Later Europe and American Art

Mid 18th century to the 1980s

Rococo, Neoclassicism, Romanticism

• Mid 18th century

• Beginnings of Modern Art

• In both Americas and Europe

• Enlightenment-emphasis on human rights.

• Scientific Revolution-time period of many advancements in the scientific world.

• Artistic academies break down, artists find commonalities in self-defined groups, publishing manifestos of their own beliefs.

• Artists begin to employ new mediums (photography, lithography, etc..)

• Architectural revivals (classical, Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque)

• Industrial Revolution affects all aspects of art (materials, subject matter, artistic organizations)

98. The Tête-à-Tête, from Marriage à la ModeWilliam Hogarthc. 1743 CEOil on canvas

• “Modern Marriage”

• Part of 6 paintings; concern that marriages were arranged for economic concerns rather than love.

• Tells a story of aristocratic family named the Squanderfields. Lord has title, but no money. His son marries daughter of wealthy merchant. In turn she gets to have the title and her money.

• The marriage is a business transaction.

• Also commentary about the destruction of classicism, marriage, and true love.

101. The SwingJean-Honore Fragonard1767 CEOil on canvas

• Example of Rococo art (lighter than Baroque, C and S shapes, shells, pastels, ivory, gold, lighthearted subjects).

• Naughty and mischievous all the while looking like a slice of cake.

• This indulgence and pleasure characterized the current ruling class in France.

105. Self-PortraitElisabeth Louis Vigee Le Brun1790 CEOil on canvas

• 40 self-portraits, all idealized

• Painted many portraits of Marie-Antoinette, official court painter

• Left France for Italy during the FR

• Looks directly at the viewer

• Rococo-fashionable, light-hearted, relaxed, carefree, idealized (perpetual youth)

100. A Philosopher Giving a Lecture on the OrreryJoseph Wright of Derbyc. 1763-1765 CEOil on canvas

• Portrays the moral pursuit of scientific knowledge.

• Orrey-mechanical model of the solar system.

• Influence of scientific advancements of the time.

• Derby depicts scientific scenes in ways that artists of the academies used to present Biblical heroes and Greek and Roman Gods; had many friends in the world of science.

• Known for his dramatic use of light and shadow-chiaroscuro that would normally be used in a religious scene reserved for informal paintings about science.

102. MonticelloVirginia, USThomas Jefferson (architect)1768-1809 CEBrick, glass, stone, and wood

• Neoclassical architecture-revisions of classical principles tailored to living in the 18th century.

• Palladian-emphasis on symmetry, balance, composition, and order.

• What classical elements do you see here?

Jefferson is an architect, although amateur, Gov. of VA, American Minister to France,And 3rd president. Influenced by the principles of the Enlightenment.

• Columns/capitals, pediments, domes dominating center of house, mirrored symmetrical, rooms, rooms decorated in a theme with one dominate color

• “Little Mountain”, main building on plantation, stucco applied to exterior trim to give marble effect, inspired by Palladian villas in Italy and Roman ruins in France, octagonal dome, space saving important for Jefferson.

103. The Oath of the HoratiiJacques-Louis David1784 CEOil on canvas

• Neoclassical painting-stories of antiquity and Biblical scenes are taken into a modern context.

• Exemplum virtutis-Many NC works have subtexts inviting the viewer to take measure of a person, situation, and a state of affairs

• Story of Horatii-3 brothers who do battle with another set of 3 brothers to pledge their fidelity to Rome and their father.

• Forms are powerful, vigorous, animatic, and emphatic

• Gestures are sweeping and unified

• Figures pushed to foreground

• Balanced composition with carefully constructed background.

• Invisible brushwork and incredible clarity.

• Severe, linear, tripartite composition contrasted by soft, twisted female forms; interest in human anatomy.

• Raking light creates sharp contrasts (Caravaggio).

• Royal commission, huge hit at the Salon of 1785

• Historical context is important here-right before the revolution; painting makes a statement about the status of France.

104. George WashingtonJean-Antoine Houdon1788-1792 CEMarble

• Neoclassical sculpture-marble preferred over bronze; continuance of ancient tradition-stance (Polykleitos’ Doryphoros) and medium; influenced by discovery of Pompeii and distribution of Parthenon sculptures.

• Washington is portrayed in classicism with a modern twist as an 18th century gentleman; naturalistic portrayal; seen as a man of vision and enlightenment; leaning on fasces (Roman reference) to symbolize 13 colonies—his authority and support.

Short Essay: 15 minutes

Jacques-Louis DavidThe Death of Marat1793Oil on canvas

• Background Info: David is sympathetic to the FR, considered a political activist through his art, instrumental in trial and execution of Louis XVI and 300 others. His good friend Jean-Paul Marat, a revolutionary and newspaper editor, is killed. Marat was seen as excessively violent, spiteful, and stubborn. A young Royalist, Charlotte Corday uses deceit to gain access to his apartment, where she stabbed him in his bathtub. He was often soaking in his tub to treat a skin disease. David saw Marat as a virtuous figure, and was commissioned to paint his idealized death portrait.

• Prompt: Compare and contrast this work and the Oath of the Horatii. How do both works combine the artist’s interest in antiquity and contemporary politics?

Romanticism (1789-1848)

• French Revolution/other revolutions, Enlightenment, Science and Industry, new philosophies by Marx and Darwin=a period marked by incredible change.

• Salons in Paris grow in importance.

• Art Academies still influential.

• Less religious work.

• Romanticism=social independence, freedom of individual thought, ability to express oneself openly; manifested in political and social upheaval; a reaction against Enlightenment ideas-trust your heart, not your head.

• Romantic artists are deeply affected by all things surrounding the artist, were often loners, and supported important causes. Enjoyed a state of melancholy and championed the antihero. Interested in the sublime.

• Development of photography important; is it art?

• Revival architecture.

112. Palace of Westminster (House of Parliament)London, EnglandCharles Barry and Augustus W.N. Pugin (architects)1840-1870 CELimestone Masonry and glass

• A competition was held after previous structure burned; 97 entries; had to be Gothic or Elizabethan; modern era was looked at as ugly.

• Enormous-1100 rooms, 100 staircases, 2 miles of corridors.

• Gothic revival (perpendicular gothic); symbolic of a time when life was more simple and beautiful; really a classical building with gothic skin.

• Big Ben-clock tower

• Central Lobby: In between House of Commons and House of Lords; Designed as a place for constituents to meet members of Parliament; Octagonal space with statues of kings and queens of England and Scotland; Four mosaics over the doors represent four saint (England-St. George, Scotland-St. Andrew, Wales-St. Davis, Northern Ireland-St. Patrick).

• Westminster Hall-The last vestige of the old parliament structure.

Central Lobby Westminster Hall

106. Y no hai remedio (And There’s Nothing to Be Done), from Los Desastres de la Guerra (The Disasters of War), plate 15Francisco de Goya1810-1823 CE (published 1863)Etching, drypoint, burin, and burnishing

• From the Disasters of War series-82 etchings and aquatints; Published 35 years after the artist’s death; criticizes the French occupation of Spain; influenced by warfare, famine, and politics.

• Consequences of the conflict between French troops and Spanish civilians.

• The Christ-like figure waits to be shot; ironic and sardonic in nature

• The medium help captures the contrasts of light and dark., capturing emotional intensity.

• Cruelty of one group to another becomes a common theme in Goya’sworks.

Video in notes

107. La Grande OdalisqueJean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres1814 CEOil on canvas

• Odalisque-woman in a harem; Ingres had never been so this is a western idea of what a harem would look like; historically inaccurate; French fantasy.

• Anatomy is secondary-inconsistent arrangement of limbs and elongated back, sensuality is dominant but with a distance.

• Trained under David in the Neoclassical tradition.

108. Liberty Leading the PeopleEugene Delacroix1830 CEOil on canvas

• Liberty allegory holding the tricolor marching over barricades to overthrow government soldiers in July uprising of 1830 (Les Miserables)

• Red/white/blue theme throughout the painting=liberty, equality, fraternity

• Pyramidal structure

• Symbolism: child with pistols=role of children in the revolt; liberty wear red Phrygian cap=worn by freed slaves in ancient world; Notre Dame up in smoke with tricolor on tower=overthrow of existing government for “Citizen King” Louis Philippe (brother of Louis XVI)

• Not shown for 25 years because of subversive message

• Considered a national symbol of France.

Monarchy practices dragging people out of their homes in The middle of the night and beat them in the streets as aMessage to everyone else.

Liberty is a very real looking person With chiaroscuro lighting used by Artists like Caravaggio, but also dressed Like an ancient figure.

Delacroix showsThe variety ofThe types of People involved in This revolution,Together opposingThe monarch.

• Neoclassicism (Poussinists) vs Romanticism (Rubenists)

• Poussinists followed the Neoclassical style and named themselved after the French Baroque painter Poussin. Relied heavily on line for compositions.

• Rubenists followed the Romantic style and named themselved after Peter Paul Rubens and relied heavily on the use of color.

111. Slaveship (Slavers Throwing Overboard the Dead and Dying, Typhoon Coming On)Joseph Mallord William Turner1840 CEOil on canvas

• Exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1840 with an excerpt from his poem The Fallacies of Hope.

• Based on a true story from 1781. The slaves were insured against drowning but not sickness. The captain throws sick and dying overboard. The account was a scandalous story published by Thomas Clarkson, reprinted in 1839.

• England is the first country to ban the slave trade and slavery between1833-1843.

• Emotional use of color and brushwork as a symbol of the event taking place.

• Sublime subject matter enhances drama.

• Juxtaposition of the beautiful scene and a horrific act and the retribution and indifference of nature.

“Purple and blue, the lurid shadows of the hollow breakers are cast upon the mist of the night, which gathers cold and low, advancing like the shadow of death upon the guilty ship as it labors amidst the lightning of the sea, its thin masts written upon the sky in lines of blood…”

-John Ruskin on Slave Ship

109. The Oxbow (View from Mount Holyoke, Northhampton, Massachusetts, after a Thunderstorm)Thomas Cole1836 CEOil on canvas

• Founder of the Hudson River School; credited with founding American landscape painting.

• Actual landscape of Massachusetts. Landscape painting ranked very low in importance by art academies and generally by the public. Cole created this large landscape painting with a purpose to defy that notion—elevating the landscape painting to a historical painting.

• Divides landscape into two sides—the Romantic and the Classic.

• Romantic-Self portrait within wild, thick forest with a storm looming; Sublime

• Classic-to the right is man’s touch seen in light, cultivated fields, boats drifting down the river; pastoral; tied into the idea of manifest destiny/”almighty” inscribed in Hebrew on the hill.

• A response that by a British book that American’s had destroyed wilderness with industry.

Development of Photography

• Camera obscura-box with a lens that captures light and casts and image on the opposite side; allows artist to focus on subject; leads to the development of the camera.

• Photograms-photosensitive paper is introduced, captures silhouettes or outlines of objects.

• Modern photography developed simultaneously in both England and France.

• Daguerreotype-French version (Daguerre).• Calotype-English version (Talbot); thought to be

inferior, but less expensive. Also produced a negative image for reproduction.

• Challenged the idea of what are is.

110. Still Life in StudioLouis-Jacques-Mande Daguerre1837 CEDaguerrotype

• Inspired by still-life, includes many different textures, inspired by old art forms.

• Daguerrotypeshave a shiny surface and great detail.

Style Sheet

Rococo Neoclassicism Romanticism

Short Essay: Romanticism

Identify the work. How does this work reflect the Romantic period? How does it reflect the American Dream?