Later Europe & Colonial Americas 4.1

Later Europe and the Americas

1750-1980 Century

TOPIC 4.1 Interactions Within and Across Cultures in Later European and American Art

From the mid-1700s to 1980 CE, Europe and the Americas experienced rapid change and innovation. Art existed in the context of dramatic events.

This included:

• Industrialization
• Urbanization
• Economic upheaval
• Migration
• War
• The formation of countries and governments
• Women’s and civil rights’ movements

 The Enlightenment was a European intellectual movement. It was based on the celebration of reason. This helped to understand the universe. Revolutionary developments in the arts, philosophy and politics occurred.

Scientific inquiry and empirical evidence were promoted to reveal and understand the physical world. Belief in knowledge and progress led to revolutions and a new emphasis on human rights.

Romanticism focused on emotion and individualism, while reviving medievalism. It offered a critique of

Enlightenment principles and industrialization.

 A Proliferation of Art

Artists assumed new roles in society. Styles of art proliferated and often gave rise to artistic movements.

Art and architecture exhibited a diversity of styles, forming an array of “isms.” Diverse artists with a common dedication to innovation came to be discussed as the avant-garde.

Subdivisions include:

• Neoclassicism
• Romanticism
• Realism
• Impressionism
• Post-impressionism
• Symbolism
• Expressionism
• Cubism
• Constructivism
• Abstraction
• Surrealism
• Abstract expressionism
• Pop art
• Performance art
• Earth and environmental art

Many of these categories fall under the general heading of Modernism.

The Influence of Philosophy on Art Making

The philosophies of Marx and Darwin affected worldviews, followed by the works of Freud and Einstein.  Later, postmodern theory influenced art making and the study of art.

An Architectural Revival

Architecture witnessed a series of revival styles, including:

• Classical
• Gothic
• Renaissance
• Baroque

(4) 107. La Grande Odalisque.

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres. French. 1814. Neoclassical/ Romanticism

Learning Objective: 19^th century. Neoclassical/Romantic painting

Themes:

Female nude
Sexuality
Cross-cultural
Ideal woman
West vs Nonwest
Stylized bodies
Exotic

Museum: Louvre

La Grande Odalisque painted by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, is an oil on canvas work measuring 2 feet 9 inches by 5 feet 5 inches. It encompasses elements of both Neoclassical/ Romanticism.

Neoclassical Elements

 La Grande Odalisque  shows a glossy, enamel-like crispness, with a licked finish and no visible brushwork. This is an influence from David. It is as if someone has sucked all the air out of the image and it is full of precision.

The woman is arranged parallel to the picture plane. She is well-lit and pushed forward. There is Interest in the line. We can follow the line made by the curve of her back.

Idealization and stylization are part of the work. She was painted “ideal” and sexual in Ingres’ mind, but this has required an unnatural elongation and stylization of her back. He claimed while painting that “he couldn’t stop himself” with her back. In fact, one may argue there are extra vertebrae in her back.  He believed a woman’s back was the most sensual part of the body. Additionally, placed her left leg in an impossible position, all to achieve a languidness and sense of curvature.  This reminds us of Mannerist elongation. Mannerism was Ingres’ favorite style.

Compositionally, she is very large and touches nearly all four edges. This is a voluptuous and sensuous expression of the body. It was idealized to be erotic.

Color Evoking Emotion

She is icy, aloof, and has a distant look in her eye.  Use of blues makes the image cool with an association with the Middle East (lapis lazuli). Only warm spots are on her back and fan.

A Romantic Function

This work was commissioned by Caroline Murat, Napoleon’s sister, and Queen of Naples. She was interested in the Middle East, due to Naples’ trade connections with that area. The painting was an experiment with new Romantic ideas using exoticism and eroticism.

It examines a reclining female nude in a new context that is no longer mythological, but real and exotic. The work also celebrates French imperialism, while objectifying the fetishize of the Orient. The French had a sexual and cultural fascination with this region.

The Scandal

This work was shown in the Salon of 1819, and it caused a scandal. Viewers were surprised by the frank gaze and sensuality of the nude. This exotic context was new and shocking. There was no way to connect this woman to Venus. Also, the elongation of the body struck viewers as odd.

Content: Romantic

 Romantic content has P.I.N.E

• P is for Past
• I is for Irrationality/Insanity
• N is for Nature,
• E is for Erotic/Exotic

Life in a Harem

This work depicts an odalisque. This is a woman in a harem, as a concubine, companion, and source of entertainment. Ingres had never been in a harem. This was a western/French fantasy of what a harem would be.

Historically, this is completely inaccurate. The woman in the portrait is a white-washed version of an Oriental woman.

The Reclining Female Nude

This work plays into the tradition of the reclining female nude—going back to Titian. The previous nudes were all said to be Venus, or they could at least be interpreted as Venus.

With Ingres’ La Grande Odalisque, there is no way to interpret her as a Venus – she is a harem girl. This is not in a classical setting. This is exotic and Oriental which at time was commonly used to refer to Near East and North Africa, not the Far East. Look at the peacock fan, turban, enormous pearls and hookah, a pipe for opium.

Her body is shocking to the viewer. This is not Venus but a girl whose occupation is sex. She isn’t an ideal, imaginary goddess, but she is a real woman! She gazes directly at us. Her body is bizarrely elongated, seemingly rejecting all classical idealization.

Her body is made acceptable to French culture for two reasons. Ingres turns her over and away from the viewer. She is not as pornographic as she could have been. Also, she is geographically distant not a European woman. This is what makes her exotic instead of scandalous.

Orientalism

Orientalism was an interest in the Orient (Middle East and Asia) because of colonialism. France was a huge colonial power. The interest in non-western cultures was growing. This fascination with other cultures was paired with the belief that the French were civilized and superior.

 About Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (1780-1864)  was a student of David. He absorbed his teacher’s Neoclassical vision but reinterpreted it. Ingres won the Prix de Rome and lived in Italy from 1806 – 24. In 1814, he traveled to Naples where he was employed by Caroline Murat, Queen of Naples, and Napoleon’s sister. Naples, because of its proximity to the Middle East and its connections with trade, was interested in Orientalism and exoticism.

The artist returned to serve as the French Academy’s director, in Rome, from 1835 – 1841

When Ingres painted La Grande Odalisque, he had started to reject neoclassical subject matter as too stuffy, dull, and arrogant in its moral instruction.

 

(4) 100. A Philosopher Giving a Lecture at the Orrery.

 Joseph Wright of Derby. English. 1763-1765. 18^th century (Enlightenment).

Learning Objective: 18^th century Enlightenment painting

Themes:

Science
Light
Didactic

Museum: Derby Museum and Art Gallery

A Philosopher Giving a Lecture at the Orrery by artist Joseph Wright of Derby, is an oil on canvas large work measuring 4 feet 10 inches by six feet eight inches. We would expect to see a history painting in this size, but here the artist is trying to aggrandize the sitters.

Tenebrism is used for dramatic effect, although it is not religious in content. There is dramatic lighting and scale in a closely packed space, with a strong internal light source

Figures are painted with extreme realism. (He was criticized for painting people too realistically!) The figures are pushed forward on a picture plane and tightly packed. The philosopher in the middle is obvious, in the center, with the brightest lighting and wearing deep red. Often, conversation portraits (images of people sitting around together) were popular and were formally arranged. Wright of Derby was famous for his natural and informal arrangements.

Function

This work promotes a belief in science. It is an empirical observation grounded in science and reason that could best advance society. This is still about conversion (light symbolizes conversion) and transformation, but rather unlike Calling of St. Matthew where the conversion is to religion, we are witnessing a conversion to science.

This makes the argument that art and science go together. Artwork shows the power of science. Rachel Ruysch’s work did the same.

The artist took a history painting (large, noble, aggrandizing method) and applied it to a composition with a contemporary secular subject.

Content

 A Philosopher Giving a Lecture at the Orrery, depicts the moment of epiphany or transformation. Here people are witnessing the truth of science. The message is that science is for everyone – look at the wide variety of people who witness this event.

Notice all the figures are seated in a circle around the orrery which emits a central light source.

• All faces represent different phases of the moon – clever reference to the Lunar Society.
• Two young boys gaze over the edge.
• A teenage girl rests on the machine, concentrating.
• A young man shields his eyes.
• A woman stares intently.
• A standing man takes notes.
• The philosopher stands over the orrery (likely based on Sir Isaac Newton’s portrait – who had died in 1727). Notice the formal devices that make him stand out to us.
• Bookshelves in the back indicates he is very educated.
• An orrery is a mechanical model of the solar system
  • A miniature clockwork planetarium.
  • Each planet with its moons is a sphere attached to an arm that rotates around the sun when cranked by hand.
  • Can simulate eclipses and illustrate the rotation of the planets.

Enlightenment

Enlightenment was an 18^th century philosophical movement that shifted Europe away from traditional religious models and moved towards an empirical, scientific approach.

• Science > religion
• Knowledge is for everyone, and knowledge should be democratic.

About the Artist

English painter Joseph Wright of Derby (1734 – 1829) added the region he was born to his professional name, because there was another painter named Joseph Wright, who also lived close by.

Joseph Wright of Derby became the unofficial painter of the Enlightenment. He was known for depicting scientists and philosophers in ways previously reserved for Biblical heroes and Greek gods. The artist belonged to a scientific group called the Lunar Society of Birmingham. This was an informal group that met to talk about scientific topics of the day (Erasmus Darwin – grandfather of Charles Darwin was a member of this group).

 

(4) 101. The Swing.

 Jean-Honoré Fragonard. 1767. Rococo.

Learning Objective: 18^th century Rococo painting

Themes:

Sexuality
Male-female relationships
Nature
Iconography
Status

Museum: Wallace Collection, London

The Swing, artist Jean-Honoré Fragonard’s much beloved oil on canvas painting measures 2 feet 8 inches by 2 feet.

 The work shows multiple characteristics of Rococo style.

• Scenes of love
• Aristocrats at play (fête galante)
• Pastels
• Decorative and extravagant scenes
• Delicate figures
• Soft feathery brushstrokes (no crisp clarity like Caravaggio)
• Curving lines
• Diagonal compositions
• Female figure in the middle is the emphasis (achieved through contrast)
  • The frilly luxury and pastel color of her dress push her forward
• Atmospheric perspective

Function

 In 1767 a painter named Doyen was approached by an unknown gentleman who asked the artist if he would come to meet him at his “pleasure house”. These were spaces for men to be with their mistresses. Upon arrival, the gentleman asked Doyen if he would paint his mistress on a swing that a bishop would push. The gentleman would be placed in such a way that he would be able to see up the skirt of his mistress.

Doyen declined by saying “well…thank you for thinking of me but I don’t really paint things like this. However, I know someone who does, and his name is Fragonard.”

This painting was the result!

It has been speculated that the patron may have been Baron de Saint-Julien.

Fun and Frivolity

This work celebrates the leisure of the upper class. It was painted to be erotically tantalizing. It was meant to represent a game. Gardens are for play. The couple is playing a game. We are playing the game by interpreting the painting.

Upon Closer Inspection

There is a lot going on in this work, which makes it an intrigue painting. A scene of scandal, playfulness, and flirtation, suggests a secret love affair. The patron/lover in the lower left is looking up the skirt at the young lady who swings while a Bishop pushes her. This could be a possible comment on the corruption of the church.

The garden is fertile, abundant, growing out of control.  This is based on an English garden, with controlled and constructed outdoor spaces. It has the appearance of being wild and natural, despite still being planned and arranged. Here the figures seem to be in a private park, hidden away.

Iconographic interpretation

Swinging is an association with fickleness and female inconstancy. It is in reference to the act of lovemaking, but swinging is also a reference to a cheating lover.

The barking dog might be alluding us to the fact that the scene should be quiet and calm.  The dog does not symbolize fidelity here, rather impatience, carnal desire, animalistic urges, and arousal.

The pink roses are a symbol of female genitalia, as is the pink dress and shape of the opening.

Shoe coming off is a common indication of lost virginity and one who has succumbed to passion.

Man’s hat off at the end of a long slim arm, is a symbol of an erection.

The man is embedded in a rose bush as a symbol of sex.

Rake on the ground is similar to a crass term for male genitalia in French.

The shushing cupid is based on a statue that was in Madame de Pompadour’s home (a famous woman known for love) and heightens the illicit nature of the scene.

Dolphins are a reference to Venus because she was pulled to the shore by dolphins. Putti is Cupid’s friends sitting on top of the dolphin.

The garden is fertile, abundant, and wild with unbridled passion.

Leisure of the French Aristocracy

Indulgences that characterized the French aristocracy before the Revolution included the pursuit of pleasure, and playfulness. Games were very popular. This calls attention to the amount of leisure time they had. Games were also symbols of the poor. It was trendy to “play” poor and simple, like farm girls and peasant boys.

The strict rules of conduct were loosened in these societal situations. Additionally, by participating in these activities, aristocrats believed they received health benefits or relaxation, while stimulating both their senses and intellect. This combated boredom!

Public parks and private gardens were increasingly popular. These were places where flirtatious physical interactions were allowed.

Aristocrats, Status and Art

Artistic renderings of aristocrats playing and being frivolous were very popular. Showcasing such works was a sign of status. By definition, aristocrats did not have jobs. They existed to express their status.

There was also a new element of freedom. After the French Revolution and the death of Louis XIV the aristocrats who had previously lived in the rigid ceremonial world of the king, were now free to celebrate themselves.

 

(4) 102. Monticello. 

Thomas Jefferson. American. American Neoclassicism.

 Learning Objective: 18^th century American Neoclassical architecture

Themes:

Appropriation
Status
Private
Domestic
Politics
Propaganda
Didactic

Monticello created by Thomas Jefferson is a structure crafted with brick, glass, stone, and wood. It is in Virginia, US. The floor plan is not very Neoclassical. Jefferson planned this part before he was influenced by Neoclassicism, but by then it had already been built.

Monticello was inspired by Palladian classicism (Villa Rotunda) and Pantheon.

The west garden façade view has:

• Symmetrical three-story brick home, balanced
• Doric entablature; two-column extended portico; four Doric columns wide
• Triangular pediment decorated by a semi-circular window
• Octagonal drum and shallow dome
• Wooden balustrade that circles roofline
• Brick building, stucco applied to give the look of marble

Made from Scratch

Jefferson chose to make his own bricks from the clay on his land. He used local timber, stone, and locally made nails. This saved him a great deal of money— as did the slave labor!

Symmetrical Interior Design

The numerous, tall French doors and windows allow for circulation in humid Virginia.

Jefferson was obsessed with saving space. There is a very narrow spiral staircase. Beds are in alcoves or in walls.

As he disliked dark and cold corners, he preferred a nice octagonal room.

Function

This was both a domestic space and a private space, as it was a plantation home.  It was built for comfort, entertainment and personal style. These were new ideas. The fact that architecture could display these things was a new and very modern idea in the 18^th century.

Picking A Style

Jefferson’s choice was sure to display religious and political ideas. He needed to choose carefully and avoid certain styles.

French Baroque would have connections to Louis XIV and absolutism. Jefferson felt English Baroque was too British for an American audience.  Italian Baroque was considered too Catholic and religious, and Jefferson did not want to set a religious precedent. Rococo was too frilly, playful, and lacked seriousness.

Neoclassicism embodied democracy, aspirations, the classics, freedom, and civic pride. It symbolized a return to democratic traditions.

• Jefferson believed art was a powerful tool and could encourage American aspirations.
• Classics symbolized aspirations of the new American republic.
• Classics symbolized America was the inheritor of classical democracy.
• Classics invoked ideas regarding freedom, self-determination, prosperity, education, democracy, and civic responsibility.

Content

 Monticello means “Little Mountain” in Italian, as the house sits atop a hill outside of Charlottesville, Virginia.

This was Jefferson’s plantation home.

Context

Jefferson was one of the earliest supporters of Neoclassical architecture in the US. He was considered a “gentleman architect”, who was not a professional but highly educated.

Timeline

1768: Construction begins. The hill was cleared and leveled through slave labor.

1771:  First phase (foundation) was completed (Neoclassicism hasn’t been invented yet).

1784-1789: Jefferson left for France as an American minister. He observed Neoclassicism in France/Italy.

1789:

Returned to Monticello and began to redesign it along French neoclassicism lines. He was already stuck with a floorplan which is not very Neoclassical. But he changed the interior and exterior design to add Neoclassical elements

1809: The house was finished.

 

(4) 103. Oath of the Horatii.

Jacques-Louis David. French.  1784. Neoclassical.

Learning Objective: 18^th century Neoclassical painting

Themes:

Oaths
Male-female relationships
War
Violence
Politics
Propaganda
Ideal man
Didactic

 Museum: Louvre

Oath of the Horatii an oil on canvas Neoclassical work by Jacques-Louis David measures 10 feet and 8 inches by 14 feet.

Characteristics of Neoclassicism include:

• Classical subject AKA history painting
• Classical setting and architecture and clothing
• Figures are parallel to picture plane, pushed forward like a Roman relief, set in a Roman atrium dominated by three arches at the back, and uses Doric order.
• Idealized
• Linear perspective
• Licked finish using invisible brushstrokes so small it is as if a cat licked it.
• History painting is large size, low horizon line, idealized and large figures, didactic, historical subject.
• Tripartite composition
• Men: vigorous, powerful, animated, emphatic, muscled arms in rigid salute; comprised of straight strong lines
• Women are curvilinear, soft, rounded, collapsed, slumped

Made for a King

The patron was Louis XVI. France was on the brink of revolution. Louis wanted this to be a statement of loyalty to the monarchy, and he loved this work when it was exhibited.

Fixing Society Through Art

David had other ideas – he wanted it to rally republicans as opposed to monarchists. He painted this in Rome after looking at ancient Roman sculpture, paintings, and friezes.  He believed the classics were superior. David wanted to return ancient masculinity and strength to France to reject the frilly, decadent Rococo.

Political Self-Sacrifice

• Great change will take great sacrifice and great loss. It is still necessary.
• Must make sacrifices for the greater good
• Willingness to die for a principal

 Content

Exemplum virtutis is a painting that depicts a bold or powerful model of virtue or a didactic moral message.

The story of Oath of Horatii is a legend that was discussed by Roman historian Livy. It is about a conflict between the Romans and rivals in the nearby Alba. The warring had reached a stalemate. To prevent further deaths, three combatants from both sides pledged to fight on behalf of the cities. The Romans selects the three Horatii brothers while the Albans choose the three Curatii brothers.

One of the women on the right is a Horatii engaged to marry a Curatii. One of the sisters of the Curatii is married to a Horatii.

The message is there will be inevitable loss, but you still must make these sacrifices.

Context

This is the first Neoclassical painting and the birth of Neoclassicism.

In 1774, David won the Prix de Rome, the prize awarded to the best Academy artist. He was able to go to Rome for five years, and study art— all expenses paid!

After returning, his work was severely undecorated, anti-Rococo, extolled virtues of stoicism, masculinity, patriotism and honor. This was the reaction against the femininity, vanity, lasciviousness, and pleasure pursuing of Rococo.

He exhibited this in at the Salon of 1785 and people were amazed. They had never seen anything like it.

More About the Artist

Jacques-Louis David (1746-1825) was a French painter in the Neoclassical style. He was an active supporter of the French Revolution.  He was essentially an art mercenary! He would paint for whoever was in power at that moment. The work above was commissioned for Louis XVI. The artists painted it even though he personally agreed with revolutionaries. Ultimately, he painted Napoléon!

 

(4) 104. George Washington.  

Jean-Antoine Houdon. American. 1788-1792. American Neoclassicism.

Learning Objective: 18^th century American Neoclassical sculpture

Themes:

Status
Ideal man
Politics
Propaganda
Commemoration
Public
Duality
Iconography

Museum: State Capitol in Richmond, Virginia  

George Washington a marble work by Jean-Antoine Houdon is a life-sized sculpture standing 6 feet 2 inches.  It is Neoclassical in style, but the American version is “down to earth,” simple, and less dramatic

Based on Polykleitos’ Doryphoros.

• Revives the restraint and idealism and control of classical Greek art (rationalism)
• His stance mimics that of the contrapposto; sculpture in the round
• Idealized, noble, casual pose
• Alternation of tense/relaxed and straight/bent
• Left as bare marble à recalls the idealization and simplicity of classical statuary

Function

This work was designed to commemorate George Washington. Its aim was to show that a legendary leader was also an ideal leader, capturing the duality. He was a humble private citizen and an honorable public servant.

This was commissioned by the Virginia legislature and installed in the capitol rotunda in 1796. This was the year Washington gave his farewell address.

Content

This shows George Washington as a public servant. He does not wear a toga or other classical garment, but instead wears his military uniform.

Left arm rests atop a fasces (where the word fascism comes from). This is meant to invoke a classical column. Fasces was given to Roman slaves to symbolize their freedom.

The bundle of 13 rods symbolizes the original colonies. His hand rests on top showing that he unifies these colonies but also that he draws strength from them. This visually represents the concept of E Pluribus Unum – Out of Many, One. (Congress approved this in 1782)

He does not hold his officer’s sword, it hangs on the outside of the fasces, just outside his reach. This signifies he can be strong but should not immediately resort to this.

He is a private citizen. A plow rests behind Washington and reminds us that he is a simple man tied to the earth. This refers to the story of the Roman dictator Cincinnatus, who resigned when his leadership, so he could return to his farm (rather than Caesar who created absolute power for himself). This parallel shows how Washington turned down the office and stepped away from the Presidency.

The walking stick symbolizes that Washington was well-known as a man who loved to stroll his estate. This is evidence that power does not have to corrupt.

 Context

• After the end of the Revolutionary War, the new American government turned to public art to commemorate the occasion and develop an American identity.
• A European sculptor had to be sought out since there was a lack of artistic talent in US colonies
  • Jefferson, ambassador to France, suggested Jean-Antoine Houdon
  • Houdon went to the Academy in Paris and won the Prix de Rome in 1761. He was a famous neoclassical sculptor.
• How do you create a new nation’s imagery/symbols? What is art’s role in this?
• Houdon created an idealized, classical bust of Washington. Washington didn’t like it and insisted on being shown in contemporary attire.

 

 (4) 105. Self-portrait.

 Elisabeth Louise Vigée-Lebrun. French. 1790. 18^th century (Natural).

Learning Objective: 18^th century. “Natural” self-portrait

Themes:

Portrait
Status
Propaganda
Ideal woman

Museum: Uffizi

Self-portrait by French artist Elisabeth Louise Vigée-Lebrun is an oil on canvas work measuring 3 feet 2 inches by 2 feet 6 inches.

 What does by “The Natural” mean?

This is not a real style but rather a way of thinking about a trend in portraiture. In fact, these images were designed to look as relaxed, natural, and effortless as possible. This was becoming enormously popular as artists and patrons disliked the pomp, circumstance, and opulence of the Baroque era.

Here you will observe:

• Casual elegance
• Precise nonchalance or contrived to look effortless
• Idealized (she was much older here than she appears)
• Self-portrait
• Well lit, up front towards the picture plane, attention to fabrics is great

This “Natural” work also uses Grand Manner Portraiture. This helps to:

• Aggrandize the sitter
• Make them large, in the forefront
• Appear gently idealized
• Casual yet composed (“studied nonchalance”)

Function

This work was created after Vigée-Lebrun had fled France, following the French Revolution. She was in danger as a well-known royalist. She painted it for the Uffizi Gallery in Florence as an addition to their collection of well-known artists’ self-portraits. This put her in league with male painters.

She was able to occupy in a non-threatening manner both worlds–the world of artists, dominated by men, and the world of femininity.  She shows she can paint just as well as men, and is even friendly with royalty. But, she is not a threat because of her great femininity. She is pretty, demure, soft, gentle, and sophisticated.

Female artists had to traverse a very fine line of showing their talent to be equal to a man but consoling men and calming them by reminding them that their genders were quite different.

Critics called the artist vain and self-important.

Content

Vigée-Lebrun was 35 when this was painted. She is looking at the viewer as she paints a portrait of Marie Antoinette. She was Queen Marie Antoinette’s official court painter and personal friend.

In the painting she sits in a relaxed pose at her easel. She looks very pretty. Her skin looks soft, with rosy cheeks, gentle curls, piercing eyes, and flowing silk. She wears a white turban and dark dress with a soft white ruffled collar – in the free-flowing Grecian style. This was inspired by the style that Marie-Antoinette had made popular at the French court. Certainly, not an outfit a painter would paint in. Yet, the brushes are ready along with a palette.

Context

In 1783, Vigée-Lebrun, who specialized in portraiture, was admitted to the French Royal Academy, as the first female member.  Her entrance however was orchestrated by her most important patron– Marie Antoinette! Now, she certainly deserved to be there, but to many men, it looked like one corrupt woman pulling strings for another woman.

Marie Antoinette was deeply disliked at this point in France. Many artists and writers argued that it was Rococo, and by extension women in general, who were leading France down the road to decay.

Marie Antoinette, the Rococo excesses, indeed femininity in general, was criticized for having made France and men effeminate. This was blamed for all of France’s problems (debt, corruption, a weak Louis XVI, and a deeply disliked Marie Antoinette). Many believed the only way to end this was revolution.

When the French Revolution occurred, Vigée-Lebrun, had to flee and escape. This work was created soon after her departure from France.

The artist ended up traveling to Italy and Russia to paint nobility and royalty. She was enormously famous in her life and ended up writing an autobiography.

(4) 99. Portrait of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz.

Miguel Cabrera. New Spain. 1750.

Learning Objective: 18^th century. Natural / New Spanish portrait

Themes:

Commemoration
Portrait
Status
Ideal woman
Appropriation
Religion

Museum : Museo Nacional de Historia, Mexico

Portrait of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz by artist Miguel Cabrera is an oil on canvas work set in realistic space. There is a naturalistic treatment of the body, and it is well-proportioned.   Note the use of variety in the background with color and implied texture.

Once again, we see the “Natural” style with some Grand Manner techniques mixed in. The work is casual, relaxed, and elegant, with a low horizon line, pushed forward, and a larger figure.

We can see the quality of artists have improved over works such as Angel with Arquebus.

Function

This portrait insists on her status as an intellectual as well as a nun. It ennobles her as an intelligent and pious woman. The work also commemorates Sor Juana 55 years after her death, for admirers, who were likely supporters of Jeronymite order. She was obviously quite a famous Jeronymite nun.

Content

This is a famous depiction of the esteemed Mexican nun and writer. Cabrera modeled this painting on images of male scholars seated at their desks.

She wears the habit of her religious order and an escudo de monja (nun’s badge) on her chest (similar to Sin Sukju). This displayed the Virgin Mary during the Annunciation.

Her left-hand toys with her rosary, while she turns a page of an open book with her right hand. The book is a text by St. Jerome. This is a contrast between her religious life (rosary) and her intellectual life (books).

She looks towards us, her gaze direct and assertive, as she sits at a desk in her library. We see books on philosophy, natural science, theology, mythology, and history.

Context

 Sor Juana was born a creole (Europeans born in New World) in 1648.

• At age 15, she amazed people at court by excelling at an oral exam that tested physics, philosophy, theology, math, poetry and plays.
• Her reward was to live as a lady in waiting at the Viceroy’s House
  • She hated it and soon became a nun to avoid a wedding
  • Joined Jeronymite order in 1669 as a nun (named for St. Jerome)
  • In privileged Mexican convents, nuns lived in comfort with servants and households
• She corresponded with scientists, theologians, and other intellectuals, and was a writer
• In 1690, she became involved in an ecclesiastical dispute between the bishops of Mexico City and Puebla.
  • She told them they were both wrong and proposed an answer and garnered criticism.
  • She responded to the criticism she received as a woman writer in a text called The Answer which defended her right as a woman to write.
• Despite her eloquent defence, the Church forced her to relinquish her literary pursuits and library.
  • She was forced to sell her library, musical and scientific instruments.
  • She had to write a document that renounced her learning which ended with “I, Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, the worst in the world” and signed it with her own blood.
• She fell sick and passed away in 1695 after caring for plague victims.

 

(4) 108. Liberty Leading the People.

 Eugène Delacroix. French. 1830. Romanticism.

Learning Objective: 19^th century French Romantic painting

Themes:

Violence
Politics
Allegory
Propaganda
Status
Commemoration

Museum: Louvre

Liberty Leading the People by French artist Eugène Delacroix is an oil on canvas work measuring 8 feet 6 inches by 10 feet 8 inches.

Delacroix believed color was more important than precise academic drawing (He would have agreed with Rubens on this point.) In Liberty Leading the People note the contrast and emphasis on Liberty, the clouds behind her are white and grey and do not distract us from her face. This is a pyramidal composition with Liberty at the apex.

The work was completed in history painting style with a large canvas size and monumental figures. What is unusual however is that the figures are not calm, academic models or even models that are ennobled. Instead, while we do see urgency and power, we also see low class, death, and grittiness

Delacroix’s Purpose

• Pro-republican/anti-monarchist statement
• Showing France in an honorable light
• Visual commemoration of July 1830 Revolution
• Manifesto that celebrates Parisians and their revolutionary drive

Initial Reaction

Liberty Leading the People caused an immediate scandal. It seemed like it was trying to be a history painting, but this was not an appropriate subject because it was too modern. Even though one could argue the Marie de’ Medici series was a “modern history painting,” these had been painted in the Grand Manner, and these figures were gritty, unglamorous, and dead!

The realism of the dead and dirty bodies, combined with the figures’ distance from academic models provoked harsh criticism. Critics said Liberty looked like a prostitute and insurgents looked like criminals.

The French government bought this to remind Louis-Philippe of how he came to power. After the 1848 Revolution, when Louis-Philippe was overthrown, it was taken down for being too inflammatory and kept out of view. Paris was concerned about inciting yet another violent revolution.

The work was moved to the Louvre to exhibit in 1863.

Content

Liberty Leading the People depicts the July Revolution of 1830. It uses the conventions of a history painting, but it was painted this the same year the event happened.

Marianne is represented as an allegory or a human who represents a moral or political idea. Here, the idea is Liberty. Here, she wears the Phrygian cap, a classical signifier of freedom from ancient Rome for freed slaves.

Delacroix was inspired by Michelangelo’s nudes for the figure of Liberty. Marianne is monumental, and nude to the waist, in reference to classical nudes.  He painted her in yellow to allude to that classical nudity. Vibrant, rebellious, victorious, and fiery, she represents the will of the people. She holds a bayonetted musket in one hand and the tricolor flag in the other.

Men around her represent the different types of people who participate in the revolution. We see that all classes are united in this revolution

Gavroche is a symbol of youthful revolt against injustice. He is based on the character of Gavroche in Victor Hugo’s Les Mis (Hugo and Delacroix were friends). Wearing a black velvet beret, worn by students, he has a cartridge pouch slung across his shoulder. There is a war cry on his lips, urging others to fight, while brandishing a weapon.

Bourgeoisie is the kneeling figure with a top hat that may be based on Delacroix himself. Notice the loose-fitting trousers and elegantly tailored jacket. This represents that the revolution is for the affluent.

A worker wears and apron, shirt, and sailor’s trousers. From his dirty body, we can see he is a laborer.

The ground is littered with the dead. One figure lacks pants. This is intentional with the aim of showing savagery, while also demonstrating Delacroix’s knowledge of the male nude.

Chaos, fervor, and passion is captured.

Notre Dame situates the action in Paris (also another reference to Victor Hugo and his book the Hunchback of Notre Dame).

Remember: Romanticism shoes PINE (Past, Irrationality/Insanity, Nature, Emotion/Exotic) and is full of emotion.

A Brief French Royal History Recap

• Henry IV (the painting with Marie de’ Medici)
• Louis XIII (of 3 Musketeers fame!)
• Louis XIV (1643-1715) (Versailles)
• Louis XV (1710-1774) (Rococo patron with Madame de Pompadour)
• Louis XVI (1774-1791) (married to Marie Antoinette; beheaded in French Revolution)
• Louis XVII (imprisoned from 1792-1795 when he died at 10 from illness and never ruled)

The French Revolution

• National Convention (1792-1795)
• French Directory (1795-1799)
• French Consulate (1799-1804)
• Napoleon as 1^st Consul
• French Empire (1804-1814)
• Napoleon as Emperor

Bourbon Restoration  

• Louis XVIII (1814-March 1815) (brother of Louis XVI)
• French Empire (March 1815 – June 1815)
  • 2^nd reign of Napoleon, 100 Days
• Louis XVIII (July 1815 – 1824)
• Charles X (1824-1830) (other brother of Louis XVI)

July Revolution of 1830 

• July Monarchy with Louis Philippe (1830-1848)

1848 Revolution  

• Napoleon III (1852-1870)
• Charles X was a deeply disliked king who had, among other things, severely restricted the press and parliament. This launched the July Revolution of 1830 (and is what Les Mis is about)
• July Revolution of 1830 (July 27 – 29, 1830) concluded with King Charles X being replaced with Louis Philippe, the Citizen King
  • Nicknamed the Citizen King because he was a king selected by the people
  • He was called “King of the French,” not “King of France”
  • Louis Philippe selected the tricolor flag as the flag of France  

About the Artist

Eugène Delacroix (1798-1863) was an exceptionally trained French Romantic artist. He was admitted to the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, which was not associated with the state Academy, but a rival. Delacroix lived in Paris during this event. He began his allegorical interpretation of this moment in September 1830. It was exhibited in May 1831.

 

(4) 112. Palace of Westminster (Houses of Parliament).

Charles Barry and Augustus W. N. Pugin (architects). British. 1840-1870. Neo-Gothic.

Learning Objective: Revivalist (Neo-Gothic) architecture

Themes:

Power
Politics
Status
Appropriation
Architecture
Propaganda
Revival of tradition

Palace of Westminster (Houses of Parliament) by architects Charles Barry and Augustus W. N. Pugin, located in London, England is constructed from limestone masonry and glass in Perpendicular Gothic style. This emphasizes the verticality, as well as Gothic ornamentation with pinnacles decorating the top, large towers, and large windows that emphasis the vertical tracery.

The horizontal balance and rhythm of the façade is a classical component. The architects wanted to balance the horizontal with the vertical.

Function 

• Original palace of Westminster here burned down; royal family used to reside here
• Seat of House of Commons and House of Lords = Houses of Parliament
• Show the prestigious and beautiful past (Gothic focus on craftsmanship; ignore industrial architecture)
• Show pride and power and status of British government

 SUB-IMAGE 1 (Central Lobby)

This is the meeting place for members of both houses and where members of parliament can meet their constituents. It is a lofty stone octagon with an intricately tiled floor.

Arches/exits include the patron saint of each of the four constituent countries of the UK.

• England: St. George
• Wales: St. David
• Scotland: St. Andrew
• Northern Ireland: St. Patrick

In the windows, there are metal grilles, which were placed here after the fire of 1834. These were built to cover the windows in the Ladies’ Gallery in the House of Commons to ensure MPs were not distracted by the women while at work. This area was not accessible to all women (only well-connected, elite women) and was difficult to see and hear out of. This made the room hot and stuffy and when wearing corsets, some women fainted. These women became a powerful symbol of women’s exclusion from Parliament.

Suffragettes targeted the gallery during the campaign for the vote in the early 20^th century. In 1908, two suffragettes chained themselves to the grille as a protest. It had to be removed from the window for the women to be cut off. The grilles were removed permanently from the gallery following a house vote in 1917.

SUB-IMAGE 2 (Westminster Hall)

This was built in 1097-1099 under William II, son of William the Conqueror (from Bayeux Tapestry!). He wanted to impress his new subjects with his power and majesty. This was the largest hall in England (and Europe) at the time and measured 240 by 67 feet.

The hammerbeam roof a decorative open timber roof typical of English Gothic architecture. The roof is still mysterious to historians. This predates the point where builders could create roofs wider than the available timber. Because of this, it has been assumed that there must have been columns to support the ceiling but there is no evidence of any.

The room is used for banquets, ceremonies, coronations, law courts, funerals.

Context

Pre-1834: English kings lived in Palace of Westminster.

In 1834 the Great Fire destroyed much of Palace of Westminster, both houses of Parliament as well as most other buildings. Westminster Hall was saved through a change of the wind and heroic fire-fighting efforts. Wooden tally sticks (voting system) were burned in the basement when the fire started.

Queen Victoria had to vacate and build a new palace (Buckingham Palace).

A competition was held to see who would build the new Houses of Parliament. The stipulation was that the new structure had to be in one of two historical, or what were called Revivalist styles: Neo-Elizabethan (Shakespearean times) or Neo-Gothic. Industrialization unsettled people as modernity seemed ugly. When they looked to the past, it seemed beautiful and traditional. Both were styles associated with the pre-Industrial era and English ingenuity and craftsmanship, even though Gothic wasn’t English, it was adopted in England.

Neoclassicism was popular but was associated with revolution and republicanism. These were associations which Britain did not want to have, as it is one of a few European countries that did not have a revolution in the 19^th century.

There were 97 entries that included 91 in Gothic and 6 in Elizabethan.

Charles Barry, famous English architect, won the competition. He estimated it would take 6 years to build but took more than 30 years and cost over 2 million pounds back then.

Barry turned to Augustus Welby Pugin, a 23-year-old architect who was an expert in Gothic style.

Barry designed the overall layout and Pugin added in the decoration on the interior and exterior.

 

(4) 113. The Stone Breakers.

Gustave Courbet. French. 1849; destroyed in 1945. Realism.

Learning Objective: Realism painting

Themes:

Status
Propaganda

Museum: Destroyed in 1945; was in Dresden

The Stone Breakers by French artist Gustave Courbet was an oil on canvas work that was destroyed in 1945.  It measured 5 feet 5 inches by 8 feet 5 inches.

Realism

Realism is an accurate and objective depiction of the world full of everyday scenes and gritty hardships of impoverished lives. The crisp precision of Neoclassicism was going out of style, but Realist paint is still not gestural like Impressionist paint would later be.

The word realism means it has been painted to look true to life. This involves a large canvas with large figures, befitting a history painting – but this is not a history painting subject!

Brushwork is rough – consciously rejected Neoclassical finish. Often people thought the work was not finished. The canvas often seemed dirty with muted colors of brown yellow and cream. Figures are isolated in the foreground with flat space and dark color.

Function

This work illustrates the artist’s concern for the plight of the poor.  This was advocacy (maybe even propaganda) for a class that has been ignored and not deemed worthy, either by society or in art. It is not meant to be heroic. This is an account of abuse and deprivation and exploitation. It challenged traditions of academic painting and asked, “Why are the wealthy the only appropriate subjects?”

There was no commissioner. The art world was moving away from a clear patron or desire. Now, the art market had developed. There was an ample market for works that artists decided to create.

This work was rejected at the 1855 Salon as “inappropriate”. The reaction to the work was disgust. Never had mundane activities and peasants been represented in art, unless ennobled and honorably working the land.

Courbet’s comment on the painting:

I stopped to consider two men breaking stones on the highway. It’s rare to meet the most complete expression of poverty, so an idea of a picture came to me on the spot. I made an appointment with them at my studio for the next day. On one side is an old man of seventy, bent over his work, his sledgehammer raised, his skin parched by the sun, his head shaded by a straw hat; his trousers, of course material, are completely patched; and in his cracked sabots you can see his bare heels sticking out of socks that were once blue. On the other side is a young man with swarthy skin, his head covered with dusk; his disgusting shirt all in tatters reveals his arms and parts of his back; a leather suspender holds up what is left of his trousers, and his mud-caked leather boots show gaping holes on every side. The old man is kneeling, the young man standing behind him energetically carrying a basket of broken rocks. Alas, in labor such as this, one’s life begins and ends this way.

We see two figures work on the side of the road. They are stone breakers who are in charge of breaking up stones and clearing rubble so the roads can be made. This work was the results of industrialization

They are dirty, dressed in ripped and tattered clothing. We do not see faces and though they work together, they do not communicate. Not only are they isolated from us, but they are also isolated from each other. The figures are that of a boy (too young for this kind of labor) and an older man (too old for this kind of labor).

A Closer Look

Set in front of a low hill, it looks like the town of Ornans, where Courbet lived. The hill reaches the entire top of the canvas except for a small spot on the far-right corner. This effectively isolates the laborers and makes us feel they are trapped. Their entrapment is not only physical (in this painting) but also social and financial.

Even though we know that the space between them and the hill is very deep, the colors and lack of sky make the painting seem flat and almost claustrophobic

Context

This work was destroyed in the WWII British Bombing of Dresden, in 1945. It was in a transport vehicle, with about 150 other paintings to a castle for safekeeping when it was bombed. Painted only one year after Karl Marx wrote The Communist Manifesto which impacted Courbet.

The Industrial Revolution across Europe led to a two-class system, the Bourgeoisie who were factory owners and the upper class, and proletariat or working class.

The message is that the Proletariat was exploited. They must unite and overcome the bourgeoisie to create the perfect classless society. Marx advocated for a violent revolution if necessary.

Courbet turned away from his wealthy bourgeoisie upbringing to adopt a self-imposed vagrancy and Bohemian lifestyle. This was unconventional with few ties. It was based on art, music, poetry, and free love.  Think of Bohemians as the hippies of 19^th century Paris.

Courbet did not attend the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. He was not a formal member. This marks the end of the Ecole’s influence over artists.

About Courbet

French born artist Gustave Courbet (1819-1879) was instrumental in the emergence of Realism. Rejecting the French Academy and classical styles, his work focused on what was real. Think the working class and people living in the countryside. He was an outspoken political activist, Courbet died in Switzerland, while in exile.

(4) 116. The Saint-Lazare Station

Claude Monet. French. 1877. Impressionism.

Learning Objective: 19^th century. Impressionist painting

Themes:

Innovation
Technology
Landscape

Museum: Musée d’Orsay

The Saint-Lazare Station by French artist Claude Monet is an oil on canvas work measuring 2 feet 4 inches by 3 feet 4 inches.  

This was painted Plein air or plain air, meaning it was painted outside. This changed tradition. The artists who used this method to paint thought they should paint what they see and not bring items back to the studio. They brought soft aluminium tubes of paint with them. These were painted on small canvas, without the pretense of trying to be like history paintings. All materials were easily transported.

Monet focused on capturing the essence of what he saw, rather than capturing formal clarity. The focus is on light, color, and atmosphere. Some areas are almost completely abstract, with loose, gestural, painterly brushstrokes. There is no sense of traditional modelling. This focuses on the play of light and color.

The hardness of lines is dissolved by the light. He used rapid, swift brushstrokes to create transience of smoke and conveys speed. Light is filtered through the smoke and metal grid.

Is this that different compositionally from a traditional landscape?

• Visual movement going back in space
• Framing devices on either side
• Lines that recede and carry our eyes back

Function

Modern critics had urged painters to “paint their own times”.  A wide variety of subject matter suddenly became acceptable (and even encouraged) when previously this subject matter would have been inappropriate and unthinkable for painting.

Charles Baudelaire had urged artists to be “painters of modern life”. A painter’s goal was to capture the very nature of modernity, distilling something essential from its transitory, busy qualities. The traditional Academy challenged this. Why paint what was viewed as ugly and unattractive? It was a radical idea to paint real life, but it was an emblem of modernity.

A train is a symbol of modern life, which was perfect for Impressionist goals.

Novelist Emile Zola said: “You can hear the trains rumbling in, see the smoke billow up under the huge roofs . . . That is where painting is today . . . Our artists have to find the poetry in the train stations, the way their fathers found poetry in forests and rivers.”

A Series of 12 works were difficult to sell, however, as many buyers were not caught up with Impressionist ideas. Impressionists were not very popular in their lifetimes. This bothered many of them, especially Renoir. The term “Impressionist” was coined to be derogatory. It was used as a way of saying the artists couldn’t paint. They could only make impressions.

Content

 Interior of Saint-Lazare station

• Train that is moving into the station under giant metal hanger
• Grittiness and dirtiness of the coal-burning steam engines
• Noise of trains coming in, people getting off, squeal of brakes, whistle of trains and conductors
  • Canopy of glass and steel; frames activities on platform
• Block of residential buildings with uniform rooflines, standardized fenestration (arrangement of windows/doors on an elevation), and strong horizontal banding
  • Typical of Haussmann’s architecture
• Pont de l’Europe in background – a large, star-shaped iron bridge.
• Connection between energy/hustle + bustle of people, with the energy and power of modernization and technology

Context

Monet rented a flat near the Saint Lazare Station in 1877 and asked to paint the station. In the spring of that year, he exhibited seven of these canvasses.  Having previously lived in Argenteuil, a Parisian suburb, Monet knew the phenomenon of commuter railroads. It was a very modern idea, that people would travel to work in the city. He viewed the changes in Paris very positively at this time.

By 1877, Paris had been transformed through industrialization, urbanization, and technological advancements (Haussmannization of Paris).

Under the direction of Baron Haussmann, prefect for Napoleon III, Haussmann was asked to achieve many things.

• Modernize boulevards to both widen and lengthen them.
• Build new facades on existing apartments and build new buildings (fenestration – arrangement of doors, windows on an elevation; use uniform rooflines)
• Build bridges to allow commuters to pass more easily over Paris’s Seine and surrounding rivers
• Build new train stations to facilitate travel in and out of city, while increasing the size of existing ones. Saint Lazare is tripled in size.

This led to an increase of commuters and encouraged tourism around the city. An expanding middle class could support this leisure time and they had the money. Trains became faster, and more times were offered for travelers.

About Monet

French Impressionist Claude Monet (1840-1926) might be best remembered for soft pastel shades, of his serenely beautiful garden and lily pond, at his countryside home in Giverny, France. Other series of works include haystacks (1891), poplars (1892) and Rouen Cathedral (1894).

 

(4) 118. The Valley of Mexico from the Hillside of Santa Isabel.

Jose María Velasco. Mexican. 1882.

Learning Objective: Late Romantic (Mexican) painting

Themes:

Landscape
Interpretation of history
Cross-cultural
Propaganda
Nature

Museum: Museo Nacional del Arte, Mexico City

The Valley of Mexico from the Hillside of Santa Isabel by Mexican artist Jose María Velasco is an oil on canvas work measuring 4 feet 6 inches by 7 feet 4 inches.

The canvas is large, making it a landscape elevated to the traditions of a history painting. The deep space lends a monumental quality to the landscape. It has a dramatic perspective and vista. Notice the atmospheric perspective used. Higher horizon allows us to see more of the land and a focus on nature. The human figures are small.

Function

This work highlights the connection between landscapes and patriotism in Mexico. It helped to define the Mexican identity, not just to the Mexican people, but globally, as this was exhibited at the World’s Fair.

The Perfect Landscape

A popular Romantic landscape was known as a pastoral idyll.  It was where poetic harmony and daily life united.

Aztec Historical Elements

The white peaks of The Valley of Mexico from the Hillside of Santa Isabel are the Popocatepetl and Iztacchihuatl volcanoes, that are prominent Aztec volcanoes. The subject is of the legendary love story between an Aztec princess and warrior. This is symbolized by the mountains.

Lake Texcoco is the lake where the Aztecs settled. The island in the lake is Tenochtitlan.

Catholic Elements

The middle ground in the painting illustrates Catholic history. The artist’s hometown is located at the foot of the small hill. This same hill was the site where the Virgin of Guadalupe appeared to Juan Diego.

Modern Indigenous Historical Elements

In the painting the human forms are an Indigenous family in their landscape. The clothing connects them to Mexican heritage. The mother with children shows the future of Mexico.

Context

In the late 18^th century, the first art school in Latin America was established in Mexico City. The Royal Academy of San Carlos was modeled after the Art Academy of San Fernando, in Madrid, which fostered Romantic and Neoclassical aesthetics.

After The Mexican War for Independence in 1810-1821 (from Spain), Mexico used art to establish its national identity (just like what Americans tried to do with the George Washington statue).

About the Artist

Jose María Velasco (1849-1912) was one of Mexico’s most accomplished landscape painters.  He trained at the Royal Academy of San Carlos, where he learned Romanticism and was encouraged to paint Mexican landscapes. During his career, he won numerous prizes and awards in national and international competitions.

 

(4) 120. Starry Night.

 Vincent Van Gogh. Dutch. 1889. Post-Impressionism

 Learning Objective: Post-Impressionism painting (landscape)

Themes:

Landscape
Nature
Iconography
Museum: MOMA

Starry Night by Dutch painter Vincent Van Gogh is an oil on canvas work measuring 2 feet 5 inches by 3 feet. Loosened brushwork emphasizes the physical application of paint onto the canvas— painterly, gestural, impasto. The colors are vibrant.

It often seems to me that the night is even more richly colored than the day, colored with the most intense violets, blues, and greens. If you look carefully, you’ll see that some stars are lemony, others have a pink, green, or forget-me-not blue glow. And without laboring the point, it’s clear that to paint a starry sky, it’s not nearly enough to put white spots on black.” Vincent Van Gogh(September 1888)

The Details of the Work

• Balance (tree on left balances with hills and stars on right)
• Low horizon line, which allows us to see more of the sky
• Deliberately stylized and simplified
  • Van Gogh enjoyed medieval woodcuts: thick black outlines and simplified forms
• Composite landscape: not based exactly on what he saw; he would not have had this view out of the window he worked from

Function

Landscapes were popular in the late 19^th century and Van Gogh participated in this trend. People desired landscapes in part because of their dissatisfaction with modern city life. He painted not what he saw, but what he felt. This was key in Post-Impressionism.

A night-time landscape presented technical challenges he wished to confront.

Content 

The artist painted this from his studio in the mental asylum of Saint Remy. His studio did not look out at the mountains, but rather had a view of the garden. It is assumed that he composed this view using elements of a few previously completed works in his studio.

Sky

• Largest “star” is Venus
• Whirling forms in the sky match published astronomical observations of clouds of dust and gas (nebulae)

Town

The steeple of the church resembles those in his native Holland, not the style common in France where he was when he painted this. We see presence of human life but not activity. See the hushed village of houses.

Tree

• A cypress tree is a visual link between land and sky.
• Symbolically, cypress could be seen as a bridge between life (earth) and death (sky).
  • Commonly associated with heaven, graveyards, and mourning

Context

 Van Gogh was a Dutch, largely self-taught, artist. He produced over 2,000 oil paintings, watercolors, drawings and sketches. He did not sell any works in his lifetime.

Chronology of breakdown beginning in 1888 (exact sequence is not known)

The friendship/partnership with Paul Gauguin broke down. Although Van Gogh thought they were close friends, Gauguin denied feeling close to Van Gogh at all and doesn’t want a partnership.

Van Gogh cut off his ear and delivered his ear to a prostitute. Later, he asked what had happened to him, as he had no recollection.

Ultimately, Van Gogh was hospitalized at Saint-Paul-de-Mausole, in Saint-Remy, in southern France, a clinic for the mentally ill. During his convalescence here, Van Gogh was encouraged to paint by his brother Theo. The artist often chewed his paint brushes. Paint was made with led, which could cause difficulty focusing and halos in front of the eyes. This is caused by lead-induced enlargement of retina.

He was medicated with a plant called the foxglove. If given too much of the drug, it causes patients to experience yellow too intensely.

While staying in Saint Remy hospital in southern France, he was able to spend hours contemplating the stars without interference from gas or electric city streetlights. He had never seen the night sky like this.

In 1890, Van Gogh shot himself in the chest, while standing in a wheat field.  There were no witnesses and he died there two days later. Some have suggested he was murdered. He remains in our consciousness as the quintessential misunderstood genius.

Self Portraits

During Van Gogh’s time in Paris (1886-1888) he painted 20 self-portraits.

“I purposely bought a good enough mirror to work from myself, for want of a model.”

 

(4) 123. Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?

Paul Gauguin. French.  1897-1898.  Post-Impressionism.

Learning Objective: Post-Impressionism painting (pastiche)

Themes:

Appropriation
Passage of time
Family
Cross-cultural
Landscape
West vs Nonwest

Museum: MFA Boston

Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?  By French artist Paul Gauguin is an artwork of oil on canvas that measures 10 feet and nine inches by 31 feet and 4 inches.

This work casts realism aside in favor of expression. It uses color experimentally to evoke feelings. This is one of the greatest Post-Impressionist qualities. Here, colors are stylistic, vibrant, expressive, and nonrealistic. Golds and browns set against blues and greens.

The work was inspired by the Impressionist interest in flat fields of unmodeled color from Japanese art.

Proportions are ignored. Space is not logical. The work uses the stylization that is common in Oceanic art. The simple bodies are not modeled.

Gaugin uses cultural appropriation or pastiche. In other words, he took the style of the Pacific and made it his own using primitivism.

The composition is designed and painted to recall frescoes or icons painted on gold ground. The upper corners have been painted gold to contribute to this effect.

Function

• Potentially argues the inevitability of the basic processes of life: there is no escaping youth, adolescence, adulthood, and old age.
• Precise, complete interpretations remain out of reach for historians; likely it had private meaning for Gauguin
• Reveals primitivism: utilizes native traditions in non-native artwork
• Represents the artist’s painted manifesto created while he was living on Tahiti

I believe that this canvas not only surpasses all my preceding ones, but also that I shall never do anything better or even like it.”

Content

This work contains numerous humans, animal, and symbolic figures arranged across an island landscape with the sea and volcanic mountains in the background.

Right: birth, infant (Where We Come From)

• A sleeping child
• Three crouching women
• Two figures dressed in purple speak to one another
• An enormous crouching figure raises its arms

Center: mid-life (What Are We)

• A figure picks fruit (fertility, adulthood, procreate)
• Two cats near a child
• A white goat

Left: (Where Are We Going)

• Old woman nearing death
• A middle-aged woman sits next to her, perhaps her child who now takes care of her
• Blue idol represents the beyond, the afterlife

Context

Gauguin was a “Sunday painter” or someone who paints for his or her own enjoyment. He had a wife and five children.  After his career as a stockbroker failed in the early 1880s, he took on painting more seriously. He went to work with Van Gogh for 9 weeks – we know how that turned out!

He had cardiovascular syphilis and when left untreated, will spread to the heart and veins. Syphilitic sores on legs were often mistaken for eczema and treated with…arsenic!

Gauguin made his first visit to Tahiti in March 1891. He returned to Paris in 1893. He then abandoned his family and wanted to leave behind all that was “artificial”.  He complained that Tahiti was not as exotic as he expected. As a French colony, he said it had already been destroyed by missionaries and disease. Yet, he was swept up in the exoticism of what he did see.

When he was 50 years old, he married a 13-year-old Tahitian girl. She became pregnant almost immediately. At the same time, he married two other 14-year-olds! He gave all three girls syphilis. He named his Tahitian home the “House of Orgasm”.

Gaugin painted this canvas in 1897. Just after learning of the death of his daughter Aline, he decided to climb up into the mountains, paint this canvas, and then kill himself afterwards.

While he may or may not have attempted suicide, he certainly realized that saying this would make a good story. “I painted this planning on committing suicide afterwards, and then decided not to because this painting made me want to live again.”

Gauguin was extremely self-conscious of his image as a bohemian vanguard artist and concerned with self-promotion.

A few months after completing this, Gauguin sent it to Paris along with several other of his works, insisting they be exhibited altogether in a gallery. He sent his friends careful instructions about how they should be framed and who should be invited to the exhibition. These facts show that his awareness of the Parisian art market and how his art would be received was of utmost importance even as he supposedly renounced this society by living on a tropical island on the other side of the globe.

Gaugin was hugely important in art history for beginning the path towards expressionistic color and (unfortunately) primitivism. He died in 1903 on the Marquesas Islands.

 

(4) 121. The Coiffure.

Mary Cassatt. French.1890-1891. Impressionism.

Learning Objective: 19^th century. Impressionist print

Themes:

 Print
Status
Appropriation
Cross-cultural
Female nude
Domestic space
Private

Museum: National Gallery in DC

The Coiffure by American artist Mary Cassatt is a 17 by 12-inch work using both drypoint and aquatint.

What is Drypoint?

Drypoint is an etching technique. A metal plate is covered with wax. An image is carved or incised into the surface of the wax using a burin. Incise lines directly into the surface of the plate with a stylus while pressing down hard. This results in uneven, jagged lines where shavings curl up on either side and makes ridges. Rather than blowing or wiping those shavings off, they are left to give extra texture to the printing. This reveals the plate underneath. The printing part is cut into, while the non-printing parts are left uncut.

The plate is put into acid. The acid eats away at the exposed metal parts, leaving holes. The plate is heated so all the wax melts off. The surface of sheet is covered with ink, so that the ink will pool into the incised areas. It will be wiped away from the rest of the plate. Paper is applied to the top to transfer image using pressure.

What is Aquatint?

A layer (or more) of powdery resin is applied to the plate. The plate is heated so it melts. Then it is cooled to create a hardened, fine, but still grainy pattern.  The plate is placed in acid which eats away around the powdered resin, leaving small indentations in the plate.

The plate is rinsed, and then ink is applied, so that the ink will pool into the incised areas. Paper is applied to the top to transfer image using pressure.

Different tints and hues of a color can be controlled by how much resin is on the plate and how long the plate was in acid.

Influence from Japanese Prints

• Spare composition
• Tilted perspective; love of flat patterning; rejects Western assumption of 3D space
• Simplicity of line and form
• See figures from multiple angles

Repetition and Contrast of Form

Note the curve of the woman’s sloping back and neck echoes the curves of the chair.

Limited Color Palette

The palette consists of only four colors:

• rose
• white
• brown
• cream

This enables us to focus on line and clarity. From an artistic point of view, Cassatt was trying to imitate the haziness and softness of Impressionist form.

Additional Notes

• Asymmetrical composition
• Spatial flattening

Function

This is Mary Cassatt’s exercise in Japanese techniques. It is based on ukiyo-e prints.

There is a de-eroticization of women, showing a boudoir/toilette scene that is not sexualized. This is likely because of the gender of the artist. This is a twist on the traditional female nude that we have been seeing in art history.

It captures fleeting moments of the busy lives of the Parisian bourgeois and working class.

Content

There are two cultural influences. While the work is Japanese in form (mostly), it is (mostly) Impressionist in content.  This was inspired by a woodblock print (in Cassatt’s personal collection) of the daughter of a prosperous Japanese Edo businessman. Toilette/boudoir scenes have their art historical roots in Old Master paintings. Think Odalisque, reclining Venuses, toilette scenes, and women bathing for example.

This is a private moment of a woman adjusting her hair. The Coiffure means “Hairdo” in French.

The ritual of getting dressed for the day had a great deal to do with status, based on royal rituals with Madame de Pompadour and Marie Antoinette. To wear elaborate hairstyles, one needed a maid. Yet, the woman here is tending to her hair alone. We see a working woman. This can be a comparison between the historically elite nature of the event vs. the everyday normalcy of this woman.

There is a voyeuristic element, but the body is not sexualized. Though her breasts are exposed, her chest and the details of her body are otherwise muted. No anatomical accuracy or detail is given.

Context

The was a wave of Japonisme spreading across Europe. In 1854, US Naval commodore Matthew Perry forcibly opened Japan to Western trade. Japanese goods flooded into Europe for the first time since the 17^th century. Lacquers, fans, bronzes, hanging scrolls, kimonos, ceramics, illustrated books, and ukiyo-e prints were all popular. This inspired a Japanese style across Western art.

In 1890, Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris showcased an exhibition of Japanese woodblock prints. Mary Cassatt was in the audience and was absolutely taken with these prints.

About Mary Cassatt

Mary Cassatt (1844-1925) was born to a wealthy Pennsylvania family. She studied art in Europe and settled in Paris after befriending Degas. She regularly showed artwork with the Impressionists.

Cassatt rarely made nudes. Most often, she depicted her friends and family members with their children.

 

(4) 122. The Scream

Edvard Munch. Norwegian. 1893. Symbolism.

Learning Objective: Symbolism

Themes:

Landscapes
Man v. nature
Vision
Stylized bodies
Psychological bodies

Museum: National Gallery in Munich

The Scream by Norwegian artist Edvard Munch was created using tempera and pastels on cardboard. It measures 3 feet by 2 feet and 5 inches. This is a highly simple work.  There is an androgynous, skull-shaped head, elongated hands, wide eyes, flaring nostrils and an oval mouth.

The Five Versions

This work was replicated into five versions.

• An oil, tempera, and pastel, a soft stick of pigment like lipstick, on cardboard.
• There were 2 tempera and pastel on cardboard.
• Tempera on cardboard.
• Lithograph

More About the Form

The colors are orange, yellow, red, and blue-green. We would expect the sky to be blue and the land to be orange, but he has swapped this. The high horizon line lets us see more of the landscape than sky.

The strict linearity on the left contrasts with the curves and rounded shapes on the right. The foreground and background blend into one another. Wide curves of the figure are repeated in the landscape, and it literally ripples through or affects the man’s body.

Function

This is part of Munch’s semi-autobiographical cycle “The Frieze of Life”, painting not what he saw, but what he felt. It shows internal emotion through external form. This is Munch’s feelings/experience of synesthesia or the union of senses. It’s a visual depiction of sound and emotion.

Ask yourself:

How does one convey experiences that are not visual?

How does one convey sensations that we experience with more than one sense?

Can art be used to depict sound, perception, anxiety?

Content

 The theme of this work is death, dread, and anxiety.

Three main areas illustrate this.

The bridge extends at a steep angle from the middle distance at left to fill the foreground

Human figures also display this. A screaming figure in the foreground, is linked to the landscape, as both are made of curves. One feels the cry of nature, a sound that is sensed rather than heard. The figure’s face resembles a Peruvian mummy that was exhibited at the World’s Fair in Paris in 1889. Many artists were inspired by this.

There are two rigid figures on the back of the bridge. Are they coming or going?

The landscape also represents the theme. The shoreline, lake, hills, and churning sky are reflected on the water.

What is Symbolism?

Symbolism expresses emotion and ideas. It ignores naturalism. Symbolist artists came from diverse international backgrounds.

“It is not the chair which should be painted, but the human’s relation to it”. In other words, it expresses emotion.

The Decline of the Traditional Art School

This was a Norwegian artist. The art world was expanding. One no longer had to be French, Italian, or Dutch. Therefore, traditional art schools were declining in their power and necessity in the art world.

Influences on the Work

Both his mother and sister died when Munch was a child. The artist was ill, depressed much of his life and suffered from synaesthesia.

Passage in his diary dated January 22^nd, 1892, written in Nice, France likely is the inspiration for this piece.

I was walking along the road with two friends. The sun went down, and I felt a gust of melancholy. Suddenly, the sky turned a bloody red. I stopped, leaned against the railing, tired to death, as the flaming skies hung like blood and sword over the city. My friends went on, but I stood there, trembling with anxiety, and I felt a vast and infinite scream tear through nature.

What could this have been? What was he inspired by?

The unnaturally harsh colors were likely observed by Munch. It may have been due to volcanic dust from the eruption of Krakatoa in Indonesia in 1883. The dust lingered in the atmosphere for 10 years making extraordinary sunsets

Desired by All

In 2012, a version of The Scream sold to a private collector for $120,000,000, making it at that time, the 2^nd highest price ever achieved at auction.

 

(4) 125. Mont Sainte-Victoire.

Paul Cézanne. French. 1902-1904. Post-Impressionism.

Learning Objective: Post-Impressionism / proto-Cubist painting

Themes:

Nature
Landscape
Abstraction

Museum: Philadelphia Museum of Art

Mont Sainte-Victoire by French artist Paul Cézanne is an oil on canvas work measuring  2 feet 4 inches by 3 feet.

There is a proto-cubist stress on geometric structure. You will see a co-existence of multiple viewpoints in a single scene.

Are the views here always possible?

How can we see so many parts of the mountain flattened towards us?

How can we see the tops and sides of trees at the same time?

There are three horizontal bands in the composition. The band closest to us has foliage and houses. Rough patches of yellow, emerald, and green suggest a wide plain. Blues, violets, and grays form the mountain surrounded by sky. This alludes to atmospheric perspective through the bluish gray of the background. With its sketchy outlines this was not considered “finished” by academic standards of the day.

Cézanne used blocks of color to create forms and evenly distributed lighting. Our viewpoint is elevated, though we do not see how. Presumably, we are on another mountain. This in conjunction with the high horizon line allows us to see more of the valley.

A complicated pattern of diagonals can be found in each of the roofs, lines of the mountain, and arrangement of patches on the plain. This creates a deep, unified space that our eye can travel in.

Flatness coexists with depth. Somehow, he has flattened everything by making forms using rectangular swabs of paint. Yet, we understand the illusion. Things recede backwards.

Function

This is yet another study on this mountain and valley. It occupied an important part of Cézanne oeuvre.  Mont Sainte-Victoire poses a central question.  Can you use flat, unmodeled color to create the illusion of depth?

Can you explore coexisting views while flattening? In other words, when we flatten something, inherently we understand that to mean that we can only see one side. However, Cézanne thinks. “Can I flatten things and still create the illusion of showing more than one flat side of this object?”

Content

There are three segments:

• Foliage/houses
• An expansive plain
• Craggy mountain and sky

There is a sense of stillness across the landscape. Note the absence of human activity. We see human presence though. The subject was not chosen for historical interest or picturesque qualities. Cézanne’s principal interest was to explore the formal properties of his surroundings. For example, the huge iron cross that was on Mont Sainte-Victoire, never showed up in any paintings that he did of this scene.

The Location

Mont Sainte-Victoire dominates the skyline of Aix-en-Provence, the hometown of Cézanne. The mountain’s name means Mountain of Holy Victory. It is associated with a celebrated victory of Provence’s ancient Roman inhabitants against an invading army.

About the Artist

Paul Cézanne (1839- ) was born in Aix-en-Provence, in southern France. He developed artistic skills at an early age. Today, the artist is considered the father of modern art and a proto-cubist.

Cézanne would return to this mountain more than 60 times in his career. Each time he painted it differently than the time before. He constantly tried multiple angles and points of views.

Cézanne bought an acre of land on this hill in 1901 and built a studio on it.

Historically, within the artworld, Cézanne took Impressionism to its logical next step. What happens when you apply the loose, gestural brushstroke approach to everything, not just scenes of the Parisian bourgeois class? This is what Post-Impressionism does. It further pursues the Impressionist mission with simplified color, and broken lines and forms. It reacts against the naturalism of Impressionists

 

(4) 126. Les Demoiselles d’Avignon.

 Pablo Picasso. Spanish. Oil on canvas. 1907. Cubism.

Learning Objective: Cubist painting (Picasso)

Themes:

Female nude
Sexuality
Abstraction
Ideal woman
Cross-cultural
Appropriation
Stylized bodies

Museum : MOMA

 Les Demoiselles d’Avignon by Spanish artist Pablo Picasso is a painting using oil on canvas.  It measures 8 feet by 7 feet 8 inches. This work fully explores abstraction and marks a radical break from traditional composition and perspective in painting.

The space comes towards us in jagged shards. The figures are aggressively abstracted into sharp geometric forms. The limbs seem at times dislocated. The figures do not have rounded volume, instead, they are splintered. There is no modeling as that would have created the illusion of roundness. The space is radically compressed and flattened, like a still life.

Do not let the rough painting and jagged form make you think this was quick. The result took over 100 sketches.

Function

Picasso continued to examine the female nude, as artists have done throughout western art history. He created his personal fantasy by playing on the reclining female nude with not one but five women.

He also had anxiety about sleeping with prostitutes. There was considerable anxiety over life-threatening sexually transmitted diseases. Therefore, pleasure was linked to morality in an era before antibiotics.

Here he created his version of Cubism. This was a new visual style in art.

Picasso’s intense competitive nature drove him to outdo his rivals (Matisse) and role models (Cezanne).

Audience Response

The viewers responded with complete confusion, and disgust. They felt he had butchered historical art traditions. What possible reason could there be for this?

 Content

The title is in reference to a famed Avignon Street in Barcelona which Picasso frequented.

The work is of five prostitutes.  The women stare directly at the viewer. This builds on what Olympia had done for art.  Les Demoiselles d’Avignon replaces sensual eroticism of traditional female nudes, with aggressively crude pornography. Notice the figure squatting in the lower right.

The faces are splintered and inspired by African masks. Two women push aside curtains, while the others strike seductive and erotic poses. We see that this has become a show for Picasso.

Originally, the work contained two men, but he removed them. Why? If men were present, women would attend to them. If there were no men, Picasso was their focus. Viewers become the customers.

Desirable vs. Dangerous

Picasso frequently went to brothels. Across Europe, there was a growing public health crisis, with the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.  Prostitutes were beginning to be seen as intriguing, and desirable, but dangerous. Getting an STD could literally kill you.

Context

Faces were influenced by Primitivism and African masks that Picasso had collected. France was still a major colonial power in Africa. Many African artworks were taken and sold in Paris.

The work was also inspired by Archaic statuary (Anavysos Kouros). The figure on the far left shows this (one leg forward, arm down by side). Picasso had recently seen an exhibition of archaic sculpture at the Louvre.

Pablo Picasso

Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) contributed to many art movements including Surrealism, Neoclassicism and Expressionism. He was a founder of Cubism, along with artist George Braque.  Picasso’s paintings often included dominant colours, like the Blue Period or Rose Period. Picasso not only painted, he created prints, drawings, sculpture, ceramics, and even set and costume designs for ballet.

 

(4) 128. The Kiss.

Gustav Klimt. Austrian. 1907-1908.  Art Nouveau / Austrian Secession.

Learning Objective: Austrian Secession /Art Nouveau painting

Themes:

Male-female relationships
Ideal man
Ideal woman
Sexuality
Abstraction
Cross-cultural
Appropriation
Stylized bodies

Museum: Osterreichische Gallerie, Vienna

The Kiss by Austrian artist Gustav Klimt is an oil on canvas work measuring 5 feet 11 inches by 5 feet 11 inches.

Art Nouveau means “New Art” with organic lines, simulating forms in nature and an emphasized on decorative patterns. Austrian Secession is highly ornate, decorative, fanciful, and feels dream-like or other worldly.  Here we see the beginnings of abstractions.

Gold leaf was used on a highly decorative surface that creates both texture and reflection.

The larger male figure is characterized by square and rectangular forms.  The female form has soft lines and floral patterns with a rounded form.  The formal qualities such as patterning and repetition, make the space seem flat and as if there is no recession. The work ignores perspective, scale, space, modeling, and proportion.

Function

This is a new avant-garde treatment of traditional subject matter. Lovers are quite common in art history, but these lovers don’t look anything like other lovers we have seen.  Think: The Swing. The artists rejected the Vienna art establishment.

The theme of lovers preoccupied Klimt. This shows love as an icon and something to be worshipped and adored. This illustrates a transcendent universal experience even in times of great change and modernization. The work is an ideal of what love can be.

Content

This is the theme of lovers, united through a kiss. They are embracing in a field of flowers which is reminiscent of fertility, and vibrancy. The man is bent over the woman, and she clings tightly to him as he kisses her. They are dangerously close to the edge of the precipice. This is likely due to the fin de siècle anxiety expressed through the danger and beauty of their passion.

The golden halo surrounds the couple, and unites them, as they are lost in the kiss

The man is physically powerful. We see the intensity of his desire. He is larger and dominates her. This is detailed, with rectangular and square forms. The woman is passively falling into his embrace. This is detailed with ovals and circles.

Love transports them out of our world. The background is flat and gold, unlike our world. This is similar to the Byzantine use of gold. They are transported to a sacred infinite world.

Klimt follows tradition in the gender representations of the two figures—also Byzantine conventions, in this theme of lovers

Fin de siècle

Fin de siècle or end of an era was at the end of the 19^th century to 1914. Society changed rapidly during the late 19^thearly to the 20^th century. The middle class was growing and so too was their wealth. This was characterized by decadence, excitement, extravagance. On the reverse this was also a time of anxiety and worry about increasing agitations across Europe.

Art became a form of escapism.

1897: Austrian Secession

• Austrian artists objected to the conservatism of the Vienna art establishment.
• Klimt was the president of the Austrian Secessionists.
• Created their own exhibition space to explore what art could be without the strictures of the academy.
• Time of incredible innovation

About the Artist

Austrian born artist, Gustav Klimt (1862-1918) is best known for his iconic painting, The Kiss.  He is famous for his “Golden Phase”, which culminated with this work.  It was Inspired by a visit to Ravenna during his travels through Italy in 1903 which introduced him to the world of Byzantine mosaics. Other inspirations were the medieval book covers with flat Gothic ornamentation and illuminated manuscripts.

Klimt was a sought-after portrait painter, who specialized in Viennese ladies. One such painting is Portrait of Adele Bloche-Bauer (1907), a painting, now with its own layered history, which sold at auction for more than $135 million, U.S., in 2006, exemplifies his stunning style, in fin-de-siecle Vienna.

Art consumed Klimt and he was noted to have said, “Whoever wants to know something about me must observe my paintings carefully and try to see in them what I am.”

 

(4) 130. The Portuguese.

Georges Braque. French. 1911. Cubism.

Learning Objective: Cubist painting (Braque)

Themes:

Abstraction
Text and image

Museum: Kunstmuseum Basel, Basel, Switzerland

The Portuguese by Georges Braque is an oil on canvas work measuring 3 feet 8 inches by two feet and six inches. The work takes the 400 years of Renaissance tradition–form, color, space, perspective, modeling, recession– and throws it away!

The Goals of Cubism

Instead of a single vantage point, the viewer sees the painting from many angles. The fixed point of view is gone. Cubism breaks an object down to its basic geometric forms.

Letters added to The Portuguese make the viewer aware of the flat surface of the painting. It reminds us that the painting is a constructed object rather than an illusion to reality.  This is an experimentation with perspective, and a total flattening of space. It occupies multiple vantage points. Depth is limited.

The monochromatic color palette emphasizes structure over color. This contrasts with Fauves and Post-Impressionists.  There is no consistent light source, but a variety of shadows over the picture plane.

Function

There is an ambiguity of a clear, distinctive reading of the image. The central goal is to attempt to show numerous viewpoints simultaneously. This is a complete change! All other works, despite stylistic differences, viewed objects from the front.

This fragmentation leads to multiple viewpoints. It reduces figures into basic geometric forms.

Content

The guitar player on a dock was recreated from the memories of a Portuguese musician the artist saw years before, in a bar in Marseilles. It is totally broken in form, with large intersecting planes.

Context

• Braque was originally a Fauve who found it so challenging that he began to rethink his own style
• Formed cubism with Picasso in 1907-1908

The work was inspired by

• • • Cezanne’s flattening and abstraction
    • Primitivism’s interest in abstraction
    • Fragmentation of pre-WWI society
• WWI was so destructive to society and European ideals that many felt it had been splintered and shattered. Cubism takes this idea and applies it to art.

About the Artist

Georges Braque (1882-1963) was a French born painter and sculptor. He is best known for being a founder of Cubism, along with Picasso. Some of his other masterpieces include Piano and Mandola, Violin and Palette, Woman with Mandolin, and Women with a Guitar.

The artist even designed costumes for Ballets Russes and other companies in the 1920s to 1950s.

 

(4) 131. Goldfish.

Henri Matisse. French.  1912. Fauvism.

Learning Objective: Fauvist painting

Themes:

Animals in art
Water
Cross-cultural
Abstraction
Still life
West vs Nonwest

Museum: Pushkin Museum, Moscow

Goldfish by French artist Henri Matisse is an oil on canvas work measuring 4 feet 7 inches by 3 feet 2 inches.  Here, the artist shows interest in abstraction and simplifying all forms.

What is Fauvism?

Fauvism uses expressive, vibrant color in a non-realistic way. Placement of complementary colors in close proximity makes them more active. On a color wheel, green, yellow, orange, red and purple are all in a row. This breaks with the traditional approach to color. Also note the bold brushwork.

There is an incorrect rendering of space. A study of ovals and circles, becomes flattened as they do not recede all at the same angle. This enables us to see the fish simultaneously from two different angles. It is not necessary to perfectly imitate reality.

Function

By depicting the goldfish and the water, Matisse captures a stereotypical Western view of an Arab paradise. He invites the viewer to indulge in the pleasure of watching the goldfish. He wanted art that would be soothing and calming.

This is the use of color in a new and vibrant way –like Gauguin.

Content

We see Matisse’s own garden furniture, plants, and fish tank.

 Context

Goldfish were introduced to Europe from East Asia in the 17^th century.

Goldfish were a reoccurring subject in the work of Henri Matisse. He visited Morocco, in 1912, and noted how the local population would daydream for hours, gazing into fishbowls. People found them tranquil, entrancing and calming.

Matisse admired Moroccans’ lifestyle which appeared to him to be relaxed and contemplative. This is a dangerous – but common – Western fantasy of Arab/Oriental life. We saw Ingres and Gauguin do this same thing.

The theme of paradise is prevalent. Even the name Goldfish defines these creatures as a shorthand for paradise and a golden age, with beautiful shimmering scales. Water is a common theme in Islamic art for cleansing, purifying, and tranquillity.

About the Artist

French-born artist Henri Matisse (1869 -1954) was known for his use of colour and his originality. Primarily known as a painter, he was also a sculptor, printmakers, and draftsman.

 

(4) 132. Improvisation 28 (second version).

 Wassily Kandinsky. Russian. 1912. German Expressionism (Blue Rider)

Learning Objective: German Expressionism (Blue Rider) painting

Themes:

Abstraction
Landscape
Biblical
Water

Museum: Guggenheim

Improvisation 28 (second version), by Wassily Kandinsky is an oil on canvas work measuring 3 feet by 6 inches and 5 feet and 3 inches.

Form

There is little to no discernible representation with a high amount of abstraction, but this is not pure, total abstraction.

Some characteristics of German Expressionism include brilliant clashing color as well as the use of color for its own sake. It is not there to mimic, describe or capture.

Black diagonal lines are also characteristic. These crisscross and lead your eye across the painting. Look at the top left to bottom right. Then, to the bottom middle and to the top right to bottom right. This creates a sense of musicality and staccato.

Automatism is letting the mind go and purely letting the hands control the artmaking. It is a very difficult process to use. Kandinsky tried but found that representation, narrative and content seeped back into the work.

The artist wanted the work to be mostly abstract because he believed if we recognized things too clearly that our conscious mind would take over the interpretation. We would then close off our emotional ability to respond to color.

Function

 One of the first modern abstract (not purely abstract, though) artworks.

• Uses abstraction to depict meaning (from St. John the Divine Book of Revelations) a relevant subject for a pre-WWI world.
• Aimed to let his subconscious come out (automatism) but battled with the difficulty of suppressing narratives/content.
• Explored the connections between music and art.

Content

Improvisations: paintings which were inspired by “spiritual events”.

Left side: Apocalypse

Why did he select the apocalypse? Likely he saw a relation or connection to the chaotic times he lived in.

On the top left there is a mountain. In the middle left there are cannons and smoke from a battlefield (atmospheric effects of smoke). On the bottom left there is a flood like the Old Testament flood. In the bottom middle, there are horses/riders of the apocalypse (a clever reference to Blue Rider name) through the curves of the manes and necks of the horses.

The Right side: Salvation

To the top right is a church on a hill. On the bottom right, figures are kissing.

Context

Kandinsky was influenced by music, especially the composer Wagner, and he often named his paintings in musical terms. He associated his paintings with music and called all of them improvisations. He referred to his paintings as dissonant or a cacophony. These terms refer to sound.

It is believed Kandinsky had synesthesia (like Munch). This allowed him to see sound and hear color.

Der Blaue Rider moves towards abstraction and simplified forms to see our world. It still uses still German Expressionist (vibrant color/jagged line) characteristics.

 

(4) 133. Self-Portrait as a Soldier.

 Ernst Ludwig Kirchner.  German. 1915. German Expressionism (The Bridge).

 Learning Objective: German Expressionism (The Bridge) painting

Themes:

Psychological
Self-portrait
Male-female relationships
Ideal man?
Stylized bodies

Museum: Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College

Self-Portrait as a Soldier by German artist Ernst Ludwig Kirchner is an oil on canvas work measuring 2 feet 3 inches by 2 feet. 

Expressionism is defined by the use of distorted, jagged forms and jarring colors for emotional impact.

The composition of this oil painting is tilted up and compressed. The perspective is strange with harsh colors. Greens, oranges, and yellows clash together in our mind. It causes a sense of instability, discord, and anxiety.

There are intense, harshly contorted forms, roughly sketched and stylized long. Angular forms are inspired by “primitive” African masks. Even the female nude is jarring and sharp…very different from Venus of Urbino.

Function

This is a self-portrait of Kirchner and an exploration of the artist’s personal fears. It focuses on his artistic failures and sexual impotency. It is his reckoning with his own weakness. His frustrations with his artistic, masculine, militaristic, and sexual inadequacy are captured.

Content

Kirchner is dressed in a military uniform. It is not in a military context however, as he is in his studio. There is a number 75 epaulets on his shoulders. This indicates his membership in the 75^th Field Artillery Regiment. Symbols on his cap represent the German Reich.

Kirchner appears sallow, harsh, edgy, angular, yellow, and sickly. He holds a limp cigarette in his mouth in reference to his physical and sexual inadequacies.

Kirchner has an amputated arm that is bloody. This is a symbol of his inadequacies. The amputation is a metaphor for his “artist’s block”. He felt like he couldn’t create, and when he did, it was not well-received.

What about the nude that stands behind him almost like a statue? The figure is very different from the fleshy, attractive, inviting bodies we have seen in Venus of Urbino and La Grande Odalisque.

In summary, Kirchner stands in his studio with everything he would need to make love and make art, and instead he can do neither.

A Timeline

In 1905 Kirchner helped found the German Expressionist group Die Brücke (The Bridge). They believed they would be a bridge to the future. They promoted an entirely new way of being an artist. The focus was on distorted, jagged forms and color to display emotion.

Die Brücke artists were interested in “primitive” art, particularly from Africa. They believed “primitive” art was honest, direct, and purer than art from Western industrialized nations. Obviously, this is not a politically correct notion, but it had a huge impact on Expressionism. Die Brücke artists wanted to adopt the “natural” state they saw in “primitive” art.

In 1913 Die Brücke disbanded. It was two years before this painting was created.

In 1914 Kirchner volunteered to be a driver in WWI. He did this to avoid being drafted in a more dangerous combat role. He suffered a mental break down and was diagnosed as an alcoholic and barbiturate addict. He was discharged.

The artist returned to Berlin to paint but suffered a nervous breakdown again. Then, he lived in two mental institutions. He became severely addicted to alcohol and morphine. For a time, his hands and feet were paralyzed, and his limbs did not function as they should have.

Despite being well-received internationally (some argue he is as important, if not more so, than Picasso), his art was rejected by Hitler in the 1930s. Hitler persecuted artists who painted in a style that was outside of his “Aryan ideal”.

The Degenerate Art Show in 1937 was held by Hitler. He exhibited all modernist art he hated and 32 of the works were Kirchner’s. Hitler had over 600 of Kirchner’s works removed from public collections. Many were destroyed.

Kirchner shot and killed himself in July of 1938. He tried to get his girlfriend to do it with him. She refused and they had a huge fight. He went outside and shot himself in the heart.

 

(4) 136. Composition with Red, Blue and Yellow.

 Piet Mondrian. Dutch. 1930. De Stijl.

 Learning Objective: De Stijl Themes: abstraction

Museum: Kunsthaus in Zurich

Composition with Red, Blue and Yellow by Dutch artist Piet Mondrian is an oil on canvas work measuring 1 foot 6 inches by 1 foot 6 inches.

De Stijl is the Dutch for “the style”. It moves towards absolute pure abstraction. There is an asymmetrical balance and total flatness. The image is simplified and non-representational. There is absolute abstraction without any reference to objects in nature.

The painting has no individual brushstrokes. This is very difficult to do.

Composition with Red, Blue and Yellow uses pure primary colours of white, black, red, blue and yellow. It is abstracted to basic vertical and horizontal elements

Function

The goal was to create a relevant, new art style with the power to unite people. As a result of WWI, people had been so torn apart that they needed something to unite them.

Mondrian felt that pure abstraction was the only relevant, clear, and universal language. This could create the harmony and order the world needed this after WWI.

Content

Primary colors and white and black

Black grid that creates squares and rectangles of white, blue, red, and yellow

Context  

Art needed to reflect a greater universal truth as this was in question after WWI. Art needed to be accessible to everyone and free of cultural association.

Imagine Isenheim Altarpiece or Ndop figure. Depending on your cultural background, you can easily interpret those images or at least get the basic message. However, if it is not familiar to you, you must be taught.

What is the only thing that everyone universally can understand? Formalism and abstraction because there is no message to understand. That is the unifying power of abstraction.

If art is going to be relevant, it must change to become universal.

About the Artist

Piet Mondrian (1872-1944) was one of the founders of the Dutch modern movement De Stijl. He reduced his shapes to lines and rectangles and worked with a minimal color palette. He is best known for his work in the 1920s and 30s.

 

(4) 142. The Jungle.

 Wifredo Lam. Cuban. 1943. Surrealism.

Learning Objective: Surrealist painting (Cuban artist)

Themes:

Race
Landscape
Nature
Cross-cultural
Interpretation of history
West vs Non west
stylized bodies

Museum: MOMA

The Jungle, by Cuban artist Wifredo Lam is a gouache on paper, mounted on canvas artwork measuring 8 feet by 8 feet.  Gouache is an opaque watercolor.

The forms are highly stylized and abstracted. Note the crescent-shaped faces, cloddish hands, feet, and long thin bodies. The color palette features blues, greens, oranges, and whites like in a jungle.

There is an uneasy balance between the composition’s denser top and the more open bottom. There are not enough feet and legs to support all the figures in the top half.

The unorthodox landscape excludes the horizon line, sky, or wide view. Instead, it is tight and cluttered.

Function

This is the artist’s emotional representation of the history of slavery in Lam’s native Cuba. It also illustrates how he thinks contemporary Cubans are viewed by Westerners as exotic and primitive. He uses stereotypes to combat stereotypes. This draws attention to the issues to oppression of Afro-Cubans and the harmful nature of Western stereotypes of the region.

Lam argues Afro-Cuban culture has been reduced to an absurdity, of both the exotic and primitive.

Content

The figures with crescent-shaped faces like African/Pacific masks, are in a landscape of Cuban sugarcane fields.  Lam often utilized symbols of Afro-Cuban culture, particularly Santeria (mix of Catholicism and African spirituality). In Santeria, the supernatural merges with the natural world through masks and animals. The figures are human, animal and mystical all at once.

At the top right, the furthest figure holds a pair of shears in reference to harvesting.

To call it The Jungle suggests a search for a primitive culture. We are not in an urban or civilized area, but an untamed wilderness. Lam paints sugarcane and tobacco which are domesticated plants. Sugarcane is alien to the jungle setting, rather, it is grown in fields.

So why the Jungle? It captures the exotic, wild Western fantasy of tropical Cuba and reduces its inhabitants to strange, mystical hybrids who are not fully “civilized”.

Context

Originally enslaved by Spanish and Portuguese traders, Africans were forced to work sugarcane fields and convert to Catholicism. Africans continued to practice their native religion in the safety of jungles and fields.

In the 1940s in Cuba, sugarcane was big business. It required the toil of thousands of laborers. The reality of Cubans engaged in hard labor was in sharp contrast to how foreigners experienced the island as a tropical playground. While Americans enjoyed Cuba as a resort experience, US corporations ran their sugar businesses. The US controlled Cuban policies for decades.

Lam painted this after returning to Cuba from a trip to Europe where he was introduced to Surrealism. Surrealists aimed to unleash the unconscious mind. This freed things that have been suppressed. It brought with it dream-like distortions.

About the Artist

Wifredo Lam (1902-1982) was a Cuban artist and the grandson of an Afro-Cuban slave. His father was a Chinese immigrant who came to Cuba.

 

(4) 152. House in New Castle County.

 Robert Venturi, John Rauch, and Denise Scott Brown (architects). American. 1978-1983. Architecture: Reaction to Modernism.

Learning Objective: Reaction to Modernist architecture

 

Themes:

Domestic
Private
Innovation
Architecture
Cross-cultural
Appropriation
 

House in New Castle County by architects Robert Venturi, John Rauch, and Denise Scott Brown is a wood frame and stucco building in Delaware, US.

The “front” façade incorporates a floating arched screen in front of the home. This was done because the owners liked bird watching, and it camouflaged them. The “rear” façade was dominated by a pointed arch porch similar to a pediment and supported by four stubby flat “columns” that evoke the Doric order

The is no internal or external symmetry. It is unique and eclectic. Venturi said “Less is a Bore” in reaction to modernism and its simplicity.

Function

House in New Castle County was built as a private residence for a family of three who loved bird watching and music.

For Venturi, this is his summary of his Less is a Bore mentality. Rather than copy a specific style, he borrowed freely, juxtaposing, and reinterpreting different forms from other periods and styles

Content 

• Playfully eclectic
• Mismatched architectural features
• Exterior: Like many traditional American farmhouses and barns, the siding is white and gabled roofs have unstained wooden shingles; Greek temple elements (columns, portico)
• Interior: shows a music room; vaulted ceiling; wood decorations like ribs in a Gothic church; quirky wooden chandelier; you can see windows, with patio and wooden arched screen; colors that are typical for Southwestern styles (peach, turquoise)

The Architectural Team

 Robert Venturi (architect), Denise Scott Brown (wife/partner), John Rauch (Venturi’s business partner)

• Venturi studied architecture at Princeton and the American Academy in Rome
  • Developed a preference for Mannerism and Baroque architecture
• 1966: published a book, Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture (very successful!)
  • Wanted to reject what Le Corbusier (house is a machine for living in) and van der Rohe (less is more) had done
  • Believed structures should have:
    • Contradictions (pieces that don’t traditionally go together)
    • Messy vitality > obvious unity
    • Embrace elements purely for their decorative elements/aesthetic purposes
    • Inspired by styles of the past (opposite of form follows function)

 

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Later Europe and the Americas

1750-1980 Century

TOPIC 4.2 Purpose and Audience in Later European and American Art