19th Century Art

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that painting in the 19th century, still highly influenced by the spirit of Romanticism, progressing through the "schools' of Realism, Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, proved an even more sensitive medium for personal expression. The author points out that the Impressionists sought to create the illusion of forms bathed in light and atmosphere, which required an extensive study of natural light as the source of all color, leading to the revelation that the actual color of an object is always modified by the quality of the light in which it is seen, by reflections from other objects and by the effects produced by colors lying against each other. The paper reviews in detail the work of Francisco Goya, Jacques Louis David, Eugene Delacroix, Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, J.M.W. Turner, John Constable, Edouard Manet, Edgar Degas, Georges Seurat, Paul Cezanne, Paul Gauguin, Vincent Van Gogh and Auguste Rodin.

From the Paper:

"The history of 19th century painting in its first sixty years has often been interpreted as a contest between Eugene Delacroix and Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (1781-1867) who broke away from David on matters of artistic style, for he believed that David's art was too realistic and based far too much on Greek influences. For Ingres, painting encompassed flat and linear figures, a manner that was severely criticized as being "primitive" and Gothic. However, Ingres soon became the leader of the academic forces in their battle against Delacroix and his contemporaries."

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