1. Revolutions in the Arts
8.4
Revolutions in the Arts
Artistic and intellectual movements both reflect and fuel changes in Europe during the 1800s.
Monet, Impression, Sunrise, 1872

2. The Romantic Movement In literature: In music, composers: Romanticism
Focus on nature, emotion, individuality
linked to folk traditions and nationalism
In literature:
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (German)
Victor Hugo (French)
Gothic novels—horror stories in medieval castles
Shelly’s Frankenstein
poets believe nature is source of beauty
Friedrich, The wander above the
sea of fog, 1818
In music, composers:
abandon Enlightenment style
emphasize emotion
Ludwig van Beethoven
Friedrich, Cloister Graveyard in
the Snow, 1810

3. The Shift to Realism in the Arts
Realism—style showing life as it actually is
Reaction against romanticism
working class and social inequalities
Courbet, Millet
Photography Captures Reality
Capture precise moment with scientific precision
Daguerreotypes—earliest photographs
Talbot invents negative—copies can be mass produced
Millet, The Gleaners, 1857
Writers Study Society
Authors write about society, class struggles
Dickens
Balzac
Zola
Writings spark reforms in working conditions
Daguerre, The Louvre from the Left
Bank of the Seine, 1839

4. Impressionists React Against Realism
Impressionism—art style that captures immediate “impression”
reaction against realism
focused on:
light
industrialization
rising middle class (performers, shopkeepers, cafes…)
leading impressionists:
Monet
Degas
Renoir
Monet, Gare St-Lazare,
1877
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