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The Transformation of Painting and Sculpture in France, 1850-1918:
"In matters of painting and sculpture, the present day Credo of the sophisticated, above all in France, is this: I believe in nature, and I believe only in Nature (there are good reasons for that)."
-- Charles Beaudelaire, 1859
European art changed dramatically during the 19th century. Especially in France -- where revolution, war, and economic upheaval altered the nation as a whole -- artists rebelled against academic styles and subjects, transforming predominantly neoclassical or romantic views of history, religion, and nature into provocative representations that were less encumbered by tradition.
By the mid-1860s, artists like Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir began to experiment with new styles and contemporary subjects rooted in their study of visual phenomena, like color, light, and movement. Initially rejected by the academy, their work ultimately transformed the practice of modern painting and sculpture.
Artists were also guided by scientific and technological progress. With the advent of steam power, railroads, electricity, and modern forms of communication -- photography, telegraphy, advanced printing, and cinema -- they engaged a world increasingly driven by images. Pablo Picasso, Jacques Lipchitz, and Frantisek Kupka developed new forms of representation based in part on speed, relatively, and multiple points of view. |