Art Movements: Neoclassical to Early 20th Century Painting
Neoclassical Art
Characteristics: Greco-Roman styles, pediments, domes, stone, and French Pantheon balance. Emphasis on beauty, elegance, harmony, proportion, multiple views, slender bodies, and light effects.
Principles: Very academic, basic drawing and painting, geometric forms and symmetrical compositions. Lighting effects and values emphasizing personal sacrifice, honor, power, and militarism.
Key Artists: Jacques-Louis David (Oath of the Horatii, The Rape of the Sabines, The Coronation of Napoleon).
Romanticism
Focus on recovering the medieval age, mastery of dark colors, colors of great strength, compositions in blades or pyramids, the dynamic search, moving masses, vibrant, theatrical lights, and a search for drama. Sfumato, aerial perspective, recovery of atmosphere and poetry, importance of landscape and heroic themes.
19th Century Architecture
Colonialism and bourgeois revolution, romantic and colonial adventure, new needs and elements.
20th Century Architecture
Focus on moral and customs, fashion, women, destruction of imperial domination and neocolonialism. Accumulation of masses, the maximization of interior space, ornamentation vs. habitability, new aesthetics based on function, open spaces, modern materials, and functionality in style.
Fauvism (1906)
Decoupling of the object’s color, a painterly approach, absence of perspective or lighting changes, appearances in black.
Expressionism
Represents inner torments and the state of representation, chromaticism, darkness. Key artist: Edvard Munch (The Scream).
Pablo Picasso
- Early Works: Science and Charity, The First Communion.
- Blue Period: Depicts the poor, sad, and melancholic (e.g., The Blind Guitarist).
- Rose Period: Romantic themes, family circus.
- Black Period: Dark colors, distortions, and drama (e.g., Nude with Towel).
- Cubism: Les Demoiselles d’Avignon.
- Classical Period: Volume, happiness, and joy (e.g., Woman Sitting by the Sea).
Color Theory and Impressionism
Valuation of light, loose brushwork, color of shadows, capturing fleeting moments. The role of the spectator, framing, and peculiar everyday issues.
Key Impressionist Painters
- Édouard Manet: Mild stroke color, Bar at the Folies-Bergère, The Execution of Emperor Maximilian, Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe, Olympia.
- Claude Monet: Watery surfaces, Rouen Cathedral series, The Saint-Lazare Station, Woman with a Parasol, Houses of Parliament, London, Impression, soleil levant.
- Pierre-Auguste Renoir: Luncheon of the Boating Party, Umbrellas, The Swing, Bal du moulin de la Galette.
- Edgar Degas: Movement, The Dance Class, L’Absinthe.
- Camille Pissarro: Boulevart Montmartre, moral and artistic guide.
- Alfred Sisley: Funfadror, chemin de la machine.
Post-Impressionism
- Georges Seurat: Pointillism, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, The Circus.
- Paul Signac: Colorful marine landscapes, Palace of the Popes, Avignon.
Early 20th Century Painting
Expressionism, precision, concern for the expression of light and objects, large outdoor tables, assessment of space and color mixing.
Key Artists
- Vincent van Gogh: Nervous brushstroke, Sunflowers, The Starry Night.
- Paul Gauguin: Arearea, Christ in Yellow, flat compositions and light.
- Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec: Moulin Rouge, Japanese divan, billboard advertising.
- Paul Cézanne: The Card Players, geometric painting.
- Joaquín Sorolla: White horse, white and blue light.