Movements in Late Nineteenth Century Art (Art 100)
Realism
Name: Term used to describe a certain type of art and literature in mid-19th
century France.
Who: Gustave Courbet, Édouard Manet, Rosa Bonheur, Gustave Caillebotte,
Honoré Daumier, Thomas Eakins, and Winslow Homer.
When: 1845-1880.
Where: Western Europe (primarily France) and the United States.
What: Movement in art and literature that rejected the subjective, emotional,
exotic characteristics of Romanticism. Instead, artists and writers concentrated on
observable, contemporary reality.
Subject Matter: Down-to-earth, everyday subjects: landscapes; peasants;
ordinary, working-class people; observable, contemporary life. Only the visible
world is shown; scenes centering on mythology, history or religion were avoided.
Style: Emphasis on naturalism, that is, the accurate depiction of nature without it
being overly romanticized or sentimentalized. Ordinary people shown with same
dignity previously bestowed on images of kings, saints and aristocrats. In a sense,
Realist painters tried to do away with a personal, artistic "style" in order to make
their paintings more "truthful."
Janson and Kissick Example: COURBET, The Stone Breakers, 1849.
Influenced by: Caravaggio, Rembrandt, Velázquez, Zurburan, Louis Le Nain,
Charles Baudelaire (a 19th century writer who called for an art that would use the
"heroism of modern life" as its subject), European revolutions of 1848, Socialism,
and early photography.
Will influence: Pre-Raphaelites, Impressionism, and American Scene Painting.
Impressionism
Name: The derogatory term was coined by critic Louis Leroy of the Parisian
journal Le Charivari in response to the unfinished quality of Monet's Impression:
Sunrise of 1872 (exhibited at the first Impressionist exhibition in 1874). For
Leroy, the work appeared more like an "impression" rather than a finished, factual
painting. The artists came to like this term and adopt it for themselves.
Who: Claude Monet, Auguste Renoir, Édouard Manet (who never exhibited with
the Impressionists), Edgar Degas, Mary Cassatt, Berthe Morisot, Camille Pissarro,
Auguste Rodin, and Alfred Sisley.
When: 1874-1886 (8 group exhibitions are held between these dates).
Where: France.
What: The Impressionists, who initially exhibited as the "Society of Painters,
Etchers and Engravers," formed in opposition to the government-sponsored Salon.
Artists were concerned with the transient effects of light and atmosphere on
natural or man-made objects. The fragmented, painterly brushwork of
Impressionism makes it a forerunner of the modern notion that a painting is an art
object not subject to the constraints of nature. The group's aims were best
represented by painters, though some sculptors (Rodin, Degas, Renoir) did
manage to employ their concerns with light and reflection onto media other than
paint and canvas. Toward the end, many of the Impressionists pursued separate
paths with respect to subject matter and style. Impressionism's "joy of life"
attitude makes it one of the most loved and popular movements in modern art.
Subject Matter: Contemporary life: sunny landscapes (painted out-of-doors rather
than in a studio), cityscapes, portraits, and leisure scenes (dance halls, opera,
ballet, bars, picnics, etc.).
Style: Bright colors (in contrast to dark, muted tones of Academic paintings)
applied in visible, sketchy strokes. These strokes were meant to merge in the
viewer's eyes, not the artist's palette. Shadows were painted with color, not black
as before. Glazes and heavy varnishes were hardly ever used.
Janson Example: RENOIR, Le Moulin de la Galette, 1876.
Kissick Example: MONET, Impression: Sunrise, 1872.
Influenced by: Delacroix, Barbizon School, Manet, Realism, photography, and
Japanese prints.
Will influence: Post-Impressionists, Fauves, and to some extent most other late
19th century and early 20th century movements.
Post-Impressionism
Name: Term, which refers to the period after Impressionism, was coined by the
British art critic Roger Fry for his 1910 London exhibition "Manet and the PostImpressionists." The term was invented after nearly all its practitioners had died.
Who: Paul Cézanne, Georges Seurat, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Vincent van
Gogh, and Paul Gauguin.
When: 1880s through early 1890s.
Where: France.
What: Post-Impressionists weren't reacting against Impressionism, they were
trying to take the ideas of Impressionism further. They also were not interested in
the Impressionist's preoccupation with naturalism and momentary effects. Still,
nearly all the Post-Impressionists passed through an Impressionist phase.
Subject Matter Landscapes, portraits, still lifes, exotic locations, interiors, etc.
Style: Since Post-Impressionism refers to a time (the period after Impressionism)
and not a style, there are many styles occurring simultaneously. The styles of
Post-Impressionists reflected the individual artists' personal emotions and world
views, rather than a naturalistic approach to painting.
Janson Example: VAN GOGH, Wheat Field and Cypress Trees, 1889.
Kissick Example: GAUGUIN, The Vision After the Sermon, 1888.
Influenced by: Impressionism.
Will influence: Symbolism, Nabis, Art Nouveau, Fauvism, Cubism, and German
Expressionism.