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Romantic Idealism in 19th Century Art EducationA Reaction to methods of mass public education in the common school

+What’s the big idea of Idealist thought?

Transforming the arts from “ornamental, polite learning” to subjects rich in moral purpose

Art is important!...because it can raise the level of public morals

Mind as active process (Kant)

Self-expression/Artistic perception/Moral beauty (German idealism-Ruskin)

+America & Idealism: Two paths

New England Transcendentalists (N.E.T.) Amos Bronson Alcott Elizabeth Peabody

Interpretation of Hegel William Torrey Harris

+New England Transcendentalists

Antiestablishment, attempt at utopia (Nature/Democracy vs. Established Society)

Human “perfectability” through individual’s own efforts

Industrialization= Material wealth Urban crowding/Human misery

Kantian philosophy: Awareness of nature through faculty of perception We can transcend the senses (perception) by intuition Universal mind

+Alcott & Peabody

1834-Boston-Liberal ideals Alternatives to traditional

education beginning to develop

Alcott: “Conversations” at the School for Human Culture Met Elizabeth Peabody in

1834, opened Temple School

Temple School Transcendental beliefs, 3

divisions of subject matter Rational faculty Imaginative faculty Spiritual faculty

+Alcott & Peabody (cont.)Decoration in the Classroom

Ideal school setting: Surrounding of Natural Beauty

However, school was in the city (Boston) because, “that’s where the children were” (p. 118).

So, classrooms were decorated with “beautiful” things…artwork, busts, bookshelves

Anticipated the movement to decorate schoolrooms by 50 years

+Criticism of the Temple School

By its third year, Peabody becomes disillusioned

“Conversations” lead to Gospels “Saintliness” of children could lead to immodesty,

superiority complex

“Conversations” about taboo subjects Birth/Love/Death/Conception/Circumcision Alcott’s Conversations With Children on the Gospels

became object of public censure and ridicule

Despite drawing instructor (Francis Graeter), drawing played minor role in curriculum

+Friedrich Froebel: Kindergarten

1817-founded the Universal German Educational Institution

1826-published The Education of Man

Philosophy of Education: The world as organic unity Unity within diversity is

spiritual principle of God Parts contribute to the

whole!

“Through development, the self both differentiates itself from and integrates itself into the community” (p. 121).

Essential feature of the mind is activity

+Froebel’s Kindergarten (Garden of Children)

Development=a means of self-realization, not just representing the environment

Life=learning to know oneself through learning to know the objective world

Curriculum=principle of play

“The educator, like the gardener, has to provide the proper conditions for growth, and the kindergarten is the place where these conditions are created” (p. 122).

+“Gifts & Occupations”

Objects/Materials for individual and group activities

Introduction of art media to school environment

Enable child to find unity in diversity in the forms and patterns of things

Mathematical principles/Harmony of universe

+“Gifts” include:

Woolen balls in primary and secondary colors Similarity/contrast, color mixing Play—ball=game

Objects made of wood: sphere, cube, cylinder Compare/contrast with woolen balls Smooth/Rough, Light/Heavy, Sounds made when dropped

Blocks: Whole is made up of parts! Play/Construction

Surfaces: color, design, patterns

Drawing on slate with grid lines

+“Occupations”

Involve transformation of material

Demand greater dexterity and precision than developmental level may allow

Include: Perforating paper to make designs Sewing on cards with colored thread Paper cutting and mounting Braiding and weaving Paper folding Clay modeling

+Kindergarten movement suppressed in late 1840s

Revolution of 1848 in Germany=political conservatism

Froebel dies in 1852

Baroness von Bulow becomes spokesperson for kindergarten movement in Germany and throughout Europe

+American Kindergarten Movement(so many names, so many connections!) First established by German-speaking immigrants

1855-Mrs. Carl Schurz est. kindergarten in Watertown, WI Introduces Froebel’s ideas to Elizabeth Peabody

Peabody opens first English-speaking kindergarten in Boston Begins journal to explain/spread the movement

Susan Blow-St. Louis, MO-supported by William Torrey Harris 1873-est. first training school in U.S. for kindergarten

teachers

Emma Marwedel-helped est. first kindergarten on west coast Golden Gate Kindergarten Association

+American advocates of kindergartens stress that:

Gifts & Occupations could provide foundation for industrial education

Industrial drawing program of Walter Smith + educational systems in Germany = more creative children

1870-Massachusetts Drawing Act and introduction of kindergarten into Boston schools Due to rising interest in vocational education Men with power (and money) bring about changes in schools

to fit their interests

+Commercial Distribution of Gifts and Occupations

Need to manufacture and distribute materials for the classroom

Milton Bradley Company After meeting with Peabody, Bradley was devoted to

providing a means for Froebel’s ideas to be put to use in schools

Published The Paradise of Childhood by Edward Wiebe-a teacher’s manual for using gifts and occupations

Other vendors: E. Steiger Co. & Prang Educational Co.

+Art Activities

Mary Dana Hicks (Louis Prang’s 2nd wife) 1891-addressed NEA about Type forms (3-D

models for drawing) Psychology of perception Transformed gifts & occupations to Art

activities

+William Torrey

Harris

•Appointed superintendent of schools for St. Louis in 1868

•Commissioner of Education for the United States 1889-1906

1835-1909

The 4 Great Institutions• Family• Civil Society• The State• The Church

Valued the arts because:They are one of the 3 ways in which human thought reaches toward the divine.

1.Religion2.Art3.Philosophy

Art should be taught “inorder that men may beable to appreciate andproduce the beautiful.”

+John Ruskin

Believed that it was important for the emergent middle class to become sufficiently knowledgeable of art

Believed that art was a source of spiritual truth.

Not recreational or for amusement

Two aspects involved in creating and responding to art: “perception” and “invention”1819-1900

+Invention vs. Perception

Ruskin believed that the power of invention was God-given, and could not be taught

Perception, however, could be taught.

Art education was to help students perceive the beauties of God’s work.

Drawing could improve perception

Ruskin thought that by teaching art, one could teach everything. Integrating history and the natural sciences.

+Ruskin at Oxford

Ruskin’s work as an Oxford professor took 3 forms:1. Lectures on art2. Founding a collection of artworks to illustrate

good art3. Establishment of a drawing mastership

Ruskin designed the drawing mastership to replace the South Kensington system at Oxford

+The South Kensington System

Design could be taught by rule, as a branch of manufacturing activity

Different types of students took different combinations of classes• Machinists, engineers, and foremen of works took a specific set of technical studies courses• Designers and ornamentalists took all courses

+The Promotion of School Decoration

• Ruskin believed that one’s surroundings was influential in developing good taste

• The development of taste was a critical part of education the child to become a civilized adult.

• Ruskin supported the use of fine art reproductions in schools.

+Whistler vs. Ruskin

• In 1877 Ruskin bumped heads with painter, James McNeill Whistler

• Ruskin believed in art as a serious moral undertaking, while Whistler believed that an artist’s primary task was to create art.

• Ruskin found Whistler’s work offensive and critiqued his work as “flinging a pot of paint in the public’s face” and being overpriced.

• Whistler sued for libel

+Whistler vs. Ruskin

• Whistler’s attorney tried to prove that he was an accepted, successful artist, but his reputation was damaged by Ruskin’s criticism.

• Ruskin’s attorney tried to prove that Whistler spent little time or effort in his paintings, but still sold them for outrageous prices.

• Whistler defended himself by explaining his view of art-for-art’s-sake. Whistler was awarded damages of one farthing (1/4 of a penny)

• Ruskin still regarded this as a defeat and resigned from Oxford.

+Art in the Education of Women in 19th century America• women teachers used art to teach moral values

• drawing studies were reserved for young women who came from wealthy families

• rarely offered to women in public institutions, but often in private education

• young women were taught drawing, literature, elocution, and French – to prepare them for marriage.

+Art in the Education of Women in 19th century America

• Reverend Joseph Emerson worked to elevate the system of female education.

• Critics believed that a woman’s mind was incapable of higher culture.

• A number of schools in Massachusetts at this time proved that girls could learn as well as boys, using the same instructional approaches