Monday April 19, 1999

Announcements:

• none

    Barbizon (continued)

• naturalistic landscape painting
• precursor to Impressionism
• members participated in "plein aire" (open air) painting
• painting directly before the object in the open air
• interested in recording accurately

• one of the founders of the Barbizon School
• accuracy
• strong contrasts of light and dark
• similar to Constable
• "portraits" of trees
• human figures are in harmony with land and the greater forces
• human are not dominant in the landscape

    ...one exception to the dominance of the land and minimized human figures:
    Jean-Francois Millet

• from a family of landed peasants (not as wealthy as Courbet's, though)
• Barbizon, but painted human figures prominently

• golden light
• uses light in an almost sacramental way
• counterpoint to Courbet's "Stonebreakers"
• not portraiture
• the identity of the women working is not important
• exaggeration of the exertion involved
• controversial at the time because emphasized labor/class disparity

• very popular in 19th Century France
• populous could relate to the religious theme
• call to evening prayer at Roman Catholic church
• figure caught in the midst of their labor
• unable to get to the church in time, they pray in the field
• devoutness part of the popular appeal

    Major Ideas and Developments of the mid- to late- 19th Century

• departing from the pictorial tradition
• Raphael's "Marriage of the Virgin" (1504) to Gauguin's "Vision After the Sermon" (1888)
• subject matter more personal
• unorthodox use of space
• Gauguin's red earth and bisecting tree (in "Vision After the Sermon")
• relation between artist and society changes
• artist perceives him/herself as outside of society
• society perceives the artist as being an outsider
• painters commit themselves to recording contemporary events (Courbet's "Burial at Ornan")
• Manet
• moves away from art as a window
• explores techniques, rather than placing the emphasis on creating an accurate representation of the subject
• Impressionism
• new level of subjectivity (Monet's "Le Grenouillere")
• some formal exploration (Caillebotte's "On the Europe Bridge")
• perspective, angles
• contemporary subject matter
• marks last period of "ease" in painting"; turn of the century brings "unease"
• a result of new approaches to painting
• socio-political conditions (especially those leading up to WWI)
• Post-Impressionism
• follows similar paths as Impressionism, but with a more radical approach
• speaks through emotion
• work with color, spatial depth
• "Mont Ste.-Victoire," Cezanne, 1897-1900
• formal investigation in art
• Picasso's "Demoissles d'Avignon", 1907
• beginning of Cubism
• deconstruction of figures, reality, stability
• fragmentation
• awareness of the role of the artist
• questioning "what is art?"
• no such thing as "appopriate/suitable subject matter"

    "A Bar at the Folies-Bergeres," Manet, 1881-82

• process of painting is important
• is not an extension of reality, not a window
• is just paint and cloth, flat decoration on canvas
• Manet paints emerging society of Paris
• waitress, mirror
• through the mirror we see what she is seeing
• is she a prostitute?/male client's reflection
• contemporary subject matter
• multiple focuses
• mirrored images do not coordinate will
• contradictory visual experiences
• freely painted, not highly polished, like "Moorish Bath"

• academic painting, type accepted by Salon
• not innovative
• exotic, invented scene
• Oriental subject matter (very popular at the time)