Art in Focus

Chapter 21: New Directions in Nineteenth-Century Art

Lesson Summaries-English

          During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in France and England, artists began to study in academies, or art schools. These schools encouraged students to look to the past and led to the Neoclassical style of painting. Meanwhile, another artistic trend known as Romanticism revolutionized all forms of art.

Lesson 1
Neoclassicism

          While the academies urged their students to look at famous works of the past to develop their own skills, art collectors tried to buy works by the former great masters. To encourage interest in contemporary artists, the academies began to hold yearly exhibitions, or salons.

          In France, artists were encouraged to look to the art of classical Greece and Rome. Balanced compositions, flowing contour lines, and noble gestures and expressions characterized their new style, known as Neoclassicism. One of the first artists to work in this style was Jacques-Louis David. His Death of Marat shows his involvement in politics, his love of ancient art, and his skill as a painter. In contrast to David, who took an active part in the French Revolution, the portrait painter Marie-Louise-élisabeth Vigée-Lebrun left France to achieve fame in other European countries. Her portraits flattered her sitters, giving them large, expressive eyes. Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, a student of David, carried the Neoclassic style to its highest point. Apart from portraits, Ingres painted large pictures glorifying historical and imaginary events and people. His work The Apotheosis of Homer brings to mind Raphael’s The School of Athens, and it includes a portrait of Raphael. Ingres created carefully planned compositions with crisply outlined figures that show little emotion.

Lesson 2
Romanticism and Realism

          Some artists began to challenge the Neoclassic style of David and Ingres. In 1819 the French artist Théodore Géricault exhibited The Raft of Medusa, signaling the birth of Romanticism. This new style portrayed dramatic and exotic subjects perceived with strong feelings. Géricault’s painting shows a tragic contemporary event using a strong diagonal design and twisting figures. Another Romantic artist was Eugène Delacroix, whose works are full of color and swirling action. His frantic, painterly work The Lion Hunt is a reminder of Rubens.

          In England, painters turned to depicting landscapes. John Constable used patches of color to paint the outdoors as the eye actually sees it. Another landscape painter, Joseph M. W. Turner, depicted the effects of light and atmosphere on his subject matter.

          Meanwhile, other artists in France rejected both Neoclassicism and Romanticism as they saw the changes brought by the industrial revolution. They opted to paint familiar scenes and trivial events as they really looked, creating the style known as Realism. Gustave Courbet, for example, chose to depict the funeral of an ordinary villager in his Burial at Ornans. Another Realist artist, Édouard Manet, painted everyday scenes but was concerned more with how to paint. His works have richly textured surfaces, where the paint is stroked, pulled, and dabbed on the canvas. The artist Rosa Bonheur combined the flair of Romanticism with the accuracy of Realism. Her accurate and exciting animal paintings became very popular.

Lesson 3
Impressionism

          Later artists tried further to capture the effects of atmosphere and sunlight on their subject matter. They created casual artworks made up entirely of dabs of color. When one of these artists, Claude Monet, exhibited a picture called Impression: Sunrise, the new style was named Impressionism. Monet created multiple paintings of the same subject at different times of day, creating rich visual impressions. Another Impressionist, Pierre Auguste Renoir, painted happy scenes of people in Paris. Impressionist artists were influenced by Japanese prints, which used flat patterns of lines and often cut off the edges of scenes. They also looked to photography, which introduced candid, or unposed, views of people. Thus the works of Gustave Caillebotte and Edgar Degas show candid poses, unusual points of view, and cutoff figures. Degas, in addition, developed an interest in drawing through studies of ballet dancers and the racetrack.

          The American painter Mary Cassatt was influenced by Degas to create beautifully designed, vibrantly colored works such as The Boating Party. Another Impressionist woman artist, Berthe Morisot, painted portraits and interior scenes with a fresh, delicate vision.

          In terms of Impressionist sculpture, Auguste Rodin dominated the field by the end of the nineteenth century. Like the painters, he created uneven textures by adding materials to his works bit by bit. Rodin was a master at representing all types of emotion.