conditions. To achieve this, they had to work quickly. They conveyed their

forms with short, broken brushstrokes and vivid flecks of color. Every item

was condensed to its simplest form.

Olympia

by

Manet

A Bar at

the

Folies-

Bergère

by

Manet

Reading by Morisot

The

Cradle

by

Morisot

Lady at her Toilette by Morisot

Wild Poppies by Monet

Water Lilies by Monet

1897-99

1899

1899

1900

1900

1903

1904

1906

1914

1914

1914-17

The

Dancing

Class

by

Degas

In a

Café,

or

Absinthe

by

Degas

Prima

Ballerina

by

Degas

Little

Dancer,

Aged 14

by

Degas

La Loge

by

Renior

Le Moulin de la Galette by Renior

The Luncheon of the Boating Party by Renoir

Paris Street, A Rainy Day by Caillebotte

Little Girl in a Blue Armchair by Cassatt

The

Bath

by

Cassatt

The Boating Party by Cassatt

The

Thinker

by

Rodin

Peasants

Resting

by

Pissaro

Young

Girl with

a Stick

by

Pissarro

At the Moulin Rouge by Toulouse-Lautrec

In the Salon of the Rue des Moulins

by Toulouse-Lautrec

Marcelle

Lender

Dancing

the

Bolero

by

Toulouse-

Lautrec

Othello

by

Corinth

Charlotte

Corinth

at Her

Dressing

Table

by

Corinth

The Parrot

Man

by

Liebmann

Parrot

Street

by

Liebmann

The Bridge by Steer

Walk

on the

Beach

by

Sorolla

A Break Away! by Roberts

The Open-Air Breakfast by Chase

Rain Storm, Union Square by Hassam

Neo-Impressionism and Post-Impressionism

were both an extension of Impressionism and a rejection of its

limitations. This new generation of painters started on the fringes

of Impressionism, but many of them began to react against its

preoccupation with surface appearances. They pushed beyond the

quest for naturalism and sought to express feelings and ideas

through a radically new use of color, brushstroke, and content.

The two recognizable “schools” were based on the

theories of Seurat (Neo-Impressionism) and Gaugin (Post-

Impressionism). Seurat’s work is characterized by the use of dots

of pure color and an attempt to make the approach to light and

color more rational and scientific--which he termed “Divisionism”

or “Pointillism.” Gaugin renounced naturalism to explore a bold,

symbolic use of color and line.

The subjects of Neo-impressionist and Post-impressionist

paintings were as varied as the painters’ styles. In their

determination to find a simpler, more authentic mode of

representation, Neo-impressionists and Post-impressionists

reinvented the art of painting by emphasizing geometric shapes,

distorting forms, and applying unnatural coloring.

Bathers at Rest by Cézanne

Card Players by Cézanne

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3d/Paul_C%C3%A9zanne,_Les_joueurs_de_carte_(1892-95).jpg

Woman

in a

Green

Hat

by

Cézanne

Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La

Grande Jatte by Seurat

Potato Eaters by van Gogh

Vase with

Fourteen

Sunflowers

by

van Gogh

Self-

Portrait

with

Bandaged

Ear and

Pipe

by

van Gogh

Starry Night by van Gogh

The Vision after the Sermon by Gaugin

The Spirit of the Dead Watches by Gaugin

Portrait of Félix Fenéon by Signac

Symbolism and Art Nouveau were international art

movements that flourished in the final decades of the 19th

century.

Symbolism sought to restore the role of imagination and ideas in the arts,

while Art Nouveau had a more decorative function.

Symbolism, which developed in France but spread to most of

Europe, emerged as a reaction to against the naturalist movements—

Realism and Impressionism—which had dominated the progressive art

scene after the 1850s. By concentrating only on what the artist saw,

naturalists had largely ignored the imagination, intellect, and emotions.

Symbolism, part of the “Aesthetic” or “art for art’s sake” movement, aimed

to rectify this by producing pictures that evoked certain moods and

feelings. They aspired to communicate ideas like music or poetry, only

through the use of line, color and form. Symbolists did not use readily-

defined images, but opted instead for those that were richly evocative.

Although Art Nouveau shared with Symbolism the element of

fantasy, it was primarily preoccupied with decorative effect, and had its

strongest impact on the applied arts. Art Nouveau can be seen as a

response to the Arts and Crafts movement, but it also was influenced by

other styles, including Japanese prints and the revival of interest in

ancient Celtic patterns. It was a concerted attempt to create an

international, modern style based on decoration. It is characterized by

highly stylized, flowing lines, and organic, plant-inspired motifs.

Oedipus

and the

Sphinx

by

Moreau

Orpheus

by

Moreau

Guardian

Spirit of

the

Waters

by

Redon

Smiling

Spider

by

Redon

The

Cyclops

by

Redon

Island of the Dead by Böcklin

Self-

Portrait

with

Death

by

Böcklin

The Poor Fishermen

by Puvis de Chavannes

Hope

by

Watts

Jubilee

Memorial

to Queen

Victoria

by

Gilbert

“Eros”

a.k.a.

The

Angel of

Christian

Charity

by

Gilbert

Night by Hodler

Skeletons Fighting for a

Smoked Herring by Ensor

Christ’s Entry into Brussels by Ensor

The

Scream

by

Munch

The

Climax

by

Beardsley

The Four

Seasons:

Winter

and

Spring

by

Mucha

Summer

and

Autumn

by

Mucha

The

Arts:

Dance

by

Mucha

Although their subsequent reputations are

often eclipsed by the major figures of the art world

in France, a number of painters from other countries

at the end of the century enjoyed successful careers

outside the progressive artistic centers of the day.

The latter part of the 19th

century saw artists

in mainland Europe searching for new means of

expression that would explode into the revolutionary

movements of the early 20th

, but elsewhere,

particularly in Britain and the U.S., French Realism

and Impressionism were still exerting a strong

influence. Artists from all over the world made their

way to France to study and work, taking the ideas of

Realism and Impressionism back to their native

countries.

Although these styles were no longer at the

forefront in European centers of art, they made an

impact elsewhere as they were adopted by

comparatively conservative traditions, paving the

way for Modernism in many countries.

Arrangement in Grey and Black: Portrait of

the Artist’s Mother by Whistler

Portrait

of

Madame

X

by

Sargent

The Swimming Hole by Eakins

The

Gross

Clinic

by

Eakins

Between

Rounds

by

Eakins

Fog Warning by Homer (1885)

Watching the Breakers by Homer (1891)

The Sponge Diver by Homer (1898-99)

The Gulf Stream by Homer (1899)

Girl with

Peaches

by

Serov