Art History II (2011)
Ch. 29
Eighteenth and Early 19th Century Art
in Europe and in North America
The Enlightenment: When thinkers
began to see the world as operating
rationally. In England, John Locke
(1632-1704) argued that reasonable and
rational thought should replace
superstition and Isaac Newton insisted
upon observation, evaluation and logic.
Instead of relying on the established
rulers and clergy to provide information,
people decided to figure it out for
themselves. Late 17th and early 18th
century thinkers had a generally
optimistic view that humanity and its
institutions could be reformed, if not
perfected. The enlightened French
Philosophes insisted that humans were
born to serve themselves, not God or a
ruling class. They believed the state
was to facilitate this pursuit ("…life,
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness…").
The enlightened philosophes of the time
(Rousseau, Diderot, Jefferson, Franklin
and Kant) believed in an absolute
separation of church and state.
The enlightened also believed nature
could be understood and controlled.
The 18th century is also known as the
Age of Reason.
The emphasis on thought “enlightened”
by reason was applied to political and
moral philosophy.
Political and Economic
Manifestations of the Enlightenment
(proof it happened):
1. The Doctrine of Progress
2. The Industrial Revolution
3. Modern "democracy" over traditional
monarchy
4. The American Revolution
5. The French Revolution
6. A new philosophy that conceived of
all white men as deserving of equal
rights and opportunities - remember,
the "Philosophe" Thomas Jefferson
owned slaves. Some thinkers did
however state that women and
minorities also deserved equality.
The Enlightenment was a true
revolution in the hearts and minds of all
Westerners. Someone once said: "You
can't stop an idea whose time has
come."
29-1 (sub) John Singleton Copley, Paul
Revere, o/c, 1765-70
- Revere in his pre-war role of
silversmith
- Tenebrism, high demand for Copley
portraits
- "Self-taught" American,
"Americanness, “ vivid realism
ROCOCO
29-2 (Sub.) François Cuvillies,
Amalienburg, mirror salon, 1734-39,
Munich (Germany)
- Rococo is Baroque10
- Fussy, fussy, fussy
- SMTL10
29-4 Jean-Antoine Watteau,
(Pilgrimage to the Island of Cythera),
1717, o/c, 4’3” high
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SECULAR! Rococo is perhaps the 1st
(non-religious) Western art style.
Flemish artist living in Paris
French Rococo
Acceptance piece to the French Royal
Academy in 1717
Classical (Greek) mythology and wistful
melancholy…
Part of the lavish painting/decoration
settings for intimate, fashionable and
intellectual salons
Salons were hosted on a daily basis by
accomplished, educated (and gossipy)
women of the upper class.
The French Academy created a new
category for it. The Fête Galante
(elegant outdoor entertainment).
Addl. (Compare to 29-5)
François Boucher, Venus Consoling
Love, 1751, o/c
- Mythological painting with erotic
suggestiveness in a pastoral setting
- Rococo is for the aristocracy (in the
18th century)
- Naughty!
Addl. (Compare to 29-6)
Jean-Honoré Fragonard, The Swing,
c.1765, o/c
- Late Rococo art. He catered to the
tastes of aristocratic clientele until
rococo became outmoded
- An intrigue picture: naughtiness in a
pastoral setting
- Fragonard won the Prix-de-Rome in
1752 and spent 1756-61 in Italy
Rococo also referred to as "Late Baroque", is
an 18th-century style which developed as
Baroque artists gave up their symmetry and
became increasingly ornate, florid, and playful.
Rococo rooms were designed as total works of
art with elegant and ornate furniture, small
sculptures, ornamental mirrors, and tapestry
complementing architecture, reliefs, and wall
paintings. It was largely supplanted by the
Neoclassic style. In 1835 the Dictionary of the
French Academy stated that the word Rococo
"usually covers the kind of ornament, style and
design associated with Louis XV's reign and
the beginning of that of Louis XVI". It includes
therefore, all types of art produced around the
middle of the 18th century in France.
The word Rococo is seen as a combination of
the French rocaille, meaning stone, and
coquilles, meaning shell, due to reliance on
these objects as motifs of decoration.[1] The
term Rococo may also be interpreted as a
combination of the word "barocco" (an
irregularly shaped pearl, possibly the source of
the word "baroque") and the French "rocaille"
(a popular form of garden or interior
ornamentation using shells and pebbles), and
may be used to describe the refined and
fanciful style that became fashionable in parts
of Europe during the eighteenth century.[2]
Owing to Rococo love of shell-like curves and
focus on decorative arts, some critics used the
term to derogatively imply that the style was
frivolous or merely modish. When the term was
first used in English in about 1836, it was a
colloquialism meaning "old-fashioned". As a
matter of fact, the style received harsh
criticism, and was seen by some to be
superficial and of poor taste,[3][4] especially
when compared to neoclassicism; despite this,
it has been praised for its aesthetical
qualities,[3] and since the mid-19th century, the
term has been accepted by art historians.
While there is still some debate about the
historical significance of the style to art in
general, Rococo is now widely recognized as a
major period in the development of European
art.
29-9 J.B. Neumann, Church of the
Vierzehnheiligen, 1743-72, near
Bamberg (Germany)
 SMTL10
 One of many rococo church interiors
still to be seen in Germany and
Austria
 Undulating surfaces
 Complete integration of architecture,
sculpture, painting, music and theatre
creates an ebullient, phantasmagoric
sense of spiritual uplift
 Fussy, fussy, fussy!
29-8 Plan, Borrominiesque,
6 interpenetrating ovals, Baroque10
29-9 (Sub.) J.B. Neumann, Kaisersall
(Imperial Hall), Residenz Würzburg,
Bavaria (Germany), 1719-44, fresco by
Giovanni Battista Tiepolo 1751-1752
(collaborative teamwork)
- Created for the Episcopal prince Bishop of Würzburg
- Versaillesesque, curvaceous, gold,
stucco = rococo
- Rococo = Baroque10, SMTL10
- The architectural paintings glorify
the 12th century crusader-emperor,
Frederick Barbarossa who had
been a patron of the bishop of
Würzburg. They are presented as
if a theatrical drama of heroism,
decorum and nobility
Addl. The Asam Brothers, Austin
Canons Church (altar), 1717-19, Rohr
(Germany)
- Assumption of the Blessed Virgin
- 2 brothers: Cosmas, a fresco painter,
and Egid, a sculptor in stone, wood
and stucco,
29-15 Richard Boyle, Lord
Burlington, Chiswick House, West
London (England), 1724-29
29-16 Plan of Chiswick House, 1724
- British architects rejected the
“immoral extravagance” of Italian
Baroque (f. 22-6 Borromini, San
Carlo Alle Quattro Fontane, Rome,
for example). They embraced the
“simplicity” and stern morality of
“Neoclassicism” and “Paladian
Classicism.” (Villa Rotunda, f. 20-40,
for example)
- A temple to Burlington himself, who
had studied architecture in Rome and
Italy
Addl. John Wood II, Royal Crescent,
Bath (England), 1767-75
 Part of an effort to re-create Rome in
Bath (new Rome = Neoclassical, get
it?)
 Imitated in England and the US
 Attached townhouses, urban, fancy
 1 Royal Crescent engaged by Duke
of York, 1776
29-20 Horace Walpole and others,
Strawberry Hill, Twickenham (England),
1749-77
 Pointed arch = gothic
 Gothic revival is “Romantic” (Gothic
period: c.1175-1400)
 This was not originally a Gothic
structure, therefore we refer to it as
“Sham Gothic” or “Gothick”
 Crenellated battlements: obsolete
defenses
 Tracery: bars which add support to
the windows
 Turrets: obsolete defensive towers
 Gothic novels become popular too
(chivalric = Romantic, get it?)
 Gothic Revival architecture was most
appropriate for institutions such as
the English Parliament and the
Anglican Church
 “Gothic” was a pejorative (negative)
“tag” during the Renaissance!
29-22 William Hogarth, the Marriage
Contract from Marriage à la Mode,
1743-45, o/c, 28” high
Addl. Hogarth, engraving of the same
subject, 14” high, 1745
 British government censorship ended
in 1695.
 Moral genre (morality critique) first
appeared soon after 1695.
 Hogarth thought art should help
improve society.
 He wanted to entertain and to
educate people on correct behavior.
 Lord Squanderfield arranges the
marriage of his son.
 The lawyer, “Silvertongue,” ends up
murdered and the bride kills herself.
This series of prints and text was as
popular as modern contemporary
soap operas.
Compare to Fig. 29-24, Addl. Thomas
Gainsborough,Portrait of Mrs. Richard
Brinsley Sheridan, 1785-87, o/c, 7’2½”
high
 New! Now with informal poses in art
instead of “the Grand Manner”
(historical settings and costumes), a
successful mode for Gainsborough
(the informality)
 Outdoors, like Van Dyck (f. 19-47),
except this has a lighter palette and
brushwork and a better integration
with the natural landscape
Enlightenment notion: nature as a good
and beautiful factor in life
29-25 Joseph Wright, An Experiment on
a Bird in the Air Pump, 1768, o/c, 6’ high
- Wright was a member of the Lunar
Society.
- He trained alongside Joshua
Reynolds’ teacher.
- Science as savior? Enlightenment
optimism about scientific “control” of
nature. “Science enlightens
ignorance.”
- This was part of the Lunar Society’s
attempt to popularize science.
- Lots of suspense and tenebrism!
29-27 Benjamin West, The Death of
General Wolfe, 1770, o/c, 5’ high
- West was originally an American
- Not a factual account of war or death.
This shows classical heroic valor,
loyalty and self-sacrifice for a noble
cause
- Secular “lamentation.”
Compare/contrast with Goya’s The
3rd of May 1808. (F. 29-43)
Romanticism is used differently in
each
- West used modern uniforms, not
togas. -An event from the 7 years
war in Quebec- The British won.
- Note the Native American
- Intense, exotic, dynamic – seminal
Romanticism, NEW!
- Enthusiastic reception by the British
public, painters and king
29-28 John Henry Fuseli, The
Nightmare, 1781, o/c, 39¾” high
- “Anti-enlightenment” irrationality of
dreams
- Romanticism
- English critics disliked his works, the
public loved them
- Gratuitous undertones of a bestial
nightmare
- Freud owned a print of this image
- Swiss legend of Incubus (sat on
sleeping virgins and made them have
erotic dreams)
- Fuseli as the incubus?
29-30 J.S. Copley, Watson and the
Shark, o/c, 6' high, 1778
- Romanticism, true story and allegory
(symbolic story), Copley was an
expatriate
- Rigorous, emotional and
Neoclassical composition
- Watson told him of this attack, which
took place in Havana harbor.
- Watson was a London merchant and
Tory politician. (a loyalist, a king’s
man)
- occurred in 1749…
- A Tory, Watson was 14 at the time…
lost part of right leg…
- Classical pyramid of figures (late
Renaissance, Baroque,
Neoclassical…)
- Allegory: Watson, slavery, American
Colonies …
- The Brits made promises of
independence and freedom to the
slaves and ridiculed American
hypocrisy… look at who Watson is
reaching for.
- Part of a phantasmagoric display
(smoke, mirrors, lanterns, lights and
gauze ghosts). Copley charged $
admission and sold his paintings.
29-31 Jacques-Germain Souflot,
Section and Plan of the Panthéon
(Church of SainteGeneviève), Paris 1755-92
- The leading French Neoclassical
architect of the time…
- Eclectic integration of 3 traditions:
Roman arch, French & English
Baroque classicism (like St. Paul’s)
and the Palladian style
- Façade modeled on ancient Roman
temples
- Dome modeled on St. Paul’s (by
Christopher Wren)
- Radical geometry modeled on
Chiswick House by Burlington and
Christianity (Greek Cross plan)
- It maintains “the Tradition”.
Addl. House of Cards, 1736-37,
Chardin, o/c, 60.3 x 71.8 cm.
(Compare to 29-33) In book below:
Jean Siméon Chardin, The Governess,
1739, o/c, 18” high
- Morally uplifting genre scene of
everyday middle class life, simple
and mildly touching
- The governess settles the boy down
from play to go to his studies, and
ultimately, to a responsible
adulthood.
Addl. (Compare to 29-35)
Marie-Louise-Élisabeth Vigée-Lebrun,
Princess Anna A. Galitzen,
o/c, 54” high, 18th-19th century
- Many portraitists were women
- She was a member of the French
Royal Academy (minimal benefits – 1
of 4 total women allowed)
- Painter to Queen Marie Antoinette,
she escaped to Rome during the
French Revolution. Her self-exile
was successful. She re-settled in
Paris 15 years later (1788 to 1804 in
exile).
- She made new patrons, adapted
- independent female artist and mother
- Painted 800 portraits…
29-36 Jacques-Louis David, Oath of the
Horatii, o/c, 10'8" high, 1784-85
- Leading French Neoclassical
painter, anti-Rococo
- He won the Prix de Rome
- Originally commissioned by Louis
XVI, later associated with antiroyalism (5 years later) Reflects
classical stoicism (indifference to
passion or feeling, "coolness," lives
to avoid pain, Greek school of
philosophy c.300 BCE, Stoic ≠
Epicurean), masculinity and
patriotism
- David later becomes Napoleon's
unofficial court painter
- This painting became an emblem of
the French Revolution of 1789
29-37 Jacques-Louis David, Death of
Marat, o/c, 5'5" high, 1793
- Commissioned by the Jacobins
(egalitarian democrats, terrorists,
"Reign of Terror" under Robespierre)
to tribute one of their slain leaders.
- The aftermath: reductive
Neoclassicism and naturalism, a
secular pietá
- Zurbaránesque (St. Serapion, f. 1934, Spanish Baroque)
- Charlotte Corday d'Amont killed
Marat
Addl. Jacques-Louis David, A. L.
Lavoisier and Wife, o/c, 102" high, 1788
29-40 Jean-Antoine Houdon, George
Washington, marble, 6'2" high, 1788-92
- Leading French Neoclassical
sculptor, Prix de Rome
- Portrait specialist, Virginia legislature
commissioned a portrait of
Washington. Houdon traveled to the
US and finished it in his Paris studio
(cult of great men). His hand rests
on Roman symbols of authority. The
"Cult of Great Men" is an
Enlightenment idea.
- Contemporary uniform, classical
serenity, contrapposto and athletic
physiognomy
Addl. Horatio Greenough, George
Washington, marble, 1833-41
 The congressional commission for
this piece was voided
 Now in the Smithsonian
29-42 Francisco Goya, Family of
Charles IV, 1800, o/c, 9'2" high
 Definitely Romantic, although
this edition states his work
“defies easy categorization”.
 Neoclassicism had little impact
in Spain at this time, Goya was
"Principal Painter to the King".
 Velázquez (Las Meninas/easel)
influence
 A cruel exposé of an inept
group? They all liked it!
 Viewers at the time adored its
refreshing candor. Goya was a
liberal intellectual. He shared
the ideals of the French
philosophes.
 His pessimism is apparent.
29-43 Francisco Goya, Third of May,
1808, 1814-15, o/c, 8'9" high
- He expressed and inspired antiNeoclassical feelings of
pessimism. (compare/contrast
to Benjamin West or J.L. David)
- This was part of his last effort to
awaken Spanish reason.
- Here, a Napoleonic French
firing squad executes helpless
Spanish prisoners as payback
for a guerrilla ambush.
- Notice again: it's victim-based
(Romantic).
- It’s meant to shock, to be
horrible beautiful (Romantic).
- A brutal indictment of war itself.
- An expression of warning to
humanity.
- Why? To warn men to never do
it again.
Addl. F. Goya, Saturn Devouring His
Son, o/c, c.1823, 57" high
- Romantic
- From his Black Paintings, a private
series during his final pessimism.
- dramatic, emotional, exotic, and
horrific
Page 946-47 Théodore Géricault, Raft
of the Medusa, 1818-19, o/c, 16' high
-
-
-
Romanticism / Romantic, inspired by
Gros
A contemporary history painting based on
the shipwreck (Banc d’Arguin) of colonists
heading to Senegal.
400 passengers, room for @ 250 on
lifeboats (crew and bourgeoisie dignitaries),
the captain orders the construction of a raft
for the other 152 to be towed by rope… and
so it goes
Géricault consulted with survivors.
Delacroix posed at left.
15 out of 149 people survived after 13 days.
Construed (correctly) by the government as
a political attack.
A pessimistic comment on humanity - this
expressed and inspired anti-Neoclassical
pessimism. (Neoclassical art was optimistic
by comparison.)
See the Goya links!
29-49 E. Delacroix, Liberty Leading the
People, 1830, o/c, 102 3/8" high
- An allegory of liberty and of the
struggles during and after the
French Revolution (begun
1779). Romanticism /
Romantic
29-48 Antoine-Jean Gros, Napoleon in
the Plague House at Jaffa, 1804, o/c,
17'5" high
- the beginnings of Romanticism in
painting
- He was a pupil of David (a
Neoclassicist).
- an idealized version of an actual
incident (Turks)
- Napoleon's art advisors hatched this
idea to venerate him as semidivine
and to counteract the unflattering
aftermath of this episode.
Addl. Eugène Delacroix, Scenes from
the Massacre at Chios, 1822-24, o/c,
13'10" high
- ROMANTIC
- He shared pessimism with
Géricault.
- During the Greek struggle for
independence from the Turks,
the Turks carried out this
massacre. Vengefully, 20% of
the 100,000 inhabitants were
killed, the rest sold in North
Africa as slaves.
- The "focus" is on the victims
and antiheroes (horrors of life
translated into beautiful art).
This is a Romantic coping
mechanism.
29-50 François Rude, Departure of the
Volunteers of 1792 (The Marseillaise),
1833-36, limestone, 42' high
 located on the Arc de Triomphe,
Romantic Sculpture
 stirring patriotic emotions
 King Louis-Philippe's Minister of the
Interior included this in the
commission to complete the
triumphal arch on the Champs Elysée
that Napoleon had started in 1806
(an act of national reconciliation meant to appeal to all factions in
France).
 It commemorates the volunteer army
that had halted a Prussian invasion in
1792-93.
 Prussia (the leading state of the
German empire at this time)
 winged allegory of Victory (classical),
The volunteers are nude or
classically armored. Despite this, the
effect is still Romantic (emotional).
 The Marseilles is the French national
anthem.

The Battle of Valmy was the first major victory by the
army of France during the French Revolution. The action
took place on 20 September 1792 as Prussian troops
commanded by the Duke of Brunswick attempted to march
on Paris. Generals François Kellermann and Charles
Dumouriez stopped the advance near the northern village
of Valmy in Champagne-Ardenne.

In this early part of the French Revolutionary Wars known
as the War of the First Coalition, the new French
government was in most every way unproven, and thus
the small, localized victory at Valmy became a huge
psychological victory for the Revolution at large.[1] The
battle was considered a "miraculous" event and a
"decisive defeat" for the vaunted Prussian army. [2] After
the battle, the newly-assembled National Convention was
emboldened enough to formally declare the end of
monarchy in France and the establishment of the First
French Republic. Valmy permitted the development of the
Revolution and all its resultant ripple effects, and for that it
is regarded as one of the most significant battles of all
time.[3][4]
 From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Valmy
29-51 Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres,
Large Odalisque, 1814, o/c, 35" high
- another student of David,
- Neoclassicism and Romanticism
- odalisque = Turkish harem girl, an
exotic subject
- She gazes at us and turns her body
from us (cool).
- viewer as sultan, laser sharp
modeling (David2)
- The distortions are difficult to explain.
- Ingres sought a truer "Greek" style
- European men of the day were
attracted to the idea of a harem,
partly as a reaction against the
egalitarian demands of women
unleashed by the French Revolution.
- Sensual and erotically charged
- Ingres directed the French Academy
in Rome between 1835 – 1841.
Addl. Ingres, Princesse De Broglie, o/c,
48" high
- laser sharp modeling
P. 952 Alois Senefelder invented
lithography in 1796 in Bavaria (to print
music).
- A fast, direct method of printing
- It is based on the principle that oil
and H2O don't mix.
Addl. Currier and Ives, The Fight of the
Ironclads at Charleston, April 7, 1863
Addl. Honoré Daumier, The ThirdClass Carriage, c.1862, o/c, 25¾" high
- A horse-drawn bus, REALISM
- Separation of "classes" and
urban alienation are to be
important topics in art after
1880.
- Real people doing real things
(Get it?). Keepin’ it real.
- very political!
29- 53 Honoré Daumier, Rue
Transnonian, 1834, lithograph
- social protest art, political
- Early realism is part and
parcel with the Communist
Manifesto.
- Biting social commentary
29- 55 J.M.W. Turner, Slavers
Throwing Overboard the Dead and
Dying –Typhoon Coming On (The Slave
Ship), 1840, o/c, 36" high
- Romanticized theme of cataclysmic
force that overwhelms human beings
and their creations…
- Sublime: adjective describing
greatness or vastness with high
spiritual, moral, intellectual or
emotional value; or something aweinspiring. (awe-inspiring and
terrifying)
- Based on an account from Thomas
Clarkson’s The History of the
Abolition of the Slave Trade (1783,
reprinted 1840.
- It was widely believed that insurance
companies paid for slaves lost at sea,
but not for slaves who died from
sickness on board ship.
Addl. (Compare to 29-55, 56) J.M.W.
Turner, The Fighting 'Teméraire,'
Tugged to Her Last Birth to Be Broken
Up, 1838, o/c, 35¼" high
-
Pessimistically Romantic in theme
and subject.
-
-
It's getting abstract now… See?
(generalized atmosphere, oil paint as
washy or “watercolorish”)
"The course of the Empire" was one
of Turner's favorite themes.
obsolescence of the British vessel
An allegory of England's future
obsolescence/decline?
A national vanitas or memento mori?
An "ugly" new industrial era?
(steamship)
29-57 Thomas Cole, The Oxbow, 1836,
o/c, 51 ½" high
- Romantic naturalism was more
satisfying to Americans. We
wanted to look to the future, not
the Classical past.
- Manifest Destiny
- America's foremost Romantic
painter
- The father of American
landscape painting
- His art launched the "Hudson
River School".
- He was interested in "the
course of the empire" like
Turner, whose work he
admired.
- A view in western
Massachusetts – it gives form
to the moment the American
wilderness was claimed and
settled.
- Cole emigrated from England at
age 17.
Addl. George Caleb Bingham, Fur
Traders Descending the Missouri,
c.1845, o/c, 29" high
- Naturalistic American scene
painting "details" peace and
abundance.
- Originally titled French Trapper
and His Half-breed Son.
- Missouri boatmen as subject
matter
- This work was sold to the
American Art Union in New
York for $25.– Printed
engravings of this image, and
others like it, were popular. The
American Art Union promoted
and advocated American art.
- The bear cub offers reassuring
imagery of human control of
nature.
29-63 Thomas Jefferson, Monticello,
Charlottesville (VA), 1770-84 and 17961806
- Neoclassicism expressed democracy
during the Federal Period (17831830), hence, the "Federal style."
Many Americans believed the ideals
of a newly independent U.S. "fit" with
Neoclassicism
- Palladian, French, and Chiswick
House influences
- Monticello, Italian for “little mountain”