Gender
The Impressionist movement coincided with tremendous social, political, and economic changes. Likewise, the movement initiated change by planting the seeds for small but significant cultural revolutions. One of the seeds planted was feminism: the "radical notion that women are people," (Shear, cited by Lord, 2012, p. 173). Nineteenth century France was no different from anywhere else in the world at the time; women were not considered equal. Women lacked the power to vote, and were likewise excluded from positions of power in the worlds of business or education. By the end of the nineteenth century, however, there were whispers of change especially among the bourgeoisie. Change was slow, though. Unmarried women in upper class Parisian society were severely constrained by patriarchy in their daily lives. They could not venture out alone without a chaperone, without serious risk to reputation ("obbins & Wander, 2008). Writing and the arts became legitimate means…...
mlaReferences
"Impressionism, Realism, and Gender Roles as Expressed by Mary Cassatt and Thomas Eakins," (2013). Development of Modern Art FA2012. Retrieved online: http://devofmodartfa2012.blogspot.com/2012/10/impressionism-realism-and-gender-roles.html
Lord, M.G. (2012). The Accidental Feminist. Bloomsbury.
"Paris, Impressionism, and the Rise of the Female Artist," (n.d.). Retrieved online: http://www.angelfire.com/art2/women2/fem4.html
Pfeiffer, I. & Nochlin, L. (2011). Women Impressionists. Retrieved online: http://www.bookforfree.us/PDF/Women-Impressionists-BY-Ingrid-Pfeiffer-Linda-Nochlin-ID12492.pdf
Mary Cassatt and Impressionism
Mary Cassatt was an Impressionist and post-Impressionist painter covering individuals -- especially women and children -- at a time when their role in society at large was becoming more prominent and self-assured. Like herself on the world stage, Cassatt's female subjects demanded attention and investigation, and by looking at one of her works, The Boating Party, in more detail along with some critical information regarding Cassatt and Impressionism in general, it will be possible to see how her choice of subject and style reveal the changes occurring in French society at the end of the nineteenth century, especially as they relate to the representation and centrality of women.
Before considering The Boating Party in more detail, it is useful to begin with a brief examination of Mary Cassatt's earlier life and works as a means of placing this study in a historical and scholarly context and of demonstrating…...
mlaWorks Cited
Cassatt, M. (1893-1894/2011). The boating party. National Gallery of Art. Retrieved from http://www.nga.gov/collection/gallery/ggcassattptg/ggcassattptg-46569.html
Lewis, R, & Lewis, S.I. (2009). The power of art. Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth.
Metropolitan Museum of Art. (1997). Mary cassatt. Retrieved from http://www.metmuseum.org/explore/cassatt/html/index.html
National Endowment for the Humanities. 'The boating party'. Picturing America Artwork,
" In other words, this barmaid "is automatic and impersonal" and reflects the upper-class social nature of Paris with its drinkers and party-goers enjoying themselves immensely while the barmaid merely stares into oblivion as if bored to death with her surroundings and her life (Monan, 2006, 435).
In contrast to these two paintings by Manet, Edgar Degas' Ballet ehearsal (1876, oil on canvas) presents "the infinite variety of particular movements that make up continuous motion" via a group of ballerinas practicing their moves in a spacious studio somewhere in Paris. Obviously, the ballerinas in this painting are part of the upper classes. Artistically, Degas used several devices to bring the viewer into the pictorial space. First, the frame cuts off the spiral staircase, the windows in the background and the group of ballerinas in the right foreground. Second, the rapid diagonals of the bases of the walls and the floorboards "carry…...
mlaReferences
Monan, Berence. (2006). Impressionism. Berlin: Broschiert Sprache.
Muller, Joseph-Emile. (1974). Impressionism. New York: Leon Amiel Publishers.
Pool, Phoebe. (1967). Impressionism in Europe. New York: Thames & Hudson.
Tinterow, Gary. (1994). Impressionism: Styles, Manner and Genres. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art.
The manner in which Cezanne abstractly modulated color in his paintings was seminal to the controversial cubist style. What is more, Pablo Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon simplified previous endeavors in terms of structure by employing a savage two-dimensional angularity, and as such was exponential for early modern art.
Modernist painting, in Clement Greenberg's words, "used art to call attention to art" (193) as opposed to ealism's alleged concealment of art. Formerly inferred drawbacks attached to the limits imposed by the medium of painting, such as the plain surface, the pigment's properties or the shape of the support, were brought to light in modernism and even considered positive elements (Greenberg 195). To list various embodiments of the modern newly found openness and embracing of factors that used to be regarded as glitch, Piet Mondrian's minimalist Composition in Yellow, ed, and Blue, Jack Pollock's abstract expressionist Autumn hythm, Mark othko's 1959 Lavender…...
mlaReference
Greenberg, Clement. Modernist painting. Art and Literature Spring 1965: 193-201
Post-Impressionist artists were interested in the ideas of Friedrich Nietzsche, particularly in his concept of the Ubermensch, a superman who would be capable through intense struggle of surmounting the lower forces that would limit his ability to achieve. The idea that man could evolve beyond his present capacities influenced the relationship of European man to previous cultures and to contemporary but less "civilized" societies. This paper explores the ways in which Paul Gauguin applied the Ubermensch concept to his art and to his life, and examines parallel motifs in the oeuvres of his contemporaries.
The Artist Gauguin: Man, Nature, Ubermensch and God
At the beginning of the enaissance, Massacio painted The Expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden, and initiated a new view of humanity: an intensely personal and emotionalized struggle against fate. In spite of the Neo-Classical return to the formal norms of the past, the human agony…...
mlaReferences
Biography of Gauguin. (November 14, 2002).http://www.abcgallery.com/G/gauguin/gauguinbio/html
Dillon, John K. (1997) The Death of Tragedy: The philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche's Ubermensch. (November 14, 2002).http://www.nsula.edu/scholars_college/Thesisabstracts/HSTtheses/dillon.html
Gauguin, Paul. (1897) Noa: The Tahitian Journal. 1985 ed. Dover Publishing.
Norris, George. (1996) Expressionism: Its Spiritual and Social Voice. (November 15, 2002).http://www.br.cc.va.us/vcca/norris.html
Art Critique
Critique of Surreal and Post-Impressionist Works of Art
Dali's Autumn Cannibalism (1936) http://arthistory.about.com/od/from_exhibitions/ig/dali_retrospective/dali_pma_05_07.htm
Salvador Dali is one of the great and mercurial figures in art history. The surrealistic Spanish painter was influenced heavily by the tumultuous period of history in which he lived and by the haunting images in his own psyche. Both are on dramatic display in the 1936 piece, "Autumn Cannibalism." Here, Dali paints a depiction of the military conflict tearing his motherland apart from within, offering us this terrifying rendering of civil war as seen through the eyes of one consumed by it.
In the confrontation between the social commentary and the internal reflection that comprise this piece, Dali creates a piece that is decidedly representative of the surrealist movement both in aesthetic and motif. In spite of Dali's incredible influence, surrealism was ultimately a short-lived movement, leaving its impression on the art world through a peak lasting from…...
S. were not "hostile" to evangelicalism (Bebbington, p. 367). After II, the Church of Scotland and British Methodism launched "sustained evangelistic thrusts" and in Britain the "National Young Life Campaign" got involved in evangelical activities, Bebbington continued.
The American Presbyterian denominations announced in 1946 that they were to become "a crusading organ for evangelical religion" (Bebbington, p. 367). And when Billy Graham began preaching and healing in the post-II era he did "almost as much" to bring the evangelical movement strength in Britain as he did in the United States, Bebbington asserts. Even in the staid, conservative Church of England there was a "new evangelical revival" by 1959; further promoting the movement was the fact that the British and American evangelical movements linked their talents and strengths across the Atlantic Ocean.
Bebbington notes that the charismatic movement in Britain during the 1960s was in part inspired by the writings of David ilkerson,…...
mlaWorks Cited
Bebbington, David. 1994. Evangelism in Its Settings: The British and American Movements
Since 1940. Eds. Mark a. Noll, David W. Bebbington and George a. Rawlyk, in Evangelicalism: Comparative Studies of Popular Protestantism in North America, the British Isles, and Beyond, 1700-1990. New York: Oxford University Press.
Bebbington, David W., and Bebbington, Davi. 1989. Evangelicalism in Modern Britain: A
History from the 1730s to the 1980s. New York: Routledge.
Monet used brushstrokes and many shades of vivid greens and pinks to portray the garden as if it were viewed through a mist.
In 1910, English writer oger Fry coined the phrase "post impressionism" as he organized an exhibition in London (Shone, 1979, p. 9). Just as the paintings of the impressionists caused a scandal in the art world some forty years earlier, the post impressionist work of artists such as Gaugin and Van Gogh "outraged all notions of what good painting should be" (Shone, p. 9).
The post-impression movement included, in addition to Gaugin and Van Gogh, artists such as Toulouse-Lautrec, Seurat, and the later work of Cezanne. Like the Impressionists, these artists used real-life subjects, portraying them with distinct brushstrokes, thick paint, and bright colors. Times were changing, and the post-Impressionists responded by modernizing what the Impressionists had done, imposing more form and structure to show greater depth of…...
mlaReferences
Brettell, R.R. (1995). Modern French painting and the art museum. Art Bulletin 77 (2).
Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database.
Hill, I.B. (1980). Paintings of the western world: impressionism. New York: Galley Press.
Shone, R. (1979). The post-impressionists. New York: Galley Press.
These pastel-colored etches influenced Degas' late-life paintings. Those were characterized by women frequently engaged in some type of grooming, such as bathing. Rather than the tightly-structured lines of his earlier works, these later works seemed more hurriedly-drawn and less meticulous than his early works.
For example, in oman Drying Her Hair, a pastel on paper, Degas depicts the back of a nude woman, drying her hair. Unlike many of his works, which overtly differentiate between women of different classes and different occupations, this image in the photo is very every-woman. The bather is classically female, but the painting holds no clues as to her lifestyle outside of the bath. Moreover, the work demonstrates Degas' unique use of light, as it contains unrealistic amounts of shadow, almost as if the bather is caste in an artificial light. Though Degas rejected much of what has come to be associated with Impressionism, his…...
mlaWorks Cited
Degas, Edgar. Dancer at Rest, Hands Behind her Back, Right Leg Forward. Brooklyn Museum,
Brooklyn, NY, 1882-1895.
Degas, Edgar. Portrait of Mlle Fiocre in the Ballet "La Source." Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn,
NY, 1867-1868.
" In more general terms, Conrad uses Marlow to give his tale, neither the full close of the plot of earlier fiction, nor James' more limited completeness in the formal structure, but a radical and continuing exposure to the incompleteness of experience and the impossibility of fully understanding it." (Watt, 1978)
The strength of subjectivity as far as perception was concerned is another modern theme. It is safe to state that Conrad managed to prove the profound importance of the subjective dimension in a very complex manner. The stream of consciousness and first person technique which he applied had as a result a process through which the reader completely identified with the inner life of the character.
Naturally all certainty and objectivity is lost in the process and not only does the reader not know where he is going, but he embraces the upcoming transformations as exciting surprises. From this point-of-view we…...
mlaBibliography:
Conrad, J. Heart of Darkness. Norton Critical Edition. Norton and Company Press. 2006
Levenson, M. "The value of facts in the Heart of Darkness." Nineteenth century fiction, vol 40. no. 3. Dec, 1985. pp. 261-280. University of California Press.
Watt, I. "Marlow, Henry James, and "Heart of Darkness." Nineteenth century fiction, vol. 33, no.2, sep. 1978, pp.159-174. University of California Press
Watt, I. "Impressionism and symbolism in Heart of Darkness." Conrad in the nineteenth century. Berkeley. University of California Press. 1979
People often confuse the Expressionists with the Impressionists. Provide a guideline that helps differentiate them. Use technique, artists, and paintings to help state your positions.
As explained by the Economist, an art gallery decided to put the two different art forms side by side so as to show the clear difference between the two. Impressionism happened during the 19th century. The art was typified by brush strokes that were small and narrow. However, the strokes were clearly visible to the naked eye. Light was shown in accurate forms and in the ways it changed depending on the sources of light, what those light sources were and where they were coming from. Artists that typified the Impressionist movement included Claude Monet, Frederick Bazille, Pierre-August enoir and Alfred Sisley. Another big name from the Impressionist movement was Charles Gleyre. The backgrounds for Impressionst paintings were almost always on white or at least lighter…...
mlaReferences
Economist. (2015). Side by side at last. The Economist. Retrieved 19 March 2016, from http://www.economist.com/blogs/prospero/2015/05/impressionism-and-expressionism
HTA. (2016). History, Trade and Art: Art and Artistic Reactions to the Industrial Revolution. Historytradeart.blogspot.com. Retrieved 19 March 2016, from http://historytradeart.blogspot.com/2010/05/art-and-artistic-reactions-to.html
The face of this second presence has been painted in a lighter nuance and his uncombed hair clearly suggests an inferior position on the social ladder. The boy's eyesight is somewhat directed towards the copy of the periodical in the woman's hand and his mouth is open, suggesting his amazement upon gazing at the newspaper.
Finally, the third presence in La evue Blanche is a large shadow, which has been interpreted for years as an angry, child, another woman or other features. The shadow is painted in the same color as the outfit of the woman and the urchin, blurring the contours even more. Against the faces of the two distinguishable characters and the light colored background, the single white presence in the painting is the copy of the periodical held in the woman's hand. This could imply that the periodical is aimed to shad light in a world of…...
mlaReferences
Toulouse-Lautrec: Divas Japonais, San Diego Art Museum, on April 21, 2008http://www.sdmart.org/lautrec/DivanJap.htmllastaccessed
To illustrate these different views, he creates Starry Night over the Rhone. This shows the sense of anticipation that is occurring before the evening begins. As he is depicting, a quit outdoor cafe that is waiting for: the customers to begin arriving and the festivities to commence. To illustrate this sense of anticipation he uses different colors and lighter brush strokes. As there is: yellow, black, blue, tan and gray; to highlight the overall emotions that Van Gogh is feeling (when he reflects on his life in Paris). At the same time, the lighter brush strokes are used to show the changes of time that are taking place, by making the background somewhat blurry. This is important, because it is illustrating how the artist is trying to create that sense of realism and the passage of time, by showing their positive emotions about their past lives. ("Vincent Van Gough,"…...
mlaBibliography
Dance at Le Moulin de la Galette. (2011). Web Museum Paris. Retrieved from:
Impressionism vs. Post-Impressionism
Impressionism vs. Post
This paper will explore impressionism vs. post-impressionism including the influences of each on each other and society, and the effects of each other on the 19th century. The paper will ascertain how one period revived or continued the style and characteristics of the other, or how one period originated in reaction to the other. Impressionist paintings tended to focus less on detail and more on making impressions of form and figure, as the name implies. The brush strokes were less inclined to add detail and structure or order. Post-impressionists considered this trivial, and created artistic work that was decidedly more expressive according to some; more organized and structured, the Post-Impressionist movement could be best described as a response to the Impressionist movement. Some focused on methods including Pointillism, or the use of dots of color, whereas others used bright fresh colors used by Impressionists but reduced…...
mlaReferences:
Brettell, R. 2000. Impression: Painting quickly in France, 1860-1890. New Haven and London: Yale
Denvir, B. 1990. The Thames and Hudson Encyclopaedia of Impressionism. London: Thames and Hudson.
Sweeny, J.J. 1996. Post-Impressionism. Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia, Microsoft Corp.
Tinterow, G. And Henri Loyrette. 1994. Origins of Impressionism. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
He began with very fuzzy looking works of light and sun, then began to paint more sharply drawn works, especially of women. His earliest works have urban subjects. They are typical "Impressionist snapshots of real life, full of sparkling colour and light," but by "the mid-1880s," Renior "had broken with the movement to apply a more disciplined, formal technique to portraits and figure paintings, particularly of women" such as his "Bathers," painted slowly over the course of the years of 1884-87. (Picoch, 2002)
Edgar Degas -- representing movement and the working class
Of all the Impressionists, Edgar Degas is acknowledged as the master of drawing the human figure in motion. Degas worked in many mediums, preferring pastels to oils. He is perhaps best known for his paintings, drawings, and bronzes of ballerinas and of race horses. Movement's ability to engage in the expressive aims of impressionism is what is important. "These…...
mlaWorks Cited
Burns, Sarah. "Cassatt, Mary." World Book Online Reference Center. 2005. World Book, Inc. .[12 Aug 2005]
'Camille Pissarro." Encyclopedia Britannica. 1994. Web Museum Paris. Aug 2005]http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/pissarro/ [12
Cox, Phyllis, Fran Hyder, Sandra Gibson, Myra Douglas, & Alan Bishop,
2003 Web Quest Aug 2005]http://www.spa3.k12.sc.us/WebQuests/Impressionism/[12
Certainly! Here are the answers to your art analysis worksheet, part one, with proper spacing and format:
1. Title of the artwork: The Starry Night
Artist: Vincent van Gogh
Year of creation: 1889
Medium: Oil on canvas
2. Formal analysis:
- Line: Van Gogh uses bold, curvy lines to depict the swirling sky and cypress trees. Short, thin brushstrokes are used for details.
- Shape: The artwork features various organic shapes like the crescent moon, stars, and swirling clouds.
- Color: A vibrant and contrasting color palette is used, with deep blues dominating the sky, complemented by the yellow stars and tree....
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