Art Appreciation Topic VIII: Art Movements in the Later 19th Century

Art Appreciation
Topic VIII:
Art Movements in the
Later 19 th Century

c.1840-c.1914

French Academic Art (c.1840-1900)
Realism (c.1850-1900)
Victorian Art (c.1837-1901)
The Pre-Raphaelites (c.1848-1910)
Impressionism (c.1870-c.1900)
Postimpressionism (c. 1880-c.1910)
Neoimpressionism (c.1885-1900)
Symbolism (c.1885-1910)
The Nabis (c.1890-1900)
Art Nouveau (c.1890-1914)

The term “Academic Art” can be used to refer to all art
influenced by the various established Academies, which began to
proliferate throughout Europe during the early 18th century, but it is
often meant to refer to artists influenced by the standards of the
French Académie des beaux-arts. The French Academy had a
tremendous influence on the Salons in 19th century Paris between
c.1840-c.1900.
As the main forum for academic art, the Paris Salons were held
in the Salon d'Apollon in the Palais du Louvre. These state-sponsored
exhibitions were enormously influential in establishing officially
approved styles and molding public taste, and they helped consolidate
the Royal Academy’s dictatorial control over the production of fine art.
For much of the 19th century, the Salon had a conservative outlook,
which discouraged new trends. French academic art used to be viewed
as the rather dull art of the establishment, but in recent years opinion
has shifted somewhat.
The most prestigious form of academic art was “history
painting,” which encompassed religious, mythological, and allegorical
subjects as well as history. Landscapes, portraits, and genre scenes
(paintings of everyday life) were deemed to be less important, while
modern subjects were frowned upon. The question of “finish” was even
more crucial. Academic artists favored a detailed, enamel-like finish
that appeared realistic even when viewed close up.

The Romans of the
Decadence by Couture

A Game of Piquet by Meissonier

The
Campaign
of France,
1814
by
Meissonier

Portrait of
Alexandre
Dumas fils
by
Meissonier

Homage to Delacroix by Fantin-Latour

Black
Bashi-
Bazouk
by
Gérôme

Pygmalion
and
Galatea
by
Gérôme

The Birth of
Venus
by
Bouguereau

The Realist movement emerged in France in the mid-19th
century as a reaction against the outdated strictures of academic art,
and it signaled a definitive break from the artistic traditions of the past.
The movement was spearheaded by Gustave Courbet and Jean-François
Millet.
In the late 1840s, a circle of writers, artists and intellectuals
held regular meetings at a Parisian bar, the Brasserie Andler. They
dubbed their meeting place the “Temple of Realism,” and it was this
nickname that Courbet adopted for his art.
Although they appear anything but revolutionary today, the
paintings of Courbet provoked a storm of protest at the Salon, largely
because they contravened normal academic practice. Instead of
tackling noble themes, Realist artists painted the harsh conditions of
rural life. While such scenes were expected to be small and picturesque
to provide a sense of escapism, the peasant pictures of Courbet and
Millet were on a large scale normally reserved for major historical
themes or religious subjects, and they focused on the hardship of
modern working conditions.
The Realists attracted equal scorn for their figures, which often
featured double chins and rolls of fat or wizened caricatures. For the
delicate sensibilities of critics accustomed to the idealized forms in
academic art, this was not realism but a deliberate quest for ugliness.

Woman
with the
Pearl
by
Corot

The Origin of the World by Courbet

The Third-Class Carriage by Daumier

Three
Women in
Church
by
Liebl

The Boatmen on the Volga
by Repin

During the lengthy reign of Queen Victoria (1837-1901),
Britain enjoyed an unrivaled period of economic prosperity and
political influence, and the arts in Britain scaled new heights. The
leading painters of the Victorian age became rich and famous,
and many Victorians felt they were living during a golden age in the
arts.
Queen Victoria and Prince Albert were knowledgeable art
collectors, and there was a growing interest in art on the part of
the middle classes as well. Britain’s Royal Academy, which
remained the chief marketplace for artists, regularly attracted
more than a quarter of a million visitors to its annual exhibition and
the academic tradition remained one of the surest routes to
success.
New trends emerged in the field of genre painting, which
enjoyed a surge in popularity even before Victoria came to the
throne. The Victorian public loved pictures that contained a moral
or told a story, but the tone of the resulting art could vary
considerably. Art could have a patriotic theme, but the Victorians
were equally fond of moral or sentimental subjects. Above all, they
enjoyed seeing reflections of their own society.

Male
Nude,
arms up
stretched
by
Etty

The Sirens and Ulysses by Etty

Empress
Josephine
and the
Fortune-
Teller
by
Wilkie

The
Monarch
of the
Glen
by
Landseer

Trafalgar
Square
Lions
by
Landseer

The Pre-Raphaelites burst upon the English
art scene in the mid-19th century. In a youthful act of
rebellion, they vowed to counter the stifling
predictability of academic art by seeking to recapture
the honest simplicity of the early Italian painters who
had flourished before Raphael, hence “Pre-Raphaelite.”
The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was formed in 1848 by
a group of seven young artists who sealed their pact by
adding the initials “PRB” to their paintings.
The Pre-Raphaelites tackled a wide variety of
themes. They shared the Victorian appetite for color
and romance of the Middle Ages, taking themes from
Arthurian legend. However, they were also interested in
covering modern issues and social problems, such as
emigration, prostitution, and religious reform.
The group often focused on a moral or a story,
many of which were drawn from literary sources. They
avoided classical authors, but Shakespeare, Keats and
Tennyson were popular choices.

The
Last of
England
by
Brown

The
Awakening
Conscience
by
Hunt

The
Beguiling
of Merlin
by
Burne-
Jones

The Lady of Shallot by Waterhouse

The Impressionist movement originated and achieved its fullest
development in France, although its impact was felt throughout the West. It
was never a school in the narrowest sense of the word, with a precise
manifesto and a common style.
The Impressionists set out to paint the effects of light. To this end,
they used visible brushstrokes of pure color, painting scenes of daily life
around Paris. People at the time thought Impressionist pictures looked
unfinished and the subject matter pointless. But the new artists spelled the
end of a tradition that had held sway since the Renaissance.
Visually, the Impressionists were inspired by the boldness and
simplicity of Japanese woodblock prints, which had only reached the West,
and their use of pure, bright colors, the lack of modeling in their figures,
and their casual attitude to the laws of perspective. They were also
influenced by developments in the world of photography.
In their revolt against academic art, the Impressionists developed
their own subject matter, celebrating modern life and painting scenes of
everyday urban and suburban pastimes, chores and landscapes. At some
stage, all of the Impressionist painters experimented with plein-air
(outdoor) painting, completing entire pictures on the spot. This enabled
them to capture the most fleeting sensations of light and weather
conditions. To achieve this, they had to work quickly. They conveyed their
forms with short, broken brushstrokes and vivid flecks of color. Every item
was condensed to its simplest form.

A Bar at
the
Folies-
Bergère
by
Manet

Lady at her Toilette by Morisot

The
Dancing
Class
by
Degas

In a
Café,
or
Absinthe
by
Degas

Little
Dancer,
Aged 14
by
Degas

Le Moulin de la Galette by Renior

The Luncheon of the Boating Party by Renoir

Paris Street, A Rainy Day by Caillebotte

Little Girl in a Blue Armchair by Cassatt

Peasants
Resting
by
Pissaro

Young
Girl with
a Stick
by
Pissarro

At the Moulin Rouge by Toulouse-Lautrec

In the Salon of the Rue des Moulins
by Toulouse-Lautrec

Marcelle
Lender
Dancing
the
Bolero
by
Toulouse-
Lautrec

Charlotte
Corinth
at Her
Dressing
Table
by
Corinth

The Parrot
Man
by
Liebmann

Parrot
Street
by
Liebmann

Walk
on the
Beach
by
Sorolla

The Open-Air Breakfast by Chase

Rain Storm, Union Square by Hassam

Neo-Impressionism and Post-Impressionism
were both an extension of Impressionism and a rejection of its
limitations. This new generation of painters started on the fringes
of Impressionism, but many of them began to react against its
preoccupation with surface appearances. They pushed beyond the
quest for naturalism and sought to express feelings and ideas
through a radically new use of color, brushstroke, and content.
The two recognizable “schools” were based on the
theories of Seurat (Neo-Impressionism) and Gaugin (Post-
Impressionism). Seurat’s work is characterized by the use of dots
of pure color and an attempt to make the approach to light and
color more rational and scientific--which he termed “Divisionism”
or “Pointillism.” Gaugin renounced naturalism to explore a bold,
symbolic use of color and line.
The subjects of Neo-impressionist and Post-impressionist
paintings were as varied as the painters’ styles. In their
determination to find a simpler, more authentic mode of
representation, Neo-impressionists and Post-impressionists
reinvented the art of painting by emphasizing geometric shapes,
distorting forms, and applying unnatural coloring.

Woman
in a
Green
Hat
by
Cézanne

Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La
Grande Jatte by Seurat

Vase with
Fourteen
Sunflowers
by
van Gogh

Self-
Portrait
with
Bandaged
Ear and
Pipe
by
van Gogh

The Vision after the Sermon by Gaugin

The Spirit of the Dead Watches by Gaugin

Portrait of Félix Fenéon by Signac

Symbolism and Art Nouveau were international art
movements that flourished in the final decades of the 19th century.
Symbolism sought to restore the role of imagination and ideas in the arts,
while Art Nouveau had a more decorative function.
Symbolism, which developed in France but spread to most of
Europe, emerged as a reaction to against the naturalist movements—
Realism and Impressionism—which had dominated the progressive art
scene after the 1850s. By concentrating only on what the artist saw,
naturalists had largely ignored the imagination, intellect, and emotions.
Symbolism, part of the “Aesthetic” or “art for art’s sake” movement, aimed
to rectify this by producing pictures that evoked certain moods and
feelings. They aspired to communicate ideas like music or poetry, only
through the use of line, color and form. Symbolists did not use readily-
defined images, but opted instead for those that were richly evocative.
Although Art Nouveau shared with Symbolism the element of
fantasy, it was primarily preoccupied with decorative effect, and had its
strongest impact on the applied arts. Art Nouveau can be seen as a
response to the Arts and Crafts movement, but it also was influenced by
other styles, including Japanese prints and the revival of interest in
ancient Celtic patterns. It was a concerted attempt to create an
international, modern style based on decoration. It is characterized by
highly stylized, flowing lines, and organic, plant-inspired motifs.

Oedipus
and the
Sphinx
by
Moreau

Guardian
Spirit of
the
Waters
by
Redon

Island of the Dead by Böcklin

Self-
Portrait
with
Death
by
Böcklin

The Poor Fishermen
by Puvis de Chavannes

Jubilee
Memorial
to Queen
Victoria
by
Gilbert

“Eros”
a.k.a.
The
Angel of
Christian
Charity
by
Gilbert

Skeletons Fighting for a
Smoked Herring by Ensor

Christ’s Entry into Brussels by Ensor

The Four
Seasons:
Winter
and
Spring
by
Mucha

Summer
and
Autumn
by
Mucha

Although their subsequent reputations are
often eclipsed by the major figures of the art world
in France, a number of painters from other countries
at the end of the century enjoyed successful careers
outside the progressive artistic centers of the day.
The latter part of the 19th century saw artists
in mainland Europe searching for new means of
expression that would explode into the revolutionary
movements of the early 20th, but elsewhere,
particularly in Britain and the U.S., French Realism
and Impressionism were still exerting a strong
influence. Artists from all over the world made their
way to France to study and work, taking the ideas of
Realism and Impressionism back to their native
countries.
Although these styles were no longer at the
forefront in European centers of art, they made an
impact elsewhere as they were adopted by
comparatively conservative traditions, paving the
way for Modernism in many countries.

Arrangement in Grey and Black: Portrait of
the Artist’s Mother by Whistler

Portrait
of
Madame
X
by
Sargent

Watching the Breakers by Homer (1891)

The Sponge Diver by Homer (1898-99)

The Gulf Stream by Homer (1899)

Girl with
Peaches
by
Serov

Art Appreciation Topic VIII: Art Movements in the Later 19th Century

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Art Appreciation Topic VIII: Art Movements in the Later 19th Century