Session Four Lecture: French Art in the 1900s

Sharing Period

LeNain exhibit

Talk about exploring Great Museum Marathon; not exploring To Teach Art History

Art through the Centuries

1300s—the Italians invented art.

1400s—during the Renaissance, Italians perfected ideals in art.

1500s—the Italians dominated art with Mannerism and the Venetian School.

1600s—Dutch art had a great flowering with Baroque art.

1700s—the French dominated the art scene with Rococo and Neo-classicism.

Early 1800s
Neo-classicism and romanticism: neo-classicism tends to be grandiose and heroic; romanticism tends to be grandiose and anti-heroic, or iconoclastic.

1840s
Cezanne born 1839
Monet born 1840
Renoir born 1841
Photography invented
Pre-mixed tube paints introduced

All this started to have an effect in the 1860s when the artists matured, and photography and tube paints had become more commonplace.

French Art in the last half of the 1800s
During the 1800s France produced a very large number of great artists who dominated the art world.

Art went along two separate tracks at this time. One track included styles that were extensions of the 18th century. We might call this Salon art or academic art, since these artists were generally accepted into the prestigious salons in France which aimed to set standards for art.

On the other track were artists who refused to conform to academic standards: Impressionism and post-Impressionism. Their work develops into the art of the 20th Century.

Artists on the Academic track got really good at traditional art skills: modeling, perspective, textures, light effects, story telling, creating iconic images. This track sort of dead-ended; their styles represent the end of the old way of making art more than they point to the future.

Artists on the other track had modern attitudes:
Rebelliousness, Questioning attitude, desire for self-expression, interest in the real world as they see it, valuing the fleeting moment over the grand statement.

Slide Show

My main purpose tonight is to show you a lot of slides. The goal is for you to be able to recognize certain artists by their styles. For instance, the best way for you to learn to tell the difference between Manet and Monet is to see many examples of their work.

Catch up from last week:
Ingres's "Grand Odalisque"

Start lecture from here. Work through slides.