Art – Neoclassicism, Romanticism,

Realism, Impressionism

Neoclassicism

• Neoclassicism is the name given to quite distinct movements in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that draw upon Western classical art and culture (usually that of Ancient Greece or Ancient Rome). These movements were dominant during the mid-18th to the end of the 19th century.

• Used bold colors, heroic images, Greco-Roman themes.

The Death of Socrates [1787] - Jacques-Louis David

Jean-Auguste-Dominique IngresNapoleon I on the Imperial Throne, 1806

Jacques-Louis DavidThe Death of Marat (1793)

Art of the EnlightenmentPortraits of Denis Diderot

“The Ploughing Lesson”by Vincent François André

The Romantics change art & literature styles ~1750

• The ideas of romanticism included the feelings and emotions of the individual.

• Romantics also focused on nature as an alternative to just studying books.

• Artists used color, lines, and facial expression

Ideas of Romanticism

• Inner feelings, imagination• Mysterious & supernatural—sometimes the odd,

exotic and/or grotesque• The beauty of untamed nature • Idealized the past as a simpler & nobler time• Glorified heroes & heroic action• Revival of folk traditions, stories, music

• Value on the common people• Promoted radical change &

democracy

Eugene Delacroix, “Liberty Leading the People”

“Execution of the Defenders of Madrid”

“The Nightmare”

“Cloister Graveyard in the Snow”

“Napoleon Crossing the Alps”

Romantic writers

• Grimm brothers—German fairy tales

• Emily Bronte—Wuthering Heights

• William Blake—English poet

• Victor Hugo—French—Les Misérables, The Hunchback of Norte Dame (struggles of individual against a hostile society)

• Mary Shelley--Frankenstein

Romantic composers

• Beethoven--early years wrote music of the Enlightenment, but his 9th Symphony is an example of Romanticism.

• Romantic musicians made music a popular art form—music became part of middle-class life. Ludwig von Beethoven

Realism – response to the Industrial Revolution

• Tried to show life as it is, not as it should be.

• Life becomes grim for industrial workers who live in dirty, crowded cities and work dangerous jobs for long hours.

• By showing the harsh side of urban life they hoped to improve society.

Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist

Caspar David Friedrich

Gustave Courbet

Gustave Courbet

Photography

• French inventor Louis Daguerre

Mathew Brady photographed the US Civil War and factory and urban

slum life

Impressionists vs. Realists

• 1860s—a group of painters in Paris reacted against the realist style

• Instead of showing “life as it really is” they tried giving their “personal impression” of a moment in time.

• Edouard Manet, Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir.

• Showed a more positive view of the new urban society.

• They glorified the pastimes of the life of middle class people.

Claude Monet

Monet’s version of the urban landscape

Monet’s “Paris Festival of 1878”

Manet

Degas

Vincent Van Gogh, post-impressionist painter

Questions

1. What cultural events were classicism, romanticism, realism, & impressionism a reflection of?

2. What characterized each art period?

3. Which is your personal favorite and why?