Chapter 13: The Industrial Age
Materialism & Progress
• Utilitarianism
– This is defined as the philosophic belief that moral
good lies in the greatest happiness for the greatest
number.
Materialism & Progress
• The Victorian Era
– The industrial era brought the
growth of the industrial
middle class in Britain.
– This led to a rise in the
standard of living
accompanied by
technological advances.
Materialism & Progress
• The Victorian Era
– Joseph Paxton’s Crystal Palace
Materialism & Progress
• The Victorian Era
– Philosophers
• Jeremy Bentham
– He is considered the founder
of utilitarianism.
– He claimed that “God had
nothing to do with happiness.”
Materialism & Progress
• The Victorian Era
– Philosophers
• John Stuart Mill
– He was one of the first
advocates of women’s rights as
well as calling for social reform.
Materialism & Progress
• The Victorian Era
– Philosophers
• Charles Darwin
– He published the Origin of
Species which promoted the
concept of natural selection.
Materialism & Progress
• The Victorian Era
– Philosophers
• Herbert Spencer
– He coined the term “social
Darwinism” which came to
imply the superiority of the
white races.
Materialism & Progress
• The Victorian Era
– Realism
• This was first defined in the artwork of Gustave Courbet
when he expressed the representation of the social
world without illusion or imaginative alteration.
Materialism & Progress
• The Victorian Era
– Realism
• Manet
– The French painter was
shocked Parisians with
his realistic portrayal of
the nude.
Femme nue se coiffant, 1879
Materialism & Progress
• The Victorian Era
– Realism
• Rosa Bonheur
– She was regarded as the
most important female
painter of her day.
Materialism & Progress
• The Victorian Era
– Realism
• The death of realism in
painting came about
with the introduction of
photography.
• As the new medium
became more readily
available, it caused a
dramatic shift in the art
world to impressionism.
Materialism & Progress
• The Victorian Era
– Realist Novel
• Charles Dickens
– He was an outspoken
critic of the injustices of
industrialism.
– His most famous works
on the topic were David
Copperfield and Bleak
House.
Materialism & Progress
• The Victorian Era
– Realist Novel
• Gustave Flaubert
– His best known work was
Madame Bovary, the story of
a naïve provincial women
overwhelmed by the
sophistication of the modern
world.
– The story starts with her
idealized version of the world,
only to be led into adultery,
debt, and finally suicide.
Materialism & Progress
• The Victorian Era
– Modern Architecture
• The change in construction was due to the combination
of iron and glass (steel would later replace iron).
An English train station.
Materialism & Progress
• The Victorian Era
– Modern Architecture
• Henri Labrouste built the Bibliotheque Nationale
(National Library)
Materialism & Progress
• The Victorian Era
– Modern Architecture
• Gustave Eiffel builds
the Eiffel Tower
making it the largest
structure in the world
at 984 feet in height.
Materialism & Progress
• The Victorian Era
– Modern Architecture
• Louis Sullivan constructs
the modern skyscraper
with the Wainwright
Building in St. Louis.
Materialism & Progress
• The Victorian Era
– Modernity & Music
• Giuseppe Verdi
– He set Shakespeare to music.
– He also experimented with the
“accompanied recitative,” in
which the orchestra mirrored
the characters mood (created
the concept of the modern
soundtrack).
Materialism & Progress
• The Victorian Era
– Modernity & Music
• Richard Wagner
– He viewed opera as a
synthesis of all arts and this
concept became known as
Gesamtkunstwerk.
– He became a master of
dramatic action, leading to the
Leitmotif (leading motive).
– His prized culmination also
brought the concept of
nationality into music with Der
Ring Des Nibelungen.
Materialism & Progress
• The Victorian Era
– Modernity & Music
• Johannes Brahms
– He was regarded as the last
great composer of
“absolute” music in the
tradition of Mozart and
Beethoven.
Materialism & Progress
• The Victorian Era
– Modernity & Music
• Other Musical Nationals
– Russian Peter Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture
– Czech Bedrich Smetana’s The Moldau
Peter Tchaikovsky
Bedrich Smetana
Materialism & Progress
• The Victorian Era
– Modernity & Music
• Marius Petipa invented the
grand style of ballet, which is
now referred to as classical
ballet.
Later Romantics and Early Moderns
• Symbolism & Art Nouveau
– Art Nouveau
• It is defined as the use of floral motifs and stressed the
organic unity of artistic materials and form.
Later Romantics and Early Moderns
• Symbolism & Art Nouveau
– L’art pour l’art
• The term was coined by English
writer Walter Pater in 1868,
which defined this change in art.
• It means “art for art’s sake.”
• Artist began breaking away from
the appeal of mass society and
indulging their own desires.
Later Romantics and Early Moderns
• Symbolism & Art Nouveau
– Charles Baudelaire
• He wrote Les Fleurs du Mal
(The Flowers of Evil)
• He delved into sexual
exploits and experimentation
that closely resemble
sadomasochism.
Later Romantics and Early Moderns
• Symbolism & Art Nouveau
– Antoni Gaudi y Cornet
• He created the Casa Batllo in Barcelona.
Later Romantics and Early Moderns
• Symbolism & Art Nouveau
– Vienna Secession
• This was a protest by the Austrian artist who “broke”
with official institutional art and began to pave the way
for modernism.
Beethoven Frieze by Gustav Klimt
Later Romantics and Early Moderns
• Symbolism & Art Nouveau
– Claude Debussy
• He was a French composer who introduced the wholetone scale which is akin to impressionism in music.
Later Romantics and Early Moderns
• Symbolism & Art Nouveau
– Auguste Rodin
• He was a French sculptor who
epitomized the concept of art
becoming an “increasingly
subjective affair.”
Later Romantics and Early Moderns
• Impressionism
– It is the concept of capturing the fleeting effects of
light and color with rapid, sketchy brushstrokes.
Water Lily Pond 2, by Claude Monet
Later Romantics and Early Moderns
• Impressionism
– The Greats
• Claude Monet
Rue Montorgueil, Paris, Festival
Later Romantics and Early Moderns
• Impressionism
– The Greats
• Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Landscape between Storms
Later Romantics and Early Moderns
• Impressionism
– The Greats
• Edgar Degas who also
created off-center
compositions.
Two Dancers on Stage
Later Romantics and Early Moderns
• Post-Impressionists
– These artists are noted for taking their techniques
in different directions.
Broadditch Pond, by Nigel Hirst
Later Romantics and Early Moderns
• Post-Impressionists
– Georges Seurat
• He developed pointillism in which he meticulously
created paintings with tiny dots.
Study for A Sunday on La Grande Jatte
Later Romantics and Early Moderns
• Post-Impressionists
– Paul Cezanne
• He applied the
concept of natural
and permanent
settings in
impressionism.
Mountains in Provence
Later Romantics and Early Moderns
• Post-Impressionists
– Paul Gauguin
• His paintings devolved into a more abstract form.
Nave Nave Moe
Later Romantics and Early Moderns
• Post-Impressionists
– Vincent van Gogh
• His painting developed a
self-conscious primitivism
that reflected concept of the
modern city.
Later Romantics and Early Moderns
• Post-Impressionists
– Vincent van Gogh
• His most famous work is Starry Night.
The Dark Side of Progress
• Realist Writers
– Anton Chekhov and Henrik Ibsen both wrote
works that reflected the idea that modernization
has led to dark psychological realism.
Anton Chekhov
Henrik Ibsen
The Dark Side of Progress
• Realist Writers
– Henry James and Edith Wharton both focused
more toward their character’s perceptions and
feelings as opposed to external action.
Henry James
Edith Wharton
The Dark Side of Progress
• Realist Writers
– Fyodor Dostoyevsky
• The Russian novelist whose
works focused on how his
character's moral kindness
and generosity eventually turn
into cruelty and murder.
The Dark Side of Progress
• Realist Writers
– Fyodor Dostoyevsky
• His political work
pointed to the fact
that mass society
was governed by an
elite who offered
them material
comforts and the
illusion of freedom.
Edgar Degas’s Rape, which was used for the
“Crime & Punishment” display for the
Philadelphia Museum of Art.
The Dark Side of Progress
• Realist Writers
– Friedrich Nietzsche
• The first author to delve
deep into the
psychology of reality.
• He concluded that
man’s impulse to love
and create lie close to
his concepts of hatred
and destructiveness.