A Brief History of Modern Art

Lecture II: Realizing Modernity

Modern Art (1860-1970)• There is no exact definition of modern art. • There is no one style.• Most scholars agree, however, that the term applies to art

produced roughly during the years 1860-1970.• Artists practicing in this “style” generally reject Renaissance-

based convention in favor of the new and experimental.– These artists experimented with materials, subject matter, technique,

and developed new theories about art, its role in the modern world, and the function of the artist.

• Scholars debate the exact onset of modern art in the visual arts.– Most consider artist, Édouard Manet (1832-1883), and the schools of

Realism and Impressionism to be at the forefront of its birth.– In general, those who would be considered modern artists rejected

traditional academic art forms associated with the 18th and early 19th centuries.

Becoming Modern• Modernism refers to the

period from 1850 to 1960.• Historically, modernism

comes to light with the 1848 Revolution in France.

• Its origins lie in the writings of René Descartes (1596-1650) and John Locke (1632-1704)

• Modern Art (arguably) begins with Realism and ends with Abstract Expressionism.

• Period characterized by a tremendous amount of different artistic styles.

Gustave Courbet, The Stone Breakers, 1849. Oil on canvas, 65” × 128”× 12134”. Now destroyed.

Becoming Modern

Realism (1840-late 19th century)• Social change, triggered by

the Industrial Revolution, leads to greater emphasis by artists on realism of subject matter.

• The role of the artist changes-the artist is now a social commentator, a bohemian living on the outskirts of society.

Gustave Courbet, The Meeting or, Bonjour M. Courbet, 1854. Oil on canvas, 52”

x 59.3”.Musée Fabre de Montpellier, Australia.

Becoming Modern

• The popularization of photography is also responsible for the move toward Realism in painting.

• Artists were now competing with a machine in attempt to depict subjects in objective reality.

Announcing the invention of photography (the daguerreotype) at

The Joint Meeting of the Academies of Science and Fine Arts in the Institute

of France, Paris, August 19, 1839, unsigned engraving.

Photography• 1839 Daguerre demonstrates to

the public the daguerreotype-a technology that permanently affixed an image of the world on a flat surface

• Some painters embraced this new technology (Edgar Degas and Thomas Eakins) experimenting with photography and using it as a tool; while others, artists and critics, alike were skeptical

• Photography was not included within the various important art exhibitions

Louis-Jacqyes-Mandé Daguerre, The Artist’s Studio,1837. An early

daguerreotype taken in the artist’s studio. Société Française de Photographie, Paris.

• Almost immediately, photographers began to exploit the visual and creative nature of this new medium.

• Many, like Daguerre, look to master painters from the Renaissance and Baroque for inspiration.– Seen here, Daguerre

mimics Claesz’s still life to create his own, modern version.

Louis-Jacqyes-Mandé Daguerre, The Artist’s Studio,1837. An early

daguerreotype taken in the artist’s studio. Société

Française de Photographie, Paris.

Pieter Claesz, Still-Life with Skull and Writing Quill ,1628. Oil on

wood, 9 ½” x 14 1/8”. Metropolitan Museum of Art,

NYC.

Photography

Photography

• Photography was used to document (or re-enact) important historical events not unlike paintings prior to its invention.

Re-enactment of the October 16, 1846 ether operation. Daguerreotype by Southworth & Hawes.

Library of Congress.

Thomas Eakins, The Gross Clinic, 1875. Oil on canvas 8’x 6’6”. Philadelphia Museum of Art,

PA.

Rembrandt, Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Tulp, 1632. oil on canvas, 85.2” × 66.7”.

Mauritshuis, The Hague.

Photography

• Muybridge (1830-1904), originally a landscape photographer, became best known for his ground-breaking work in animal locomotion-he used photography to capture and understand motion (of horses, humans, etc.).– His technique used

multiple cameras to capture a horse galloping.

Eadweard Muybridge, The Horse in Motion,1878-87. Wet-plate photograph.

• Humans in motion.

Eadweard Muybridge, The Body in Motion, c. 1878-87. Wet-plate photograph.

– Historically, this resulted in rather unbelievable renditions of a horse in motion, often referred to as the “hobby-horse”.

– Artists, including the Renaissance master, Leonardo da Vinci, studied horse for a better understanding of how they move.

– This was not fully understood until Muybridge’s efforts.

Leonardo da Vinci, Study of Horses, (details from the artist’s notebook.), 1494. Silverpoint on prepared paper. Royal Library,

Windsor.

Chinese Horse, c.15,000-10,000 BCE. Lascaux Caves, France. First discovered 1940.

• Prior to Muybridge’ studies, painters did not fully understand the physical movement of horses (for example).

• Before Muybridge, painters did not know that while running, all of a horse’s hooves leave the ground.

• Artists like Degas reference photography for various reasons, including painting anatomically correct animals in motion.

Eadweard Muybridge, The Horse in Motion,1878-87. Wet-plate photograph.

Edgar Degas, The Jockey, 1889. Pastel on paper, 12 ½” x 19 ¼”.

Philadelphia Museum of Fine Art, PA.

• Muybridge’s findings enabled painters to present more believable representations of animals and humans in motion.

Photography• Introduced to the public in

1839, photography experienced great success and popularity with the general public.

• Still, photography faced many critics who rejected its efforts to become considered a fine art.

• This lithograph demonstrates the debate of the medium and its status as technical process or fine art.

Honorè Daumier, Nadar Elevating Photography to the Height of Art,

1862. Lithograph, 10 11/16” x 8 ¾”. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Photography• To advocate photography’s acceptance as a fine art,

photographers copied well-known paintings to demonstrate its aesthetic potential.

Oscar Rejlander, The Two Ways of Life, 1857. Combination albumen print. Royal

Photographic Society, England.

Thomas Couture, Romans of the Decadene, 1847. Oil on canvas, 185.8” x 303.9”.

Musée d'Orsay, Paris.

Photography• Photographers opened

portrait studios and often entertained (and competed for) well-known personalities to add to their collection.

• Photographers often referenced famous portraits while composing photographs of their subjects.– Here, Nadar takes the

¾ pose used by Leonardo when painting the Mona Lisa.

Leonardo da Vinci, Mona Lisa, 1503-06. Oil on poplar wood,

30”x21”. Musée du Louvre, Paris.

Nadar, Portrait of Sarah Bernhardt,1864. Photograph, 9 5/8” x 9 3/8”. Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris.

Becoming Modern

• Realism is a response to its times.– It is a rejection of Romanticism.– It is a response to photography.– Its is a response to the revolutionary attitude of

the day.– It is a quest for truth.

• Realism links Romanticism with Impressionism.

Schools of Modern Art: Realism

• The Realist movement thrived in France from approximately 1840 until the late nineteenth century.

• Realists sought to express a truthful and objective vision of contemporary life.

• Realists began to challenge conventions upheld by the academy experimenting with subject matter, process, and interjecting social commentary into their work.

• French painter, Gustave Courbet (1819-1877), is considered the leader of the Realist movement.– Artists like Édouard Manet would

inherit his innovative style.

Gustave Courbet, A Burial at Ornans, 1849-1850. Oil on canvas, 123.6” x 261”, Musee

d'Orsay, Paris. Exhibited at the 1850–1851 Paris Salon created an "explosive reaction" and

brought Courbet instant fame.

Realism (1840-late 19th century)

Schools of Modern Art

• Courbet’s A Burial at Ornans demonstrates what Realist artists sought:– Courbet paints an actual event, one

that is more personal than historically important, the death of a relative.

– He uses the ordinary people that attended this event.

– He paints them as they were, not beautiful or idealized, but accurate.

• Critics argued his faces were caricature and accused the artist of “a deliberate pursuit of ugliness.”

– The painting is a real life depiction of Ornans- its people and events.

Gustave Courbet, A Burial at Ornans, 1849-1850. Oil on canvas, 123.6” x 261”, Musee

d'Orsay, Paris. Exhibited at the 1850–1851 Paris Salon created an "explosive reaction" and

brought Courbet instant fame.

Realism (1840-late 19th century)

Schools of Modern Art

• Critics rejected the work based on its subject matter-– Academic convention ruled

that large canvases (this painting measures 10 feet by 22) was reserved for historically important events and people (battle scenes, religious imagery, political leaders), not ordinary life.

• Courbet attempts with this piece to “thrust himself into the grand tradition of history painting”.

Gustave Courbet, A Burial at Ornans, 1849-1850. Oil on canvas, 123.6” x 261”, Musee

d'Orsay, Paris. Exhibited at the 1850–1851 Paris Salon created an "explosive reaction" and

brought Courbet instant fame.

Realism (1840-late 19th century)

Schools of Modern Art

• In addition, critics rejected the style in which it was painted.– Courbet asserts the

paint’s texture.• Courbet employs texture

to make the image painted seem more tangible and NOT to explore Romantic notions of the sublime.

Gustave Courbet, A Burial at Ornans, 1849-1850. Oil on canvas, 123.6” x 261”, Musee

d'Orsay, Paris. Exhibited at the 1850–1851 Paris Salon created an "explosive reaction" and

brought Courbet instant fame.

Realism (1840-late 19th century)

Becoming ModernRealism (1840-late 19th century)• Partly responsible for the

movement’s name, The Painter’s Studio was rejected by the Exposition Universelle of 1855

• In response Courbet opens his own exhibition, "Le Realisme” or “Exhibition of Realism” in his Pavilion of Realism.– Visitors attended Courbet’s

pavilion out of curiosity more than anything else.

– While the public rejected the work, it did solidify his place amongst avant-garde artists.

– Courbet became inspiration for the younger generation including Édouard Manet and the Impressionists.

Gustave Courbet, The Painter‘s Studio: A real allegory summing up seven years of my artistic and moral

life, 1855. Oil on canvas, 11’ 10 ¼ x 19‘ 7 ½ “. Musée d'Orsay, Paris.

Becoming ModernRealism (1840-late 19th century)• The Painter’s Studio is an

allegory of the artist’s life as a painter.

• Situated in the center is the artist, flanked by a nude model and young child.

• Surrounding him are friends and supporters (to the right) and the opposition (to the left).– These people are identifiable. To

identify these people see Gustave Courbet, The Artist’s Studio.

• Photography’s influence is also evident as Courbet, and many other artists, begin to crop their paintings in ways reminiscent of photography.

Gustave Courbet, The Painter‘s Studio: A real allegory summing up seven years of my artistic and moral

life, 1855. Oil on canvas, 11’ 10 ¼ x 19‘ 7 ½ “. Musée d'Orsay, Paris.

Schools of Modern Art

• A Burial at Ornans captures Courbet’s Realism in its rejection of illusionistic depth, lack of formal composition, and radically new subject matter.

• Its use of everyday people and events as its subject matter.

• Its dramatic scale– Traditionally, large scale

canvases were reserved for history painting.

Gustave Courbet, A Burial at Ornans, 1849-1850. Oil on canvas, 123.6” x 261”, Musee

d'Orsay, Paris. Exhibited at the 1850–1851 Paris Salon created an "explosive reaction" and

brought Courbet instant fame.

Realism (1840-late 19th century)

Schools of Modern ArtCharacteristics of Realist paintings include:

• Commitment to verisimilitude (the appearance of truth in painting).

• Rendering of the everyday (person, experience).• Rejection of the theatrical, dramatic, or ceremonial.• A replacement of convention and the grandiose for the

commonplace.• Rejection of the ideal for the familiar.• Rejection of universal truths.• Debate with conventional aesthetics.

“The Painter of Modern Life”

• Written in 1860 by French poet Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867), “The Painter of Modern Life” summarizes the new role of the artist.

• Although the poet did not know the painter Édouard Manet (1832-1883) while writing the article, the two became close friends and Manet representative of Baudelaire’s “painter of modern life.”

• Manet painted in a style all his own oscillating between Realism and Impressionism (he does not belong specifically in any one category, he painted in both styles)

Édouard Manet, Autoportrait à la palette (Self-Portrait with Palette), 1878/1879.

Oil on canvas, 33” × 26”. Private Collection, Greenwich, Connecticut.

Becoming Modern• Considered by many to be the first modern

painter, Manet’s paintings became watershed moments in the history of art and inspired generations of avant-garde artists.

• His Déjeuner sur l’herbe, introduced to the public at the Salon des Refusés in 1863.– The Salon des Refusés, or “salon of the

refused” was an exhibition of works rejected by the Paris Salon.

– After artists protested the 3,000 paintings rejected by the Salon, Emperor Napolean III ordered the works to be displayed in the Salon des Refusés.

– Even though the official Salon rejected these works, the attention established the “rejected” artists as the leaders of modern art’s avant-garde.

Édouard Manet, Déjeuner sur l’herbe (Luncheon on the Grass), 1863. Oil on

canvas, 6’9 1/8” x 8’ 10 ¼”. Musée d'Orsay, Paris.

Becoming Modern• Although he was considered

the leader of the avant-garde, Manet DID seek official acknowledgment from the Salon.

• Manet was a realist who sought to obtain recognition working within the conventions of the Salon-but in a modernized way.

• In Déjeuner sur l’herbe he quotes from Renaissance artists before him.

Édouard Manet, Déjeuner sur l’herbe (Luncheon on the Grass), 1863. Oil on

canvas, 6’9 1/8” x 8’ 10 ¼”. Musée d'Orsay, Paris.

Titian,(formerly thought to be by Giorgione), The Pastoral Symphony (Fête Champêtre), c. 1510. Oil on

canvas, approx. 3' 7" x 4' 6” . Musée du Louvre, Paris.

Marcantonio Raimondi, The Judgment of Paris, c. 1510-18. Engraving based on Raphael cartoon, 11 ½” x 17 3/16”.

Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Édouard Manet, Déjeuner sur l’herbe (Luncheon on the Grass), 1863. Oil on canvas; 6’9 1/8” x 8’ 10

¼”. Musée d'Orsay, Paris.

Becoming Modern

• Manet continued to scandalize Paris with with the exhibition of Olympia at the 1865 Salon.

• With this piece, Manet joined many artists before him in taking on the subject of the female nude. Édouard Manet,Olympia,1863-65. Oil on

canvas, 4’3” x 6’2 ¾”. Musée d'Orsay, Paris.

• The subject of the reclining female nude was first explored in 1510 by Renaissance master, Giorgione (1477/8 -1510).

• Upon completing the background of Sleeping Venus after the artist’s death, Titian (1488/90-1576), a student of Giorgione, created his own Venus and thus began a long history of the female nude depicted in a landscape.

Giorgione, Sleeping Venus, c. 1510. Oil on canvas, 42.5” x 68.9”. Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden

Titian, Venus of Urbino, 1538. Oil on canvas 47” x 65”. Uffizi, Florence.

• Titian’s Venus of Urbino takes Giorgione’s subject (the female nude) and domesticates her, brings her indoors.

• With Olympia in 1863, Manet joins the ranks of the many painters before him who have taken the female nude as subject.

Titian, Venus of Urbino, 1538. Oil on canvas 47” x 65”. Uffizi, Florence.

Giorgione, Sleeping Venus, c. 1510. Oil on canvas, 42.5” x 68.9”. Gemäldegalerie Alte

Meister, Dresden

Francisco Goya, The Nude Majas, 1792. Oil on canvas, 38.6” x 75.2”. Prado

Museum, Spain.

Édouard Manet,Olympia,1863-65. Oil on canvas, 4’3” x 6’2 ¾”. Musée

d'Orsay, Paris.

Becoming Modern• What offended the public was not

Olympia’s nudity.• It was her confrontational stare

implicating the audience, the viewer as client and voyeur.

• Manet also uses the objects within the painting to identify Olympia’s profession as a courtesan or prostitute.– It may not seem obvious to us today but

in the 19th century the signs included:• orchid in her hair• the replacing of the dog (a symbol of

fidelity) with a cat (representative of female anatomy and a cat-house or brothel)

• the bouquet of flowers (also disguised symbolism for female genitalia)

• the bracelet, the necklace, the Oriental shawl, and pearl earrings all signify wealth, opulence, and excess.

Édouard Manet,Olympia,1863-65. Oil on canvas, 4’3” x 6’2 ¾”. Musée d'Orsay,

Paris.

Becoming Modern• Manet’s Olympia however defied

traditional representations of the female nude.

• Manet uses these traditional subjects to challenge convention.

• Here, he modernizes the nude-he paints the portrait of a recognizable woman, Victorine Meurent, a painter and favorite model of Manet, and presents the nude in a much more obvious way.

Édouard Manet,Olympia,1863-65. Oil on canvas, 4’3” x 6’2 ¾”. Musée d'Orsay,

Paris.

Becoming Modern

• The in-your-face presentation of the subject was not all that offended the audience.– The positioning of Olympia’s hand over

her pubic area was unlike any nude before.

• The realism of the piece was what most offended its audience.

• Manet’s work is unapologetic in its handling of the subject matter, paint, and implication of the spectator.

Édouard Manet, (detail) Olympia,1863-65. Oil on canvas,

4’3” x 6’2 ¾”. Musée d'Orsay, Paris.

• In comparison to Giorgione and Titian, Manet’s Olympia is vulgar, she has agency, takes possession/control of her body and access to it.

• Unlike the Renaissance Venus, she is not docile but confrontational.

• The classical subject of a reclining Venus has been replaced by Manet with an unidealized, modern prostitute of Paris.

Giorgione, Sleeping Venus, c. 1510. Oil on canvas, 42.5” x 68.9”. Gemäldegalerie Alte

Meister, Dresden

Titian, Venus of Urbino, 1538. Oil on canvas 47” x 65”. Uffizi,

Florence.

Édouard Manet, (detail) Olympia,1863-65. Oil on

canvas, 4’3” x 6’2 ¾”. Musée d'Orsay, Paris.

• Reactions to Manet’s Olympia made headlines.

• Critics were certainly not shy about publishing their sentiments, as seen here in this caricature.

Newspaper caricature in response to Manet’s Olympia.

Becoming Modern• Stylistically, Manet was

criticized for his flattening of the picture plane, unflattering painting of the female form, and lack of illusionistic depth.– Manet uses contours to create

volume within the figure.– Olympia’s startlingly white

skin is a collection of angles pressed against the picture plane. Its flatness troublingly unsettling for even Courbet.

Édouard Manet,Olympia,1863-65. Oil on canvas, 4’3” x 6’2 ¾”. Musée d'Orsay,

Paris.

Outside Influences• Aside from photography, Japanese

prints represent the most prominent influence on 19th century painters.

• In 1854, Commodore Matthew Perry opens/forces Japanese ports open to West.

• Artists are attracted to the sharp angles, bold, snap-shot cropping, near-flat arrangement, and brilliant colors defined by contour line of Japanese artists.

• Emphasizes it is NOT pictorial truth but artistic integrity.

Andō Hiroshige, Moon Pine at Ueno from One Hundred Views of Famous Places in Edo, 1857. Color woodcut,

13 ¾” x 8 5/8”. The Brooklyn Museum, NY.

• Manet publishes his influences here in his portrait of Èmile Zola (1840-1902), the French writer.– Zola was a friend and supporter, his

tract on Manet is included in the portrait (on the desk).

– Zola wrote L’Evénement on the Salon of 1866, a vigorous defense of Manet’s work aligning the artist with the avant-garde dogma, “Art for art’s sake”.

• In the background of Zola’s library is Manet’s own Olympia, a detail of Bacchus by the Spanish Baroque painter Velázquez (1599-1660), and a Japanese print. Édouard Manet, Portrait of Èmile Zola, 1868.

Oil on canvas, 57 1/8” x 44 7/8” . Musée d'Orsay, Paris.

Becoming Modern• Manet’s later work, demonstrates

the uniqueness of his style.• Never solely dedicated to the Realist

style, nor Impressionism, Manet is best described as an enigmatic Realist.

• His Bar at the Folies Bergere demonstrates how the artist oscillates between the two schools combining subject matter and painterly style.

• His barmaid demonstrates the alienation that was symptomatic of modernity.

• His brushstrokes are evidence of the artist’s constant experimentation.

• His work would become primary inspiration for a younger generation of artists that would become known as the Impressionists.

Édouard Manet, The Bar at the Folies Bergere, 1882. Oil on canvas, 37.8” x 51.2”. Courtauld

Institute of Art, London

Schools of Modern Art: Impressionism

Impressionism (1860-1900)• An art movement which took its name

from one particular painting by painter Claude Monet (1840-1926), Impression: Sunrise of 1872.

• Born from the naturalism of the Realists, as well as an interest in the transitory experience of light and color on objects

• Impressionism did two distinct things to painting:– It elevated color to the status of subject

matter, liberating the artist's marks from previous craft constraints

– It inadvertently asserted painting's relationship to the flat surface.

• The ripple effects of this will be felt throughout modernism culminating with the Abstract Expressionists.

Claude Monet, Impression, soleil levant (Impression Sunrise), 1872. Oil on canvas, 17 ¾” x 21 ¾”. Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris.

Schools of Modern Art: Impressionism

Impressionism (1860-1900)• Inspired by the work of Eugène

Delacroix and Joseph Mallord William Turner, Impressionist painters favored free brush work over line and form.

• Like Realists before them, Impressionists were influenced by Japonism, in the form of Japanese art prints usually found on wrapping paper.

Joseph Mallord William Turner, The Slave Ship, 1840. Oil on

canvas 35 3/4 x 48 ¼”. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Eugène Delacroix, Liberty Leading the People, 1830. Oil on canvas,

128”x102.4”. Musée du Louvre, Paris

Realizing Modernity• Impressionists painted primarily

urban scenes.

Claude Monet, Boulevard des Capucines, 1873. Oil on canvas, 31 ¼”

x 23 ¼”. Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri.

Auguste Renoir, Moulin de la Galette, 1876. Oil on canvas, 51 ½” x 69”. Musée d'Orsay, Paris.

Modernism vs. Modernity

• modernity- refers to the social condition; the condition of post-industrial capitalist society

• modernism- primarily refers to the cultural expression of modernity and its form of social organization– the 100 year period of 1780 through 1880 has

been accepted by scholars as its beginning dates– many accept that modernism lasts until 1939 (the

outbreak of World War II)

Realizing Modernity• Haussmanization, as it

became known, took place 1853-1870 and modernized Paris.

• Under Emperor Napoleon III’s order, Haussman modernized Paris by widening its streets-displacing thousands who lived in the area.

• As Paris became the first modern city, its inhabitants and their leisure activities became central focus of Impressionist painters.

Gustave Caillebotte, Paris Street; Rainy Day, 1877. Oil on canvas, 83 ½” x 108 ¾”. The Art

Institute of Chicago

Emperor Napoleon III by Hipolyte Flandrin (Salon of 1863) with Plan of Paris – radical urban renewal designed by Baron Haussmann, 1853-1869.

Realizing Modernity

Realizing Modernity

Blvd. Haussman with Galeries Lafayette, one of

the first department stores in the birth ofcommodity culture.

Napoleon III and Baron Haussmann urban renewal program, Paris:1853-

1869.

(top) Destruction of Paris following the Franco-Prussian war, siege of Paris, and (bottom) the Commune 1871, Communards shot by firing squad of

French soldiers in the streets of Paris.

• Artists like Monet retreat from the Realists’ aim to represent their world as directly and objectively as possible.

• Aesthetic, personal, and social concerns lead to the development of new styles of painting.

• Impressionism develops as an alleviator to social upheaval as well as an aesthetic response to Realist, Romantic, and Neoclassical forerunners.

Schools of Modern ArtCharacteristics of Impressionist paintings include:

• Relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes of NO uniformity.• Colors are applied side by side with as little mixing as possible.• Layer upon layer of wet paint is added before allowing previous layers to dry.• Painted en plein air (in plain air, meaning outdoors in nature).• Painting occurs at night to achieve the shadowy effects of twilight. • Physical declaration of the pigment itself (inherited from the Romantic painters

(like Eugène Delacroix (1798-1863)), the heavy modeling impasto of Courbet, and overt gestures of Manet.

• Open composition.• Emphasizes accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities, studying the

changing of time, season, and weather.• Includes movement as an essential element of human perception and

experience, quite often through the introduction of unusual angles.• Focus on the “everyday” of the leisure class and ordinary subject matter

primarily of city/urban living.• Heavy influence of Japanese prints.

Realizing Modernity• Impressionist painters took the ballet, the opera,

the races, and urban leisure activity as their subject.

Edgar Degas, Ballet Rehearsal,1875. Gouache and Pastel on canvas, 21-

3/4" x 27”. The Frelinghuysen Collection, NY.

Edgar Degas, The Jockey, 1889. Pastel on paper, 12 ½” x 19 ¼”. Philadelphia Museum of

Fine Art, PA.

Realizing Modernity• The woman’s experience

of modernity was quite different from her male counterpart.

• French artist Berthe Morisot (1841-1895) and the American expatriate Mary Cassatt (1844-1926) were the dominant female painters of the Impressionist movement.

Berthe Morisot, Woman at her Toilette, c. 1875. Oil on canvas, 23” x 31 5/8”. The Art

Institute of Chicago.

Realizing Modernity

• Women did not enjoy the same independence as men in modern Paris.

• The opera was one of a few places where women had agency, the ability to participate in the public sphere.

Mary Cassatt, In the Loge, 1878. Oil on canvas, 32” x 26”. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

• Unlike their male counterparts, female Impressionists were limited in subject matter because of restrictions on travel, propriety and gender ideals, and access to the human form and education.

• As a result their subject matter tended to focus on the private sphere-women and children, women at the bath, or enjoying other acceptable “feminine” leisure activities.

Berthe Morisot, The Mother and Sister of the Artist, c.

1869/1870, oil on canvas39 ¾” x 32 3/16”. National Gallery of Art.

Realizing Modernity• By the mid-1880s, the Impressionist

artists began to re-evaluate their work and as a result, move in separate directions.

• The Impressionist artists exhibited together 8 times within the span of 1874 and 1886, the year of the last Impressionist Exhibition.

• Monet remained true to the visual experience but began to experiment with an anti-naturalistic subjectivity and pure abstraction.

• Interestingly, his final works anticipate the direction of modern art in the form of total abstraction sought by future artists including Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944) and the Abstract Expressionists (late 1940s and 1950s).

Claude Monet, Les Nuages (Clouds), 1916-1926. Oil on canvas, left panel of 3; each

panel 6’6 ¾” x 13’ 11 3/8”. Musée de l’Orangerie, Paris.

Early American Artists• Early American modern art has its roots in

Romanticism and Realism.• American artists of the 19th century

utilized art to define a uniquely American identity.

• Artists, including George Catlin (1796-1872), were intrigued by our country’s diverse population of people and our landscape.

• Catlin made what many criticize as no more than ethnographic studies of Native Americans, a group of peoples facing extinction due to aggressive government policies.

George Catlin, Buffalo Bull’s Back Fat, Head Chief, Blood Tribe, 1832. Oil on canvas, 29” x 24”. National

Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution,

Washington, DC.

The Hudson River School

• In the United States, the leading Romantic movement was the Hudson River School, a style characterized by dramatic landscape painting.

• Here, idealization of Romanticism flirts with aspects of scientific Realism to paint areas of the Hudson River Valley.

• Artists painted pristine landscapes of hope and promise infused with the sublime.

Thomas Cole, The Oxbow, 1836. Oil on canvas, 51 ½” x 76”. Metropolitan Museum

of Art, NY.

Early American Artists

• Philadelphia painter, Thomas Eakins (1844-1916) is known for his uncompromising Realism.

• Heavily influenced by Leonardo da Vinci, Eakins recovers many of the Renaissance master’s style.

Thomas Eakins, The Gross Clinic, 1875. Oil on canvas 8’x 6’6”. Philadelphia

Museum of Art, PA.

• Best known for his Gross Clinic of 1875, Eakins studied Rembrandt’s Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Tulp for his own painting of the American surgeon Dr. Gross.

Thomas Eakins, The Gross Clinic, 1875. Oil on canvas 8’x 6’6”. Philadelphia Museum of Art, PA.

Rembrandt, Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Tulp, 1632. oil on canvas, 85.2” × 66.7”. Mauritshuis, The Hague.

• Eakins uses light to highlight the doctor’s intellect and skill by focusing on his head and hands.

Early American Artists• African-American artists, including Henry

Ossawa Tanner (1859-1937) also depicted contemporary experience.

• By the late 19th century, many African- American artists had already achieved significant recognition at home and abroad.

• The Banjo Lesson, Tanner’s most famous work, addresses the stereotypes people of color faced in 19th century America.

• Often depicted in the role of entertainer, Tanner re-interprets “the black as minstrel” tradition for a thoughtful exchange between a grandfather and his grandson.

• The background can also be argued to anticipate the work of Color field artists of the mid-20th century in America.

Henry Ossawa Tanner, The Banjo Lesson, 1893. Oil on canvas, 49” x 35

½”. Hampton University, Virginia.

Early American Artists• The 1920s enjoyed the Harlem

Renaissance, a movement that broadcast, documented, and celebrated the lives of African- Americans.

• Photographers including James Van Der Zee (1886-1983) photographed the modern African-American living and working in the United States, particularly NYC’s Harlem.

• Van Der Zee captures African-Americans in a positive light; he depicts their everyday lives, their success, joy, failures, families, activities, etc. like none had before him.

James Van Der Zee, Portrait of Couple with Raccoon Coats & Stylist Car, 1932. Gelatin-

silver print, 8” x 10”. Image courtesy of Donna Musssenden VanDerZee. Dr. Kenneth

Montague/ The Wedge Collection.

Early American Artists• Artists like Albert Pinkham Ryder

(1847-1917) represent the Romantic tradition present in early American art through mid-20th century art.

• His radical experimentation with technique jeopardizes the integrity of his work today (evident here in the cracks present in the painting).

• Ryder’s work recalls the coloring of Rubens, the rhythm of Delacroix, and echoes the expression of German Expressionist painters-evidence of a continuous link between American modernists and their European counterparts.

Albert Pinkham Ryder, Moonlight Marine, c. 1890s. Oil and possibly wax on panel, 11 3/8” x 12”. Metropolitan

Museum of Art, NY.

Schools of Modern Art

Post-Impressionism• Faced with rapid change,

growing backlash against industrialization, and a conflict in ideologies artists renounce the Realist tradition in search of some new reality-one that embraces the inner world of the mind and its revelations and the outer world of physical phenomenon. Paul Cézanne, Battle of Love, 1880. Oil on

canvas 14 7/8” x 18 ¼”. National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC.

Schools of Modern Art

• Term coined by the British artist and art critic Roger Fry in 1910 to describe the development of French art since Manet.

• Fry applied the term while organizing the 1910 exhibition “Manet and the Post-Impressionists” Poster of the 1889 Exhibition of Paintings by

the Impressionist and Synthetist Group, at Café des Arts, known as the The Volpini

Exhibition, 1889.

Post-Impressionism (1880s-1920)

Schools of Modern ArtPost-Impressionism• Post-Impressionism is an

umbrella term for those artists practicing art from the early 1880s until the 1920s.

• Some of modernism’s most prominent artists including Paul Cézanne (1839-1906), Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890), and Georges Pierre Seurat (1859-1891) were Post-Impressionist.

Vincent Van Gogh, Potato Eaters, 1885. Oil on canvas, 32.3” x 44.9”. Van Gogh Museum,

Amsterdam.

Schools of Modern Art

Post-Impressionism• Most often associated with 5 painters who were

influenced by Impressionism:– Paul Cézanne(1839-1906)– Paul Gauguin (1848-1903)– Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890)– Georges Pierre Seurat (1859-1891)– Henri Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901)

• These artists were contemporaries of the Impressionists but chose NOT to work in the Impressionist style.

Schools of Modern Art

Post-Impressionism• Post-Impressionists

rejected the restrictions of Impressionism yet maintained the use of vivid color, thick application of paint, noticeable application of pigment (distinctive brushstrokes), and contemporary subject matter.

Georges Seurat, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte,

1884-86. Oil on canvas, 6’9 ½” x 10’ 1 ¼”. The Art Institute of Chicago.

Schools of Modern ArtPost-Impressionism• Seurat was an academically

trained artist, classical enthusiast, and fan of artists including Poussin and Ingres.

• He took a scientific approach to painting studying color theory and the mechanics of vision.

• This led to the development of his unique application of the paint to canvas in the form of dots, or points giving his style the title of Pointilism (also known as Neo-Impressionism).

Georges Seurat, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte,

1884-86. Oil on canvas, 6’9 ½” x 10’ 1 ¼”. The Art Institute of Chicago.

Schools of Modern Art

Post-Impressionism• Post-Impressionists

accentuated the geometric, abstracted and exaggerated form for expressionist purpose, and introduced the arbitrariness of color.

Paul Cézanne, The Basket of Apples, c. 1893. Oil on canvas, 24 3/8” x 31”. The Art

Institute of Chicago.

Schools of Modern Art

Post-Impressionism• Post-Impressionists,

unlike the Impressionists, were not afraid to paint the negative aspects of modernity and the seedy side of modern life.

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, At the Moulin Rouge, 1892. Oil on canvas, 48.5” x 55.5”. The Art

Institute of Chicago.Self-portrait of the artist

Schools of Modern Art

Post-Impressionism• Post-Impressionist

artists sought an escape from modernity.

• Some, like Gauguin, attempt to find this utopia in other lands.

Paul Gauguin, Nevermore, 1897. Oil on canvas, 23 7/8” x 45 5/8”. Courtauld Gallery, London.

Schools of Modern ArtPost-Impressionism• Artist Paul Cézanne (1839-1906) is

considered by many to be the father of 20th century experimentation.

• Cézanne sought through his work to paint his ideas about the nature of art.

• He studied the works of artists Delacroix and Poussin at the Louvre in Paris.

• His unique and unusual blending of emotion and logic precedes and gives credence to Expressionism and laid the foundation for a radically new art in the 20th century.

Paul Cézanne, Battle of Love, 1880. Oil on canvas 14 7/8” x 18 ¼”. National Gallery of

Art, Washington, DC.

• Cézanne’s Battle of Love is an adaptation of Manet’s 1863, Déjeuner sur l’herbe .

Paul Cézanne, Battle of Love, 1880. Oil on canvas 14 7/8” x 18 ¼”. National

Gallery of Art, Washington, DC.

Édouard Manet, Déjeuner sur l’herbe (Luncheon on the Grass), 1863. Oil on canvas; 6’9 1/8” x 8’ 10 ¼”. Musée d'Orsay, Paris.

Schools of Modern ArtPost-Impressionism• Cézanne was a vocal critic of

Impressionism.• Both Matisse and Picasso

considered Cézanne to be, “the father of us all”.

• Cézanne’s work is a direct bridge from Impressionism to Cubism- considered by most to be the first artistic style of the 20th century.

• He argued Impressionism ignored aspects of good painting important since the Renaissance.

• He sought the reality of the painting.

Paul Cézanne, Still Life with Basket of Apples, c. 1893. Oil on canvas, 24 3/8” x 31”. Art Institute of

Chicago.

Schools of Modern ArtPost-Impressionism• Cézanne did have an

Impressionist period from 1870-1878, even exhibiting in the first (1874) and third Impressionist shows (1877).

• Even then, Cézanne’s paintings showed evidence of his intense study of his subjects from nature.– Impressionists painted

outdoors, Post-Impressionists generally brought their canvases indoors and painted from memory.

Paul Cézanne, Jas de Bouffan (The Pond), 1876. Oil on canvas, 18.1”x 22.2”. The Hermitage Museum, St.

Petersburg.

Schools of Modern Art

Post-Impressionism• To define and make visual

his theories on art, Cézanne focused on a fixed mix of subjects:– Bathers– The Bay of Marseilles– Still Lifes (particularly the

apple) – Mont Sainte-Victoire

Paul Cézanne, The Bay of Marseilles, Seen from L'Estaque, ca. 1885. Oil in

canvas. 31 1/2 x 39 5/8”. Art Institute of Chicago.

Schools of Modern ArtPost-Impressionism• The various views of Marseilles demonstrate

the revolutionary evolution in his personal style that would give birth to abstraction.

• Here, his characteristic brushstrokes begin to make an appearance.

• Cézanne would become known for the planes of color and small brushstrokes used to build up the complex surface of the canvas.

• Like others before him, he denies the illusive recession of depth by cutting off the scene at the sides.

• The overwhelming area of blue, which would become inspiration for modern and contemporary artists alike, dominates the scene over the natural colors of the houses.

Paul Cézanne, The Bay of Marseilles, Seen from L'Estaque, ca. 1885. Oil in canvas. 31 1/2 x 39 5/8”. Art Institute

of Chicago.

Schools of Modern Art

Post-Impressionism• Cézanne was

especially intrigued by the apple-it was a three dimensional form that was difficult to control and represent as a distinct object within an arrangement of forms.

Paul Cézanne, Still Life with Basket of Apples, c. 1893. Oil on canvas, 24 3/8” x 31”. Art Institute of

Chicago.

Schools of Modern ArtPost-Impressionism• Cézanne carefully arranged his still lifes

to create a challenging and dynamic composition.– Each object was strategically placed

to create relationships between the different elements.

• Each form was modulated with his iconic small, flat brushstrokes; his shapes distorted to order, and contours loosened to address the spatial tension of the arrangement.

• He would often tilt the table, bottles, bowls, etc. to unify color areas-this allows him to concentrate on the relationships and tensions between objects represented.

Paul Cézanne, Still Life, Drapery, Pitcher, and Fruit Bowl, 1893–1894. Oil on canvas, 23.2” ×

28.5”. Whitney Museum of American Art, NYC.

Schools of Modern ArtPost-Impressionism• The 1890s witnessed Cézanne’s

brushstrokes increase in size and abstraction.

• Each brushstroke dances across the canvas independently, yet harmoniously.

• His work grew more expressive, his contours broken.

• The artist’s hand is increasingly present in process.

Paul Cézanne, Mont Sainte-Victoire Seen from Les Lauves, 1902-1906. Oil on canvas, 25 ½” x

32”. Private collection.

Schools of Modern ArtPost-Impressionism• Left unfinished, this piece

was the conclusion of the artist’s experimentation with a subject that occupied him for some 30 years.

• His Bathers, painted in multiple varieties, were painted from the imagination and became example for his younger contemporaries including the Symbolist painters.

Paul Cézanne, Large Bathers, 1906. Oil on canvas 82 7/8” x 98 ¾” . Philadelphia Museum

of Art.

Schools of Modern ArtSymbolism (late 19th century)• Artists including Gustave

Moreau (1826-1898), Pierre Puvis de Chavannes (1824-1898), and Odilon Redon (1840-1916) were associated with a smaller Post-Impressionist movement called, Symbolism.

• Symbolism was an exclusive movement, its artists associated with a very limited circle, read specific authors, and had very different ideas about art. Puvis de Chavannes, Summer, 1891. Oil on

canvas, 4’11” x 7’7 ½”. Cleveland Museum of Art.

Schools of Modern ArtSymbolism (late 19th century)• Symbolism is directly

influenced by Romanticism; it is a direct response to Art for Art’s Sake.

• Symbolists favored the ideal over the real, symbol over sight, and conception over perception.

• They sought a balance between mind and spirit, thought and emotion.

Henri Fantin-Latour, Homage to Delacroix, 1864. Oil on canvas, 63”x 98.4”. Musée d'Orsay, Paris.

Schools of Modern ArtSymbolism (late 19th century)• Symbolism was an

interdisciplinary movement with an origin in poetry and literature.

• In literature, the movement was founded by author Charles Baudelaire whose Les Fleurs du mal (The Flowers of Evil, 1857) was a heavily influential inspiration to visual artists.

• Symbolists had no vested need to influence contemporary art, politics, or social policy.

• Symbolist artists enjoyed free access to the imagination ad artistic license.

Henri Fantin-Latour, Homage to Delacroix, 1864. Oil on canvas, 63”x 98.4”. Musée

d'Orsay, Paris.

Delacroix

Schools of Modern ArtSymbolism (late 19th century)• High point of French Symbolism

1874-1880.• Declared a movement 1866.• Look to musicians, poets, and

writers for inspiration.• Reaction to Darwin’s evolution (as

early as 1858) as well as Realism, Impressionism, and Positivism.

• Elite group of artists.• Stresses subconscious and mystical,

feelings and emotion.• Interest in the mind and

subconscious before Freud.• Influential on Art Nouveau artists.

Odilon Redon, Roger and Angelica, 1910. Pastel on paper on canvas, 36 ½” x 28 ¾”.

Museum of Modern Art, NYC.

Schools of Modern ArtSymbolism (late 19th century)• Symbolists searched for an ultimate

reality.• They believed art should come from

the emotions and inner spirit and NOT the empirical.

• The inner idea, symbolism, and the dream were most important.– Around the time Symbolists are

exploring the dream, Freud is beginning his work on dreams and the unconscious.

• As is evident here with Moreau’s The Apparition, Symbolists works were often very enigmatic -at once vaguely familiar but not fully explainable.

Gustave Moreau, The Apparition, c. 1876. Oil on canvas; 21 ¼” x 171/2”.

Louvre, Paris

Schools of Modern Art

Symbolism (late 19th century)• Academically trained, Moreau becomes

one of the older members to represent Symbolism and a model to the younger generation of artists.

• His work exemplifies the mal-du-siècle (melancholic mentality or soul sickness experienced at the end of the century and often expressed in literature and painting that focuses on the decadent and morose).

Gustave Moreau, The Apparition c. 1876. Oil on canvas; 21 ¼” x

171/2“. Louvre, Paris

Schools of Modern ArtSymbolism (late 19th century)• Stylistically, Moreau’s work is

exceptionally rendered.• The artist uses fine line, meticulous

draftsmanship, and compulsive detail.• His colors are highly decorative jewel

tones rich in texture.• The subject matter is typical of his

generation but uniquely his own.• Moreau’s presents the biblical story of

Salome’s dance in a new and imaginative way.– The femme fatale and New Woman of Paris

was often underlying subject matter of Symbolist painting.

Gustave Moreau, The Apparition c. 1876. Oil on canvas; 21 ¼” x

171/2“. Louvre, Paris

Schools of Modern ArtSymbolism (late 19th century)• One of Symbolism’s earliest

advocates was Odilon Redon (1840-1916).

• Known as “prince of mysterious dreams”.

• Argued Impressionism lacked the ambiguity he desired in art.

• Drawn to the work of Goya and earlier Renaissance artists Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528) and Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669).

• Close to Symbolist poets even dedicated lithographs to Edgar Allan Poe.

Odilon Redon, Roger and Angelica, 1910. Pastel on paper on canvas, 36 ½” x 28 ¾”.

Museum of Modern Art, NYC.

Schools of Modern ArtPost-Impressionism• Post-Impressionist artist, Paul Gauguin

was closely associated with the Symbolists.

• He was known for his experimental use of color.

• His work was particularly influential on artists Henri Matisse (1869-1954) and Pablo Picasso (1881-1973).

• His style evolved from interests in folk art, Japanese prints, and Cloisonnism. – His Yellow Christ is a premiere

example of the cloisonné style (a style of painting with bold and flat forms separated by dark contours). Paul Gauguin, The Yellow Christ (Le Christ

jaune), 1889. Oil on canvas, 36.3” x28.7”. Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY.

Schools of Modern ArtPost-Impressionism• Gauguin’s work practices

synthetism (the fusion of subject and idea with color and form).

• The scene painted is anti-Realist.• Gauguin, and many other Post-

Impressionists, seek an escape from the industrialization an urbanization of modern Paris.

• Artists take advantage of colonization and Christianizing efforts to explore pre-industrialized society.– Escapism/attempt to free self from

corruption of sophistication of modern world.

• Paintings convey immediacy and authenticity of the imagination.

Paul Gauguin, Vision after the Sermon, or Jacob Wrestling with the Angel, 1888. Oil on canvas, 28 ¾” x 36 ¼”. National Gallery of

Scotland.

Schools of Modern ArtPost-Impressionism• Gauguin rejects the

traditionalism of Puvis de Chavannes and Moreau and the optical naturalism of Impressionism.

• “Synthesis of form and color derived from the observation of the dominant element”.

• Uses color arbitrarily rather than to describe an object visually, privileges the creative act, considers painting an abstraction.

• Heavy influence on Nabis Group and Fauves.

Paul Gauguin, The Spirit of the Dead keeps Watch, 1892. Oil on canvas, 28.5” × 36.38”.

Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY.

Schools of Modern Art

Post-Impressionism• Considered one of the fathers

of 20th century modernism, van Gogh is known for his raw emotional content, brutal honesty, and experimentally bold use of color.

• Like his friend, Gauguin, he is credited for paving the way for Expressionist ad Fauve artists.

Vincent van Gogh, Starry Night, 1889. Oil on canvas, 29” x 36 ¼”. Museum of

Modern Art, NY.

Schools of Modern Art

Post-Impressionism• Considered a Post-

Impressionist, his work drew influence from the Impressionist color palette, causing him to develop a deep love of and emphasis on color.

• He used color to communicate emotion in his work.

• His Night Café is a prime example.

Vincent van Gogh, The Night Café, 1888. Oil on canvas, 29” x 36 ¼”. Yale University Art Gallery,

CT

Schools of Modern Art

Post-Impressionism• “I have tried to express the terrible

passions of humanity by means of red and green.”

-van Gogh– Van Gogh uses acidic colors and

incorrect perspective to create a claustrophobic nightmare and frightening experience for the viewer.

– His use of perspective anticipates the work of Surrealist artists of the 20th century.

Vincent van Gogh, The Night Café, 1888. Oil on canvas, 29” x 36 ¼”. Yale

University Art Gallery, CT

Schools of Modern Art

Post-Impressionism• Considered his best

known work, Starry Night displays van Gogh’s acknowledgement and respect for his Dutch roots.

• Van Gogh never abandons the landscape and carries on the Netherlandish tradition of portraiture with his series of self-portraits. Vincent van Gogh, Starry Night,

1889. Oil on canvas, 29” x 36 ¼”. Museum of Modern Art, NY.

Vincent van Gogh, Self-Portrait, 1888. Oil on

canvas, 29” x 36 ¼”. Harvard University Art

Museum, MA.

Schools of Modern ArtPost-Impressionism• Along with Gauguin and van Gogh, Henri

Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901) is considered an important link between the 19th century avant-garde and early 20th century greats including Edvard Munch, Henri Matisse, and Pablo Picasso.

• His prints won him great fame in the 1890s making his work synonymous with turn-of-the-century Paris.

• Lautrec captured the dirtier side of Paris; its nighttime activities and lives of the less-than-savory characters of the night.

• His posters elevated graphic design within the fine arts.

Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, Moulin Rouge-La Goulue, 1891. Color

lithograph, 6’ 3 ¼” x 4’. Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

Schools of Modern Art

• The rejection of restrictions of Impressionism. • Continued and exaggerated use of vivid color.• Thick application of paint.• Noticeable application of pigment (distinctive and

personalized brushstrokes).• Contemporary subject matter.• Accentuation of geometric form for expressionist

purpose.• Abstracted form.• Arbitrariness of color.

Characteristics of Post-Impressionist paintings include: