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How has art influenced history essay
How has art influenced history essay
How has art influenced history essay
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On Delacroix and Courbet
The period surrounding 1781 to 1855 in France’s history is united by social and political change, an evolution of ideological struggles towards the best possible political struggle amongst anchoring human faults. The life of the artist too underwent change and struggled with the hierarchy that existed to validate artistic triumph. Changes are apparent amongst a broad spectrum, including David, Ingres, history paintings and caricatures. Artists that demonstratively epitomize the shifts, overwhelmingly united by a shift from acceptance to defiance, are Eugene Delacroix (1789 – 1863) and Gustave Courbet (1819 – 1877). Artistic and cultural differences that developed are transparent through understanding of the paradigmatic differences of these two artists. This essay will identify motivating factors in the two artists’ work, explore how they interact with one another, and, ultimately, validate their significance and vitality within the history of French painting. Delacroix and Courbet will both be ultimately described as triumphant in defiance, possessors and enablers of creativity.
To start with the end, Courbet is an artist that triumphed defiance through definitions. Courbet’s work was bold in subject matter, just like the artist's lifestyle. To understand this as a success, we must consider an artist directly involved in the height of the artistic institution – Delacroix, the Romantic painter. Romantic painters were from what Baudelaire calls "… the most recent, the latest expression of the beautiful." Delacroix’s work shows an artist that believes in following the way of his predecessors, to grow from what he is dealt. Courbet’s work shows an artist who insists on forging his o...
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... "no single focus of attention...no exchange of gaze or glance... it was it's declared lack of significance which offended most of all..." Ultimately, the vitality of Courbet is in his revolutionary approach, which placed emphasis on subjects taken from contemporary life while rejecting the historical and fictional subject matter that was favored by the French Academy.
Courbet and Delacroix both put pointed personal opinions into their paintings. Courbet is from a time where virtually everything – art, politics, etc. – is up in the air. Delacroix’s place is just before this, after history paintings have grown wary and innovation becomes achievable. Little remains consistent in the politics of France or the art system itself. These two artists paved the way for less resistance and more embracement of defiance, culminating in the redefining of defiance as art.
In the Enseigne, art is also shown to serve a function that it has always fulfilled in every society founded on class differences. As a luxury commodity it is an index of social status. It marks the distinction between those who have the leisure and wealth to know about art and posses it, and those who do not. In Gersaint’s signboard, art is presented in a context where its social function is openly and self-consciously declared. In summary, Watteau reveals art to be a product of society, nevertheless he refashions past artistic traditions. Other than other contemporary painters however, his relationship to the past is not presented as a revolt, but rather like the appreciative, attentive commentary of a conversational partner.
By paying attention to elements such as subject matter, light, form, and placement of figures, we can see how these enhance the ideals depicted by each form of art. As a result, we can understand how Neo-Classical art is an attempt to counter the values of Rococo. Rococo is a form of art directly targeted to the privileged. Because not everyone in society belongs to the aristocracy, the Neo-Classicist wanted to impose order as an alternative to the frivolous life style. As a result, we have to works of art that challenge each other’s ideals. The theme of infidelity versus loyalty and how one arrives at the decision made is animated in the works of Fragonard and David. However, it is important to note that there is no right or wrong form of art, although it may seem that this was the common perception of the time. In conclusion, both works of are similar in one important aspect; they are both works of art.
The Renaissance Period is widely known for the abundance of amazing portraiture that circulated around Europe. During the Renaissance, Albrecht Dürer, a German artist painted a self-portrait in 1500 that had qualities that differed from the usual style of artist in that time (Chauhan). Jean Clouet also painted a portrait for the King of France and became the official court painter. Both artists had a talent for portraiture, while their styles were quite different. King Francis I wanted to be seen as a powerful man, and appointed Clouet to paint him in a classically renaissance way that highlights his wealth and authority. Dürer, described as a cocky, self-centered man, painted himself in a light that is unique and puts him on a ‘holy’ pedestal (Stokstad 356). In this essay I will show how although both paintings have clear differences with their style, both men in the compositions are conveyed in a great and very powerful sense.
Many classic books of literature of the French Enlightenment era comes from the famous author Francois-Marie Arouet, better known as his pen name, Voltaire.The French author was born on November 21st, 1694 and died May 30th, 1778 in the city of Paris. He started school at the Jesuit College of Louis-le-Grand at the age of 10 and graduated in 1711 with a motive of being a writer. However, Voltaire’s father did not agree with his choice of study and wanted Voltaire to study law. He went back to school to study law for another two years after his graduation. Voltaire was sent to The Hague, Netherlands in order to act as a secretary to the French ambassador at the time. During his visit, he became infatuated with Catherine Olympe de Noyer. Due to his love affair, Voltaire was discharged from the Dutch country to France “disinherited, and threatened with exile to the New World.” (Stanley 67). A few years later, Voltaire was accused of writing two satiric poems against the French regime because of his reputation in writing and was imprisoned at the Bastille from 1717 to 1718. During the time spent inside the prison, Voltaire wrote the tragedy called the Oedipe. After being released, Voltaire adopted the new of De Voltaire due to the commonness of the original name. His father died in 1722 and was released from his control. Voltaire also met Jean-Jacques Rousseau, a Genevan philosopher, the same year in Brussels, Belgium. From 1726 to 1728, Voltaire was sentenced to another term in the Bastille and exiled to England due to an encounter with “his growing squadron of enemies and spearheaded Chevalier de Rohan” (Stanley 67). He met the author by the name of Jonathan Swift during his exile. Voltaire was able to re-enter France in 1729, and p...
Before Impressionism came to be a major movement (around 1870-1800s), Neoclassical and Romanticism were still making their impacts. Remembering last week’s lesson, we know that both those styles were different in the fact that one was based on emotion, while the other was practical and serious. However, one thing they both shared was the fact that the artists were trying to get a message across; mostly having to do with the effects of the French Revolution, and/or being ordered to do so. With Impressionism, there is a clear difference from its predecessors.
Goldwater, Robert and Marco Treves (eds.). Artists on Art: from the XIV to the XX Century. New York: Pantheon Books, 1945.
After the peaceful and productive Baroque era came the Rococo, and then the period of Romanticism and Realism. Art from this era was very similar to the Rococo period, save one element; the tumult of the French Revolution. The tension from this historical tragedy came out in many paintings, even though they were created twenty to thirty years after the end of the Revolution. Paintings such as Goya's Third of May (27-11) and Delacroix's Liberty Leading the People portray the terrible effects of mislead ideas. The rest of the world took after the humanistic thoughts injected into some of the art; the Revolution had been influential, but not good in a very good way.
“Philosophers, writers, and artists expressed disillusionment with the rational-humanist tradition of the Enlightenment. They no longer shared the Enlightenment's confidence in either reason's capabilities or human goodness.” (Perry, pg. 457) It is interesting to follow art through history and see how the general mood of society changed with various aspects of history, and how events have a strong connection to the art of the corresponding time.
Through the modernist period, the criticism of higher powers over social, economic and political injustice often became subject through artistic medium, artist’s using their platform to publicise the new arising of anti-monarch philosophies, and questioning of the corrupt and unjust workings of the class system. The politically critical art of Honoré Daumier (1808- 1879) offers an insight to that of the social upheaval in 19th century France and the dawn of the individualism and controversial class criticism of the modernist artistic era, juxtaposing to Steve Lambert’s Capitalism Works for Me! (2011) a contemporary art project which calls for the public interaction to form an audience awareness of the effects of such a political and economic
Delacroix created more than 850 paintings, drawings, murals and other works in his career. Delacroix’s most influential work and most romantic is Liberty Leading the People. It was also called “le 28 Juillet and La Liberte conduissant le people aux barricades”. The French Revolution, 1830, inspired the last of his paintings to be called Romantic. Delacroix’s technique was to apply contrasting colors, creating a vibrant effect with small brush strokes.
In this essay, I shall try to examine how great a role colour played in the evolution of Impressionism. Impressionism in itself can be seen as a linkage in a long chain of procedures, which led the art to the point it is today. In order to do so, colour in Impressionism needs to be placed within an art-historical context for us to see more clearly the role it has played in the evolution of modern painting. In the late eighteenth century, for example, ancient Greek and Roman examples provided the classical sources in art. At the same time, there was a revolt against the formalism of Neo-Classicism. The accepted style was characterised by appeal to reason and intellect, with a demand for a well-disciplined order and restraint in the work. The decisive Romantic movement emphasized the individual’s right in self-expression, in which imagination and emotion were given free reign and stressed colour rather than line; colour can be seen as the expression for emotion, whereas line is the expression of rationality. Their style was painterly rather than linear; colour offered a freedom that line denied. Among the Romanticists who had a strong influence on Impressionism were Joseph Mallord William Turner and Eugéne Delacroix. In Turner’s works, colour took precedence over the realistic portrayal of form; Delacroix led the way for the Impressionists to use unmixed hues. The transition between Romanticism and Impressionism was provided by a small group of artists who lived and worked at the village of Barbizon. Their naturalistic style was based entirely on their observation and painting of nature in the open air. In their natural landscape subjects, they paid careful attention to the colourful expression of light and atmosphere. For them, colour was as important as composition, and this visual approach, with its appeal to emotion, gradually displaced the more studied and forma, with its appeal to reason.
O’Donnell, Sr., Joseph J.. “Art and the French Revolution”. The Eerie Digest, May 2013. Web. 5th May 2013.
At age 13 Le Corbusier had finished and left grade school to move on to attend Arts Decoratifs in his home city of La Chaux-de-Fonds. Here a young Le would learn the art of facing watches, just like his father, through enameling and engraving. While attending Arts Decoratifs Le Corbusier was under the influence of his teacher L’ Eplattenier who he would later refer to as his “Master” and only teacher. Under L’ Eplattenier’s instruction a young Le Corbusier would learn the history of art, drawing and the naturalistic attributes of newly developed art. With his in depth teachings of art Le Corbusier soon abandoned his previous career of watch making and further continued his education in decoration and art intending to eventually...
During the 19th century, a great number of revolutionary changes altered forever the face of art and those that produced it. Compared to earlier artistic periods, the art produced in the 19th century was a mixture of restlessness, obsession with progress and novelty, and a ceaseless questioning, testing and challenging of all authority. Old certainties about art gave way to new ones and all traditional values, systems and institutions were subjected to relentless critical analysis. At the same time, discovery and invention proceeded at an astonishing rate and made the once-impossible both possible and actual. But most importantly, old ideas rapidly became obsolete which created an entirely new artistic world highlighted by such extraordinary talents as Vincent Van Gogh, Eugene Delacroix, Paul Gauguin, Paul Cezanne, Toulouse-Lautrec, and Claude Monet. American painting and sculpture came around the age of 19th century. Art originated in Paris and other different European cities. However, it became more popular in United States around 19th century.
This discontent also had a big influence on artists, and they reacted differently as a result of it. Courbet painted pictures of labourers and everyday scenes, which was revolutionary for his time. Seurat developed his individual...