Realism and Impressionism

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Realism and Impressionism

• By Kimberly Sparks

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Realism

• Business and Industry continue to undergo a
  technical and industrial revolution.
• Nationalism arises
• Science continues to grow
• Philosophy and psychology influence the arts

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Immigration

• Between the 18th and 19th centuries 70 million
  people immigrated to North America.
• These people came from
• Europe, Ireland, France, Italy, Germany
• and Scandinavia
• Europeans literally populated the globe by the
  end of the 19th century

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Business and Industry

• Industry changed from production based on coal
  and iron to being based on electricity, internal
  combustion engines, and chemistry.
• U.S. share of industrial output climbed from
  23-36 percent.
• By the end of the 19th century, Germany became
  the 2nd largest industrial producer due to
  industrialization and railroads.
• By 1913, Europe and N. America represented 82 of
  the worlds industrial production.

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Business and Industry Cont.

• Corporations started and the decision-making was
  placed in the hands of salaried executives.
• Marketing networks were created.
• Market place increased with business now centered
  around new products and new technologies.
• Examples Automobiles, bicycles, cinema, and
  later the airplane

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Workers and Socialism

• Growth of the working class
• 1864-1893 Powerful movements and mass strikes
• International Working Men Association (IWMA) and
  the Socialist International were formed.
• Political parties and trade unions emerged
• Before WWI expansions of labor and socialist
  movements occurred.

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Workers and Socialist Cont.

• 2nd International Organization was created and
  socialist in nature.
• Strikes were their weapon.
• By the beginning of the 19th century, the labor
  was impotent because of the rise of Nationalism
  and Imperialism which was centered around the
  German Reich.

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German Reich

• Germany remained a series of independent states
  under individual rule.
• Had 25 states, and 3 city-states joined to create
  a unified German Reich with William I.
• Authoritarian state whose government was not
  responsible to the parliament.
• Powerful Military
• Secularization which attacked Catholics, expelled
  Jesuits, and controlled the Roman clergy
• Anti-Socialist laws
• Germany became the 2nd most powerful nation on
  earth.
• Triple Alliance formed

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Science

• Model of the atom showed the movements of
  electrons
• Discoveries of X-Rays, superconductivity, and the
  spectroscopy gaseous matter.
• Genetics formed
• Bacteriology began
• Philosophy and psychology also began

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Realism in the Arts

• Dont glorify the past
• Seeks the truth
• Beauty in the commonplace
• Focus on conditions of the working class
• Represents everyday scenes

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Artists

• Gustave Courbet- Unprejudiced of customs, ideas,
  and appearance of the French Society. The Stone
  Breakers
• Edouard Manet- Responsible for bridging the gap
  between realism and impressionism
• Rosa Bonheur- Portrayed animals, well known and
  respected was the first women to become an
  officer in the Legion of Honor
• Jean-Francois Millet- Barbizon School painted
  the honest simple life of peasants

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Realism in Theatre

• Dramatic literature strove for truthful portrayal
  
• Everyday life where the playwright was directly
  familiar and was the subject matter.
• Artists
• Henrik Ibsen- Problem dramas, careful details,
  and dealt with moral and social issues
• George Shaw- Devoted to socialism, faith in
  humanity, many people feel he ranks among the
  greatest playwrights such as Shakespeare
• Tennesse Williams- Blended qualities of realism
  with scenic structural or symbolic devices.
• Arthur Miller- First to include homosexual
  characters.

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Impressionism

• Realist begin looking for spontaneity, harmonious
  colors and subjects from the everyday.
• Camera was discovered
• Artists had to compete with the camera because
  people no longer wanted to buy paintings when
  they could take a picture.
• Painters began emphasizing the presence of color
  within shadows, therefore making an impression
  on the retina.
• In its truest form Impressionism only lasted 15
  years, but profoundly influenced all paintings
  that followed.
• Painting out doors influenced the effects of
  natural light on objects and atmosphere.
• Subjects painted were landscapes, rivers,
  streets, cafes, theatres, and etc.

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Artists

• Claude Monet- Modern life, recorded everyday
  themes with objective observations, optical
  truth painting reflected innocent joy in the
  world in a positive view.
• Mary Cassatt- Women and Children were her
  favorite subjects, brushwork is less obvious.
• Auguste Rodin- Centurys most remarkable
  sculptor, lots of idealism and social comment,
  sculptures have irregularities that shimmer in
  the light.

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Post-Impressionism

• Similar to Impressionist
• Gave their subject matter a complex and personal
  significance
• Concerned with capturing a sensory experience.
• Philosophy of art for the arts sake
• Rarely sold their work
• Interested as painting as a flat surface composed
  of shapes, lines and colors, which became the
  foundation of this movement.
• Return to form and structure in painting

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Vincent Van Gogh

• Vincent Van Gogh-Intensely emotional in pursing
  form, gives us one of the most personal and
  subjective artistic viewpoints in the history of
  Western art.
• Starry Night

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Impressionism and Music

• Free use of chromatic tones and key shifts
• Traditional major/minor tonality
• New atonal harmonic expression began
• Musicians
• Claude Debussy- sought to capture the shimmering
  light effects in music used similarities of
  painters
• Maurice Ravel- traditionalist, followed classical
  structures, use of symbolism, and known for his
  orchestra music
• Both used rich harmonies, new scales, and were
  interested in the exotic