Chapter 15, ‘Romanticism to Realism’, Introduction
Identify key factors influencing new ideas in Western thought in the last decade of the 18th century and the first of the 19th.
What in particular challenged the power of reason?
What factors in science and philosophy seemed to make the universe more, rather than less, mysterious?
Set out factors that affected the growth of new social structures across Europe after the French Revolution.
What did Karl Marx (1818-83) and Friedrich Engels (1820-95) call for in The Communist Manifesto and why?
Romanticism
Set out the main qualities of Romanticism in contrast to Neo-Classical principles.
Name some key Romantic figures and their key concerns.
With regard to manifested feelings, what contrasting visual forms gained importance?
Romantic Landscape Painting
Constable (1776-1837)
What was Constable’s ambition?
How did he represent the English countryside?
Set out key points in his background and how they related to his paintings.
Turner (1775-1851)
What kind of light was Turner concerned with? Note also the relationship between Art and Nature in his work.
Corot and the Etude
What influenced developments in French painting?
How did the place of landscape painting in France change in the public domain?
What did landscape painters represent and how?
What was Corot’s aim?
ARH 402 Introduction to the History of Art II – questions for readings
Week 7 Nineteenth century English genre painting
Reading: Vaughan, British Painting: The Golden Age, Chapter 9 ‘Everyday Art’.
What types of subjects were represented in Everyday Art?
What styles was it influenced by?
What were its intentions as art?
Explain how Everyday Art or ‘genre’ painting compared to history painting.
ARH 402 Introduction to the History of Art II – questions for readings
Week 8 Nineteenth century Realism and early photography
Reading: Honour & Fleming, A World History of Art, Chapter 15, sections on Photography, pp. 659-662 and Historicism and Realism, pp. 665-674.
Photography
What seems to have motivated the inventors of photography?
When did photography begin and by whom? Note the names of the key figures, their backgrounds and contributions to photography.
What was Daguerre’s process soon used for and why?
Identify the key differences between Daguerre’s and Talbot’s methods.
How was photography challenged by Charles Baudelaire?
Historicism and Realism
How was the importance of history manifested in the 19th century?
Note key features of Paul Delaroche, The Execution of Lady Jane Grey, 1833.
The Pre-Raphaelites
State the names of the core Pre-Raphaelite artists and when the group was founded.
What was their declared aim?
Courbet
How did Gustave Courbet (1819-77) react against the ‘frivolous art of the day’?
How is A Burial at Ornans, 1849-50, different from other grand scale paintings of the time?
Manet
What did Manet write in the catalogue of the one-man show he organized in 1867?
ARH 402 Introduction to the History of Art II – questions for readings
Week 9 Nineteenth century painting in Japan, Britain and France
Reading: Honour & Fleming, A World History of Art, Chapter 16, ‘Eastern Traditions’, section on Japan in the Edo Period, pp. 693-699; Chapter 17, ‘Impressionism to Post-Impressionism’, section on Japonisme, pp. 712-715.
Chapter 16, ‘Eastern Traditions’, section on Japan in the Edo Period
What is a ukiyo-e print?
Note the start date of Japan’s isolation and the dates of the Edo period. Where is Edo now?
Who was the ukiyo-e print produced mainly for and by? What does the name mean? What subjects were represented?
Note key features in the work of Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849).
Note key features in the work of Ando Hiroshige (1797-1858).
Chapter 17, ‘Impressionism to Post-Impressionism’, section on Japonisme
What effect did ukiyo-e prints have on western artists and why?
Explain how nineteenth century Japonisme was different from seventeenth and eighteenth century Chinoiserie.
What appealed to Monet about Japanese prints?
How was Gauguin’s The Vision after the Sermon, 1888, influenced by Japanese prints?
ARH 402 Introduction to the History of Art II – questions for readings
Week 10 Impressionist painting
Reading: Honour & Fleming, A World History of Art, Chapter 17, ‘Impressionism to Post-Impressionism’, Introduction and section on Impressionism, pp. 701-712.
Set out the socio-political context in which Impressionism developed.
What significant events and why took place in the art world beginning in 1863?
What did the general public not like about the new art?
What kinds of subjects did the Impressionist represent?
Note when Impressionism began and the names of the leading Impressionist artists.
How might Impressionism be defined in theoretical terms and why?
Note specific features of the work of Monet; Morisot, Renoir and Manet; and Degas.
ARH 402 Introduction to the History of Art II – questions for readings
Week 11 Post-Impressionist painting
Reading: Honour & Fleming, A World History of Art, Chapter 17, ‘Impressionism to Post-Impressionism’, sections on Neo-Impressionism, Gauguin and van Gogh and Cézanne.
Neo-Impressionism
When and why did Neo-Impressionism begin?
How did Georges Seurat respond to this crisis? Discuss his method.
Gauguin and van Gogh.
Identify key characteristics and concerns in the work of Paul Gauguin.
Identify key characteristics and concerns in the work of Vincent van Gogh.
Cézanne
Identify key characteristics and concerns in the work of Paul Cézanne.
Sample Solution
