CHAPTER 30
Europe and America, 1800 to 1870
1.  Read the chapter.  View this site on "Nineteenth-Century French Realism."
2.  Art terms and vocabulary you should know:
Sublime, revivalism,  Romanticism, picturesque, lithography, engravings, diorama, daguerrotype,  "The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood"

Pauline Borghese as Venus by Antonio Canova, 1808. (See page 854, Gardner text).
3.  Ideas, issues, items for discusson:
  • Who are the artists and what are the issues of "the terrible and the sublime"(the dark side) of Romanticism?  See pages 784-786.
  • Comment on the explanation of mental illness and insanity in art as against "enlightenment rationality."  Why were such images popular then, as well as today?  See page 789.
  • What is behind the quarrel between the Poussinistes and the Rubenistes?  See pages 790-793.
  • Discuss the development "and the allure" of landscape painting in the United States.  See pages 796-798.
  • What does 'Realism' mean to the artist Gustav Courbet?  See page 799.  Explain the difference between realism and the 'illusionism' of earlier paintings.
  • Explore the development of the photograph and its role in art and documentation.  See pages 815-818.
4.  Remember this art from the text:
  • Antonio Canova, although dedicated to the ideal, digressed in his sculpture Pauline Borghese as Venus (page 780). Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, committed to "ideal form and careful compositional structure," deviated from the ideal as well in his Grande Odalisque (see page 783).  How are both these works issues in the struggle for "color and passion" over ideal form?
  • Examine the Third of May by Francisco Goya (see page 787).  Why are Goya's "dark paintings" a testimony to the "allure of Romantic vision?"
  • Carefully examine Liberty Leading Her People by Eugene Delacroix (see page 791).  Describe some of the many allegorical references and how they are presented formally to create meaning.
  • Why did the French public react to paintings such as The Gleaners by Jean-Francois Millet (see page 800) with 'disdain and suspicion?'
  • What issues of Modernism are clearly exhibited in Les Dejeuner sur l'herbe (Luncheon in the Grass) by Edouard Manet (see page 803).
  • Compare Manet's Olympia (see page 804) with Adolphe-William Bouguereau's Nymphs and Satyr (also on page 805).  Which is better defined as a Realist painting?
  • Examine the works of the American realist painters Thomas Eakins in The Gross Clinic (see page 806) and  Henry Ossawa Tanner in The Thankful Poor (see page 808).
  • Compare concepts of reality between Among the Sierra Nevada Mountains, California by Albert Bierstadt (see page 797) with A Harvest of Death, Gettysburg, PA, by Timothy O'Sullivan (page 817).
  • What does Edmonia Lewis' sculpture Forever Free (see page 808) tell us about life in post-Civil War America?
5.  Visit these sites on the Internet:    

a)  Explore American Paintings and Sculpture at the Met!
b)  View four fabulous landscape  works by American artist Thomas Cole.
c)  View an on-line gallery of the works of Constable!

6.  Write a one page report that responds to one idea/issue/work of art from #3 or #4 above.  Send your report through the LISTSERV.  See the Schedule for date due.

7.  Provide a thoughtful response to someone else's report through the LISTSERV .
See the Schedule for date due...and don't forget that your participation in discussion is your 'presence' in the class!  
Page Updated 4/29/09

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College, June, 2002.  All rights reserved.