First visit

On the 8^th of March I went to a visit of the National Museum of Fine Arts. Some names of practitioners are Giuseppe Cali, J.M.W. Turner,  Antoine Favray, Valentin de Boulogne , Emvin Cremona, Filippo Paladini, Melchiorre Cafa, Jusepe de Ribera and Mattia Preti. These are some works that were recorded:



Antoine de Favray (1706-1798) The visit



Antoine de Favray (1706-1798) Portrait of Maria Amalia Grognet 

Claude-Joseph Vernet (1714-1789) Fire on the Tiber

 





Giovanni Odazzi (1663-1731)Triumph of Faith



Francesco De Mura (1696-1782) Allegory of Malta

 

Carlo Maratta Madonna and child with infant st. John the Baptist 





Japonisme

Otani Oniji II, dated 1794
Toshusai Sharaku (Japanese, active 1794–95)

In 1853 Japanese ports reopened to trade with the West – therefore, a lot of foreign imports flooded European shores. Among the foreign imports were woodcut prints by masters of the Ukiyo-e school which transformed Impressionist and Post- Impressionist art by showing that simple, everyday subjects from “the floating world” could be presented in beautiful, decorative ways.

Japan occupied a pavilion at the world’s Fair of 1867. At this time, Parisians saw their first formal exhibition of Japanese arts and crafts. Ships had already started to bring oriental bric-a-brac (including fans, kimonos, lacquers, bronzes and skills) into England and France.

Kinryusan Temple at Asakusa: From the series One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, Edo period (1615–1868), 1856
Ando Hiroshige (Japanese, 1797–1858)

James Whistler discovered Japanese prints in a Chinese tearoom near London Bridge and in a spice shop in Holland, some were being used as wrapping paper by Claude Monet. The earliest collectors of Japanese art in France were the two friends James Tissot and Edgar Degas. Degas didn’t like models dressed in kimonos and the conspicuous display of oriental props.

Reference:
Japonisme | Thematic Essay | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 2013. Japonisme | Thematic Essay | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/jpon/hd_jpon.htm.

Impressionism



The Monet Family in Their Garden at Argenteuil, 1874
Édouard Manet (French, 1832–1883)

Impressionism began in the late 1860’s in France. In 1874 an exhibition was organized by a group of artists called the Anonymous Society of Painters, Sculptures and Printmakers in Paris that launched the movement called Impressionism. The members of this group were Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, Sisley and Edgar Degas. This group was known for its independence from the official annual Salon, for which a jury of artists from the Académie des Beaux- Arts selected art works and awarded medals. While a lot of critics were criticised for their work for its unfinished, sketchlike appearance, a lot of talented writers loved it because it is was a representation of modern life. For example a writer Edmond Duranty in his essay in 1876 “La Nouvelle Peinture “ (The New Painting), wrote about their representation of contemporary subject matter in an innovative style as a revolution in painting. A title was not chosen to imply a unified movement: some of the painters invented a name by which they would eventually be known – “The Impressionists”. Today their work is known for its modernity, (with established styles), its incorporation of new technology and ideas, and its presentation of modern life.

Young Woman Seated on a Sofa, ca. 1879
Berthe Morisot (French, 1841–1895)

Reference:
Impressionism: Art and Modernity | Thematic Essay | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 2013. Impressionism: Art and Modernity | Thematic Essay | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/imml/hd_imml.htm.

Jules Cheret

Jules Cheret

Jules Cheret was known as the father of the poster. He was born in Paris on May 31, 1836 in a family of artisans. Because his family was poor, Cheret left school at the age of 13. His father, who was a typographer, placed Jules Cheret in a three year apprenticeship with a lithographer. French lithographer, poster-designer and painter, Cheret’s formal training in art was limited to a course at the Ecole Nationale de Dessin, Paris, as a pupil of Horace Lecoq de Bois Baurden. Cheret wasn’t satisfied that he was able to sell sketches to various music publishers in Paris. To find a way to earn more money in his career as an artist, he left Paris and went to London. However, Cheret felt frustrated and so, after a short period of time, he returned to Paris with no money, after doing some drawings for the Maple Furniture Company. But this didn’t make him to give up - he continued to persevere. His first commission, after arriving in Paris, was to create a poster and he later became known as ”The Master of the Poster”!      

Reference:

• Cheret.Info - The Life and Art of French Painter Jules Cheret. 2013. Cheret.Info - The Life and Art of French Painter Jules Cheret. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.cheret.info/.

Joseph Mallord William Turner

Joseph Mallord William Turner was known as an English Romantic landscape painter, water-colourist and print- maker, whose style can be said to have started Impressionism. Although in his day Turner was considered as a controversial figure, he is now regarded as the artist who made landscape painting as important as history painting. When he was still a teenager his work was already exhibited. His entire life was devoted to his art. He was successful throughout his career, unlike many artists of his era. Turner left his more than 19,000 watercolours, drawings and oils to the British nation. Most of his works are in the National Gallery, London but many of Turner’s oils have deteriorated badly.   

 

The Pass of St. Gotthard, Switzerland

 

References:

• William Turner - The complete works. 2013. William Turner - The complete works. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.william-turner.org/.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jean Desire Gustave Courbet

Jean Desire Gustave Courbet

Jean Desire Gustave Courbet was born on 10^th June 1891 and died on 31^st December 1877. Courbet was a French painter who was a leader of the realist movement in 19^th century French painting. Courbet said “I am fifty years old and I have always lived in freedom; let me end my life; when I am dead let this be said of me: ‘He belonged to no school, to no church, to no institution, to no academy, least of all to any regime except the regime of liberty”. Courbet was best known as an innovator in realism. He was a painter of figurative compositions, landscapes and seascapes. He also did some work about peasantry and the horrendous working conditions of the poor. His work didn’t belonged to the predominant Romantic or Neoclassical schools. Courbet believed that the pursuit of truth was the realist artist’s mission, helping to remove unfairness in society.

 

Jo, the Beautiful Irish Girl, 1866

 

Reference:

• Gustave Courbet - The complete works. 2013. Gustave Courbet - The complete works. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.gustavecourbet.org/.

 

 

 

                                 

Industrial Revolution

During the time known as the Industrial Revolution, there were many basic changes in agriculture, textile, and metal manufacture, transportation, economic policies and the social structure in England. The year 1760 is generally accepted as the “eve” of the Industrial Revolution, but in reality the Industrial Revolution began more than two centuries before this date. Because of improvements in agriculture techniques and practices, there was a more efficient supply of food and raw materials. Also, changes in industrial organization and modern technology resulted in greater production and profits. The increase in commerce (foreign and domestic) also helped to start the Industrial Revolution. Agriculture was very important in the English way of life of this time. Every year, wool and cotton production for the manufacture of cloth was increasing and did food crops were improving too. In the early 18th century improvements in the iron industry arrived. For example, Abraham Darby successfully produced pig iron smelted with coke (and not charcoal). Transportation influenced the cost and availability of manufactured products and was a means of advanced communications. Therefore, the advances of the transportation industry had an effect on the industrial revolution. The steam development was the greatest technical achievement of the industrial revolution. Before the industrialization in England, land was the most important source of wealth. The conditions in which people lived in the industrial factory towns were bad, but the conditions in which they worked were horrendous!

Reference:

• 81.02.06: The Industrial Revolution. 2013. 81.02.06: The Industrial Revolution. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1981/2/81.02.06.x.html.

Realism

Realism

The realist movement in French art lasted from about 1840 until the late 19^th century. Realism arrived after the revolution of 1848 that overturned the monarchy of Louis-Philippe and developed during the period of the second Empire under Napoleon III. The realist wanted to paint accurately and in a truthful way. Modern subjects taken from the everyday lives of the working class. Realism was based on what the artist saw exactly of the modern world. In 1861 Gustave Courbet said “painting is an essentially concrete art and can only consist in the representation of real and existing things”. Courbet (1819-1877) became the leading artist of the realism movement by going against the previous styles of painting, preferred at the official salons and the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, the state-sponsored art academy. Courbet exhibited some work at the Paris Salons of 1849 and 1850-51 A Burial at Ornans and The stonebreaker.  

A Burial at the Ornans

       

 

 

The Stone Breaker

 

 

References:

• Nineteenth-Century French Realism | Thematic Essay | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 2013. Nineteenth-Century French Realism | Thematic Essay | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/rlsm/hd_rlsm.htm.

Romanticism

Romanticism

Romanticism is a movement of the arts and literature that originated in the late 18^th century. It transformed poetry, the novel, drama, painting, sculpture, all forms of concert music (especially opera) and ballet. It was closely connected with the politics of the time, reflecting people’s fears, hopes and inspirations. It was the voice of revolution at the beginning of the 19^th century but the voice of the establishment at the end of it. After the revolution in 1789 the revolutionaries tried to create a republic organised around new ideas but people generally were disappointed by these new values and therefore turned to romanticism because of its emphasis on imagination and emotion. Most of early romanticism was shaped by artists, including Baron Antoine-Jean Gros, Anne-Louis Girrodet-Trioson and Jean-Aguste-Domenique Ingres. Some paintings that were painted in this time are Apothesis of Homer by Ingres and the Death of Sardanapalus by Eugene Delacroix.

Apothesis of Homer

Death of Sardanaplaus

References:

• Romanticism. 2013. Romanticism. [ONLINE] Available at: http://public.wsu.edu/~brians/hum_303/romanticism.html.
• Romanticism | Thematic Essay | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 2013. Romanticism | Thematic Essay | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/roma/hd_roma.htm.