Chapter 28: Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, Symbolism: Europe and America, 1870 to 1900

Preview: The period from 1870 to 1900 saw intense artistic experimentation and development, particularly in France. The Impressionists, a group that included Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Edgar Degas, Berthe Morisot and others, held their first group exhibition in 1874, showing many works that had been painted en plein air (outdoors) and that captured scenes of contemporary urban life. “Post-Impressionism” is term extended to artists such as Georges Seurat, Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, and Paul Cézenne, who developed beyond the sketch-like quality of Impressionism and explored the structure of painted form or the emotions wrought by color. French Symbolists, including Gustave Moreau, Odilon Redon, and Henri Rousseau, painted subjective scenes that transcended the everyday world and were often dreamlike and sensuous. The leading sculptor of this era was Auguste Rodin, who explored the representation of movement and energy in bronze and marble. Rodin often sculpted fragmented forms that had immense influence on later modern sculptors. Architectural developments in this period varied: the Arts and Crafts and Art Nouveau movements opposed modern mass production and embraced natural forms; the Eiffel Tower’s exposed iron skeleton represented the possibilities for new architectural expressions; and in the U.S., Louis Sullivan integrated organic form and the metal frame to become a pioneer in skyscraper design.

Key Figures: Karl Marx, Charles Darwin, Napoleon III, John Ruskin, Michel-Eugéne Chevreul,

Key Cultural Terms & Events: Salon, Salon des Refusés, Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture in France, Japonisme, Aesthetic Movement, Pointillism, Divisionism, Art Nouveau

Key Art Terms: local color, en plein air

Lecture Notes:

Introductory Notes:

EUROPE AND AMERICA, 1870-1900

Impressionism:

Claude Monet, Bank of the Seine, Eennecourt, 1868
Medium, scale:
Subject & significance:
Monet, Impression: Sunrise, 1872
Medium, scale:
Subject & significance:
Monet, Rouen Cathedral: The Portal (in Sun), 1894
Medium, scale:
Subject & significance:
Monet, Saint-Lazare Train Station, 1877
Medium, scale:
Subject & significance:
Gustave Caillebotte, Paris: A Rainy Day, 1877
Medium, scale:
Subject & significance:
Camille Pissarro, La Place du Thétre Français, 1898
Medium, scale:
Subject & significance:
Berthe Morisot, Summer’s Day, 1879
Medium, scale:
Subject & significance:
Morisot, Villa at the Seaside, 1874
Medium, scale:
Subject & significance:
Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Le Moulin de la Galette, 1876
Medium, scale:
Subject & significance:
Édouard Manet, A Bar at the Foliés-Bergére, 1882
Medium, scale:
Subject & significance:
Edgar Degas, The Rehearsal, 1874
Medium, scale:
Subject & significance:
Degas, The Tub, 1886
Medium, scale:
Subject & significance:
Torii Kiyonaga, detail of Two Women at the Bath, ca. 1780
Medium, scale:
Subject & significance:
Mary Cassatt, The Bath, ca. 1892
Medium, scale:
Subject & significance:
James Abbott McNeill Whistler, Nocturne in Black and Gold (The Falling Rocket), ca. 1875
Medium, scale:
Subject & significance:
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, At the Moulin Rouge, 1892-1895
Medium, scale:
Subject & significance:

Post-Impressionism:

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Jane Avril, 1893
Medium, scale:
Subject & significance:
Georges Seurat, A Sunday on La Grande Jatte, 1884-1886
Medium, scale:
Subject & significance:

Vincent van Gogh, The Potato Eaters, 1885
Medium, scale:
Subject & significance:
Van Gogh, Night Café, 1888
Medium, scale:
Subject & significance:
Van Gogh, Flowering Plum Tree, 1887
Medium, scale:
Subject & significance:
Van Gogh, Starry Night, 1889
Medium, scale:
Subject & significance:
Paul Gauguin, Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? 1897
Medium, scale:
Subject & significance:
Paul Céanne, Mont Sainte-Victoire, 1902-1904
Medium, scale:
Subject & significance:
Cézanne, Basket of Apples, ca. 1895
Medium, scale:
Subject & significance:
Céanne, Large Bathers, 1906
Medium, scale:
Subject & significance:

Symbolism:

Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, Sacred Grove, 1884
Medium, scale:
Subject & significance:
Gustave Moreau, The Apparition, 1874-1876
Medium, scale:
Subject & significance:
Moreau, Jupiter and Semele, ca. 1875
Medium, scale:
Subject & significance:
Odilon Redon, The Cyclops, 1898
Medium, scale:
Subject & significance:
Henri Rousseau, The Dream 1910
Medium, scale:
Subject & significance:
Rousseau, Sleeping Gypsy, 1897
Medium, scale:
Subject & significance:
James Ensor, Christ’s Entry into Brussels in 1889, 1888
Medium, scale:
Subject & significance:
Aubrey Beardsley, The Peacock Suit, 1894
Medium, scale:
Subject & significance:
Edvard Munch, The Scream, 1893
Medium, scale:
Subject & significance:
Gustav Klimt, The Kiss, 1907-1908
Medium, scale:
Subject & significance:
Gertrude Käsebier, Blessed Art Thou among Women, 1899
Medium, scale:
Subject & significance:

Sculpture:

Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, Ugolino and His Children, 1865-1867
Medium, scale:
Subject & significance:
Auguste Rodin, Walking Man, 1905
Medium, scale:
Subject & significance:
Carpeaux, The Dance, 1867-1869
Medium, scale:
Subject & significance:
Rodin, The Gates of Hell, 1880-1990 (cast in 1917)
Medium, scale:
Subject & significance:
Rodin, Burghers of Calais, 1884-1889
Medium, scale:
Subject & significance:
Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Adams Memorial, 1886-1891
Description & architectural features:
Function & significance:

Architecture and Decorative Arts:

William Morris, Green Dining Room, South Kensington Museum (now Victoria & Albert Museum), London, England, 1867
Description & significance:
Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh, Ladies’ Luncheon Room, Ingram Street Tea Room, Glasgow, Scotland, 1900-1912. Reconstructed (1992-1995) in the Glasgow Art Galleries and Museum, Glasgow.
Description & significance:
Victor Horta, staircase in the Van Eetvelde House, Brussels, 1895
Description & significance:
Horta, Tassel House, Brussels, 1892-1893
Description & significance:
Tiffany, water lily lamp, 1904-1915
Description & significance:
Antonio Gaudi, Casa Milá, Barcelona, Spain, 1907
Description & significance:
Alexandre-Gustave Eiffel, Eiffel Tower (looking southeast), Paris, France, 1889
Construction technique & materials:
Site & significance:
Henry Hobson Richardson, Marshall Field wholesale store, Chicago, 1885-1887
Description & significance:
Louis Henry Sullivan, Guaranty (Prudential) Building, Buffalo, New york, 1894-1896
Description & significance:
Sullivan, Carson, Pirie, Scott Building, Chicago, 1899-1904
Description & significance:
Sullivan, Wainwright Building, St. Louis, 1890-1891
Description & significance:

Concluding notes:

Exercises for Study:

1. Describe the defining elements and techniques of Impressionism.

2. What is Post-Impressionism? Name the central artists of Post-Impressionism and describe what distinguishes their art from Impressionism.

3. Discuss how Japanese art influenced artists in Europe and the U.S. in the 19th century.

4. What new architectural structures and forms were made possible by the industrial revolution?

5. Compare and contrast the following pairs of artworks, using the points of comparison as a guide.

A. Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, Sacred Grove (Fig. 28-23); Paul Gauguin, Where Do We Come From?... (Fig. 28-20)

Style:
Subject & theme:

B. Edgar Degas, The Tub (Fig. 28-11); Mary Cassatt, The Bath (Fig. 28-13)

Subjects:
Style:
Influence of Japanese art:

C. Alexandre-Gustave Eiffel, Eiffel Tower (Fig. 28-38); Louis Henry Sullivan, Guaranty (Prudential) Building (Fig. 28-40)

Construction technique:
Materials:
Function of buildings: