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6. The Roots of Modern Art: Realism, Photography and Impressionism

After 1822: The development of Photography 1 2

  • Photography is a controversial fine art medium, simply because it is difficult to classify—is it an art or a science?
  • it was not until the invention of a light-sensitive surface by Frenchman Joseph Nicéphore Niépce that the basic principle of photography was born.
  • Louis Daguerre invented a new process he dubbed a DaguerroType in 1839, which significantly reduced exposure time and created a lasting result but only produced a single image.
  • At the same time, Englishman William Henry Fox Talbot was experimenting with what would eventually become his calotype method, patented in February 1841.
  • The collodion method was introduced in 1851. This process involved fixing a substance known as gun cotton onto a glass plate, allowing for an even shorter exposure time (3-5 minutes), as well as a clearer image.
  • Both the difficulties of the method and the uncertain but growing status of photography were lampooned by Honoré Daumier in his Nadar Elevating Photography to the Height of Art (1862). Nadar, one of the most prominent photographers in Paris at the time, was known for capturing the first aerial photographs from the basket of a hot air balloon.
  • In 1878, new advances decreased the exposure time to 1/25th of a second, allowing moving objects to be photographed and lessening the need for a tripod. This new development is celebrated in Eadweard Muybridge’s sequence of photographs called Galloping Horse (1878).
  • Finally, in 1888 George Eastman developed the dry gelatin roll film, making it easier for film to be carried. Eastman also produced the first small inexpensive cameras, allowing more people access to the technology.

Mid 1800s: Academic Art 3

  • The Romans of the Decadence (1847) by Thomas Couture is a prime example of Academic art, which was the dominant style in France during the mid-19th century.
  • The question was: should the artist embrace the new modern methods of photography or continue to paint in the traditional style?

After 1848: Realism 4 5

  • The Royal Academy supported the age-old belief that art should be instructive, morally uplifting, refined, inspired by the classical tradition, a good reflection of the national culture, and, above all, about beauty.
  • In 1863 the poet and art critic Charles Baudelaire published an essay entitled “The Painter of Modern Life,” which declared that the artist must be of his/her own time.
  • Gustave Courbet was the first artist to declare himself a Realist, and his painting The Stonebreakers (1849) was a turning point in the history of art.
  • Thomas Eakins was an American Realist painter who was also a pioneer in the field of photography. His painting The Gross Clinic (1875) was a controversial piece that depicted a surgery in progress.

Late 1800s: Impressionism and Post-Impressionism 6 7 8 9 10

  • The group of artists who became known as the Impressionists did something ground-breaking in addition to painting their sketchy, light-filled canvases: they established their own exhibition.
  • In Paris at this time, there was one official, state-sponsored exhibition—called the Salon—and very few art galleries devoted to the work of living artists.
  • For most of the nineteenth century then, the Salon was the only way to exhibit your work (and therefore the only way to establish your reputation and make a living as an artist).
  • The works exhibited at the Salon were chosen by a jury—which could often be quite arbitrary.
  • The artists we know today as Impressionists are: Claude Monet, August Renoir, Edgar Degas, Berthe Morisot, and Alfred Sisley.
  • They all had experienced rejection by the Salon jury in recent years and felt that waiting an entire year between exhibitions was too long. They needed to show their work and they wanted to sell it.
  • The artists pooled their money, rented a studio that belonged to the photographer Nadar, and set a date for their first collective exhibition. They called themselves the Anonymous Society of Painters, Sculptors, and Printmakers and their first show opened at about the same time as the annual Salon in May 1874. The Impressionists held eight exhibitions from 1874 through 1886.
  • The impressionists regarded Manet as their inspiration and leader in their spirit of revolution, but Manet had no desire to join their cooperative venture into independent exhibitions.
  • The paintings of Neoclassical and Romantic artists had a finished appearance. The Impressionists’ completed works looked like sketches, fast and preliminary “impressions” that artists would dash off to preserve an idea of what to paint more carefully at a later date.
  • Courbet, Manet and the Impressionists also challenged the Academy’s category codes. The Academy deemed that only “history painting” was a great painting. These young Realists and Impressionists questioned the long-established hierarchy of subject matter.

Japonisme 11 12

  • After Japanese ports reopened to trade with the West in 1853, a tidal wave of foreign imports flooded European shores. On the crest of that wave were woodcut prints by masters of the ukiyo-e school, which transformed Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art by demonstrating that simple, transitory, everyday subjects from “the floating world” could be presented in appealingly decorative ways.

Additional Resources 13 14

References

  1. Easby, R. J. (n.d.). Early Photography: Niépce, Talbot and Muybridge. https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/ap-art-history/later-europe-and-americas/enlightenment-revolution/a/early-photography-nipce-talbot-and-muybridge ↩

  2. George Eastman Museum. The Daguerreotype—Photographic Processes Series—Chapter 2 of 12 [Video]. (2014, December 12) YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d932Q6jYRg8 ↩

  3. Couture, Romans of the Decadence (video). (n.d.). Khan Academy. https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/becoming-modern/avant-garde-france/second-empire/v/thomas-couture-romans-of-the-decadence-1847 ↩

  4. Gersh-Nesic, B. (n.d.). A beginner’s guide to Realism. Khan Academy. https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/becoming-modern/avant-garde-france/realism/a/a-beginners-guide-to-realism ↩

  5. Heroes of modern surgery: Eakins’ Dr. Gross and Dr. Agnew [Video]. (n.d.). Khan Academy. https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-americas/us-art-19c/realism-us/v/eakins-gross-agnew ↩

  6. Gersh-Nesic, B. (n.d.). A beginner’s guide to Impressionism. Khan Academy. https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/becoming-modern/avant-garde-france/impressionism/a/a-beginners-guide-to-impressionism ↩

  7. The Art Assignment. (2019, October 17). The Case for Impressionism. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tw51Eh9vcw ↩

  8. Pollitt, B. (n.d.). Cassatt, Little Girl in a Blue Armchair. Khan Academy. https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/becoming-modern/avant-garde-france/impressionism/a/cassatt-little-girl-in-a-blue-armchair ↩

  9. What is Post-Impressionist Art? (n.d.) Google Arts and Culture https://g.co/arts/7w6s7xuepi8LnoBL7 ↩

  10. Harris, B. and Steve Zucker. (n.d.) An introduction to the painting of Paul Cézanne. Khan Academy. https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/becoming-modern/avant-garde-france/post-impressionism/a/an-introduction-to-paul-czanne ↩

  11. Ives, C. (2004). Japonisme. Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/jpon/hd_jpon.htm ↩

  12. Asian Art Museum. (2015, September 29). Looking East: How Japan Inspired Monet, Van Gogh, and Other Western Artists. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvDJFxnXlsU ↩

  13. nationalgalleries. (2020, August 17). Tour of Impressionism and Post-Impressionism at the Scottish National Gallery Video. YouTube. https://youtu.be/pfrzTStTtRI ↩

  14. Berman, D. (n.d.). The Formation of a French School: The Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture. Khan Academy. https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/renaissance-reformation/rococo-neoclassicism/rococo/a/the-formation-of-a-french-school-the-royal-academy-of-painting-and-sculpture ↩