Modernism from the 18th Century

Abraham Derby The Iron Bridge, Shropshire 1779

Wedgwood The Slave Medallion 1787

PART 1: Early Modernism – Realism and Impressionism in 19th Century France

Gustave Courbet (1819-77). The Stormy Sea (or The Wave) 1869

Realism in the 19th Century• The art-historical definition of realism originated in the

movement that was dominant primarily in France from about 1840 to 1870-80 and that is identified particularly with the work of Gustave Courbet. Realism was decidedly an outgrowth of its particular time -- one of great political and social upheaval. This unrest stirred the realists to reject prevailing canons of academic and romantic art and to undertake instead a nonescapist, democratic, empirical investigation of life as it existed around them. They painted ordinary people leading their everyday lives. Although other artists had depicted similar subjects in earlier times, the realists took a fresh and unemotional view.

Realism in the 19th Century• Realism was most emphatically proclaimed in 1855,

when Courbet, having been rejected for the Paris Exposition, arranged a private showing of his paintings that centered on his huge The Artist's Studio (1855; Musée d'Orsay, Paris). He also distributed a manifesto of realism outlining his program. Among the other realists were Honoré Daumier, most noted for his incisive mockery of the petty bourgeoisie, and Jean François Millet, whose peasant scenes are more reflective in tone than those of Courbet. The early works of Edouard Manet and Edgar Degas (1860s and '70s) are realist, and, like Courbet's, contain elements that prefigure impressionism. The art of the Pre-Raphaelites in England and of Adolf von Menzel in Germany is also related to the realist movement.

• Important artists: Gustave Courbet, Honore Daumier, Edouard Manet, Edgar Degas, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Vincent van Gogh.

Honore Daumier Third-Class Carriage 1863-65

Edouard Manet Bar at the Folies-Bergeres 1881-82

Edgar Degas Laundress (Silhouette)

c. 1874

Henri de Toulouse Lautrec Woman Pulling up her

Stocking1894

Vincent van Gogh Self-Portrait with Dark Felt

Hat1886

Impressionism

Claude Monet Impression, soleil levant Impression, Sunrise 1872

Impressionism

• The impressionist style of painting is characterized chiefly by concentration on the general impression produced by a scene or object and the use of unmixed primary colors and small strokes to simulate actual reflected light.

• Impressionism, French Impressionnisme, a major movement, first in painting and later in music, that developed chiefly in France during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Impressionist painting comprises the work produced between about 1867 and 1886 by a group of artists who shared a set of related approaches and techniques.

• The most conspicuous characteristic of Impressionism was an attempt to accurately and objectively record visual reality in terms of transient effects of light and colour.

Claude Monet The Japanese Bridge probably 1918-24Look at the abstract paintings of Philip Guston, Jules

Olitski, or Jackson Pollock.

Mary Cassatt The Boating Party 1893-4

Pierre-Auguste RenoirSeated Batherc. 1883-1884

Abraham Derby The Iron Bridge, Shropshire 1779

Modern Architecture of the 18th Century

Modern Architecture of the 19th Century

W.H. Barlow Engine Shed, St Pancras Station, London 1868

Modern Architecture of the 19th Century

George Gilbert Scott Midland Grand Hotel, St Pancras Station, London 1868

Modern Architecture of the 19th Century

Claude Monet Gare Saint-Lazare 1877

Modern Architecture of the 19th Century

Louis Sullivan Auditorium Building, Chicago, 1886-89

Modern Architecture of the 20th Century

Daniel Burnham Flatiron Building New York 1902 (photo Alfred Stieglitz 1903)

Links• Rietveld’s Red-Blue Chair – analysis

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Aegean/4217/red_bluechair.html http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Aegean/4217/rbanalysis.htm

• Realism http://www.discoverfrance.net/France/Art/realism.shtml

• Gustave Courbet http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/courbet/

• Honore Daumier http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/daumier/

• Claude Monet http://www.artchive.com/artchive/M/monet.html

• Edouard Manet http://www.artchive.com/artchive/M/manet.html

• Edgar Degas http://www.artchive.com/artchive/D/degas.html

• Toulouse-Lautrec http://www.artchive.com/artchive/T/toulouse-lautrec.html

• Van Gogh http://www.artchive.com/artchive/V/vangogh.html

• Impressionism http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/glo/impressionism/

• Cassatt http://www.artchive.com/artchive/C/cassatt.html

• Renoir http://www.artchive.com/ftp_site.htm