Chapter 19 -- Realism, Impressionism, Post-Impressionism
1. What changes does the world experience in the second half of the 19th century?
2. What are the effects of these changes on art?
3. What is realism?
4. Who are the realists?
5. Who move against the realists?
6. What is impressionism?
7. Who are the impressionists?
8. What is post-impressionism?
9. Who are the post-impressionists?
10. How is architecture affected by the changes in the late 19th century?
1. What changes does the world experience in the second half on the 19th century?
Population increase all over Europe
Inventions
Photography -- 1826 – 29 Joseph Niepce, Louis Daguerre “daguerrotypes”
Telephone
-- 1876
Lightbulb
-- 1879
Power Plant -- 1881
Cities
Factories -- steel, shipyards, chemical plants, cast iron, railways
Slums -- cheaper accommodations for the increase in factory workers
Child labor
Distinct classes, owners v. workers, social Darwinism
Women -- job opportunities, no vote yet, small strides
Writing
Communist Manifesto, 1848
Origin of the Species, 1859
Newspapers! Reporting with scientific detachment
2. What are the effects of these changes on art?
A. Plight of workers subject for art
B. Make paintings to look like snapshots -- Some are unposed and candid; others use the
light and color of the moment at the expense of realism
C. Go outside to sketch and paint
D. Real life has a lot to say! Not the Glory of Rome, not imagination, not emotion!
E. New materials -- paints, alloys, cast iron and its support of glass
F. Transportation means mobile painters
3. What is realism?
Rejects the Romantic idea
Does not glorify the past!
Does not celebrate nature!
Attempts to portray without being sentimental or idealistic
“It’s real, yo.” -- Rachel Perzchowski
4. Who are the realists?
A. Gustave Courbet
Burial at Ornans
Nonconformist
Submits many paintings between 1841 and 1847
Establishes his reputation
Ornans was mocked, thought a joke, shows his grandfather’s funeral
B. Thomas Eakins
The Gross Clinic
First American Realist
Central HS, PAFA, Jefferson Medical College
Teaches at PAFA, fired over “scandal”
Used photography extensively
Excelled in sport art, medical art, portraiture
The Agnew Clinic
C. Edouard Manet
Olympia
Émile Zola
“Father of modern art”
Olympia shows high-class prostitute, her glance is shocking! (compare with Ingres)
Candid pose for Zola
D. Edgar Degas
Cotton Exchange
Academically trained, aristocratic by birth
More famous for his impressionist works
Blind at 60ish
Why is this a great realistic painting?
5. Who move against the realists?
1848, PRB is formed -- Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood
3 young rebels: Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Everett Millais, William Holman Hunt
Goal: turn back to art before Raphael; felt English art had become formulaic and “history
and scenery”
Their art: colorful, precise, storytelling: myth, Shakespeare, poetry, legend, Bible
A. John Everett Millais
The Carpenter’s Shop
Christ as a child; meaningful, realistic, colorful, symbolic
6. What is Impressionism?
Realism plus!
Effects of light on subjects
Photographic and momentary
“sight more than insight”
no story
less rigid, blurred edges, lacks focal points
color used in place of black, brown, grey
textured surface (impasto) and short brushstrokes
7. Who are the Impressionists?
A. Claude Monet
Japanese Bridge at Giverny
Exhibition of 1874
Impression: Sunrise created the unkind moniker
Fascinated by how sunlight changes the color of things – haystack series, poplar series,
Rouen Cathedral series
B. Auguste Renoir
Le Moulin de la Galette
Happy! People, friends, lovers!
Never painted night or winter
“There is enough ugliness in the world without having it in my pictures”
C. Georges Seurat
Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jette
Impressionism plus (or minus?)
Optical painting/ Pointillism
Less random; he believes it shows the effects of light better
Sunday shows clean landscape, happy color, happy setting, happy people? Isolated?
D. Mary Cassatt
Boating Party
Privileged youth in Pitt
PAFA trained
Paris and Degas
Mother and child themes
Blind in her 60s (like her mentor)
New role: US collection of the Impressionists
E. Edgar Degas
Glass of Absinthe
Interested in the figure in motion (dancers)
Realist turned impressionist
Unbalanced scenes
Recluse at end of life
Sculptures cast after his death
Glass shows us table with no legs! Unsympathetic man and woman; alienation in Paris
nightlife
F. Edouard Manet
Rue Mosnier
Bar at Follies Bergere
Realist turned Impressionist
Rue shows us a photograph?
We see that in Bar, we are the customer; shows alienation in nightlife
G. Berthe Morisot
Great-granddaughter of Fragonard
Married Eugene Manet
Able to be an artist due to immense wealth
H. Henry Tanner
Philadelphia, under Eakins
32 to Paris
Within 5 years, a Salon favorite
I. James Abbott MacNeil Whistler
American expatriate
Pals with Oscar Wilde
Painted Thames & city & night & water; influenced by Asian art
8. What is Post-Impressionism?
Less about light; still keep the color and energy of the impressionists
Wanted to “discover what is missing” in impressionism:
Which is: composition, form, structure
9. Who are the Post-Impressionists?
A. Paul Cezanne
Mont Ste. Victoire
Basket of Apples
Joins impressionists
Concerned with solidity, structure, stability
Concerned with color theory: warm v. cool
Mont is painted over 60 times
Basket: color theory
B. Vincent Van Gogh
Starry Night
Bumpy early life -- art, business, ministry
At 33 goes to Paris -- meets impressionists
At 35 moves to Arles in Provence for the last two years of his life.
Arles work is fab but he’s clearly unstable!
Sells 1? Painting in his lifetime
High auction prices!
Characterized by twisted line and color use
C. Paul Gaughin
Day of the God
Prosperous stockbroker, amateur painter
35 to the South of France, 42 - 55 in Tahiti
known for decorative pattern, exotic style, shape and color
Deep stories in many of his works
D. Henri Toulouse-Lautrec At the Moulin Rouge
Black sheep
Painted Paris nightlife
Revolutionized poster painting
Theme of isolation
Self-portrait in the Moulin Rouge
10. How is architecture affected by these changes?
Architects look to the use and function of the building to determine its design
Total freedom of choice in architectural style, eclectic buildings
New materials = new possibilities
Eiffel Tower
Liberty Enlightening the World