Art and Society in the Late 19th Century
As the chapter on “To the Age its Art” in Discovering the Western Past explains, the painting of the period 1890-1914 expresses a sense of doubt or rejection of the rational and optimistic values of the nineteenth century. Artists increasingly turned against the traditional rules for how paintings should be made. Instead, they made paintings that expressed their quests for an individual vision of the world. Often, they deliberately distorted the way people and objects appear. At the time they were painted, most of these works were rejected by the general public; in some cases, there were protests and riots when they were exhibited. The fact that the paintings of artists like Klimt, Picasso, and Duchamp are now regarded as masterpieces tells us something important about how definitions of art and beauty have changed over the past century.
I. The tradition of high art (first half of 19th century)
A. Neo-classicisim: Ingres (French, 1780-1867): Apotheosis of Homer
B. Romanticism: Delacroix (French, 1798-1863): Greece Expiring on the Ruins of Missolonghi
II. The new styles of the late 19th century
A. Impressionsim: Monet (French, 1840-1926): Bridge at Bougival
B. Post-Impressionism
1. Seurat (French, 1859-1891): Sunday Afternoon on la Grande Jatte
2. Van Gogh (Dutch, 1853-1890): La Berceuse
3. Gauguin (French, 1848-1905): Spirit of the Dead Watches
C. Expressionism
1. Munch (Norwegian, 1863-1944): Scream
2. Klimt (Austrian, 1862-1918): Kiss
3. Kirchner (German): Girl With Doll
4. Grosz (German, 1893-1959): Funeral
D. Primitivism: H. Rousseau (French, 1844-1910), Dream
E. Cubism
1. Picasso (Spanish, 1881-1973): Demoiselles d’Avignon
2. Duchamp (French, 1887-1968): Nude Descending a Staircase
Novelist Emile Zola explains the painting of his friends, the Impressionists: “This study of light in its thousand decompositions and recompositions is what has been called, more or less properly, Impressionism because by it a painting becomes the impression of a moment experienced in nature… They have been justifiably accused of drawing their inspiration from Japanese prints… It is certain that our dark school of painting… has been surprised and forced to rethink things when faced with the limpid horizons, the beautiful vibrant spots of the Japanese water-colorists. There was in these works a simplicity of means and an intensity of performance which struck our young artists and drove them on to this path of painting soaked in air and light…”
A Twentieth-Century Artist Explains the Reasons for the New Turn in Painting (from Wassily Kandinsky, “Concerning the Spiritual in Art”): “When religion, science and morality are shaken (the last by the strong hand of Nietzsche) and when outer supports threaten to fall, man withdraws his gaze from externals and turns it inward. Literature, music and art are the most sensitive spheres in which this spiritual revolution makes itself felt.”