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The Rococo period which started in France in 1702 to 1780 most prevalent themes were love, frolic and luxury. These themes were influenced by what the aristocrats of the time wanted. The common visual traits of Rococo painting were pastel colors, scenes of nature, a focus on elegances and parties. The most popular types of painting during the Rococo movement were genre scene and fete galante; Those kinds of paintings would show groups of people in wealthy clothes at parks or in nature.
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This painting serves as another example of the most defining traits of Rococo art. The artwork uses light pastel colors and soft edges to take away any harshness or somberness the world might have. Just like how the aristocrats would want to avoid seeing anything unpleasant to only focus on their own bliss. The themes of the painting are related to love but not on a mythical scale, instead it focusses on love between two people. -
This painting serves as an example of the most popular type of painting during the Rococo period, fete galante. These types of paintings would have scenes of wealthily dressed people in parks or scenic gardens. This painting also has themes of love and mythology. The connect can be found in the title of the painting, Cythera; which is the island where the goddess Venus was born. Flying babies can also be seen, they represent cupid the God of desire and erotic love as well as the child of Venus. -
The Triumph of Venus mix themes of erotic love as well as mythology together in a pastel-colored seascape. The flying babies are a reference to the Roman god Cupid while the woman sitting up is most likely Venus, surrounded by naiads. What implies this is the posture she is in as well as being painted the lightest. What also implies Venus’s presence is the sea she sits, In Roman mythology, Venus was born when Zeus’s testicle was cut off and thrown in the sea. Venus was then born from the foam. -
The Neoclassical period started in 1750 to 1850. The period’s themes were order, the mind, morality, and enlightenment. The period’s themes were a reaction to Rococo’s themes of self-indulgence and emotions. It was believed at the time that art must be dramatic and teach people to have purpose. The visual style of the paintings was darker in tone and color, more simple in designs with inspirations from classic Roman art that was started by the recent rediscovery of ancient cities from Rome.
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The Swing is one of the most icon examples of Rococo. The subject matter of the paintings is of a woman on a wing with a man pulling it from behind and a man below. The painting is known for its eroticism. The man below is looking up her skirt, the woman’s legs can be seen, and her shoe has fallen off, almost like it’s teasing the view. The painting has a kind of playfulness that was common in Rococo art. -
The Romanticism period, which began in 1780 to 1830 was a period that emphasis themes such as emotions, individualism, heroism, and freedom. The themes of the period were inspired by the French Revolution, a time when ordinary people had to fight and sacrifice for social change that would benefit the people. There was also a focus on folklore and man’s connection to nature and to capture strong emotions such as the sublime.
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The Nightmare is an example of Romanticism art showcasing the darker elements of the human mind using folklore and visuals. The subject matter of the art is of a woman sleeping with a Incubus sitting on top of her with a mare sticking it’s head out of the darkness. In folklore, it’s said that the Incubus would enter the dreams of woman to seduce them, this leads the theme of the painting to dreams and sexuality. -
The Oath of the Horatii is an example of the characteristics of Neoclassical as well as the themes of the period. The composition is orderly with a focus on the action of the figures. The fashion of the people is also reminiscent of Greco-Roman art, it’s also more serious in tone and color compared to Rococo art. The themes of the painting are sacrifice and duty which can be seen with the men. This painting was made to inspire people to take up arms for the French revolution. -
This artwork is a history painting of the moment before Socrates drank poison as punishment for his defiance against the system. It serves as an example of dignity in the face of death and that there are things worth dying for. Socrates is given an idealized form, but he is also shown to be older than the other men. His age is used to show his wisdom, just like in Roman art. This painting was made during the rising tensions before the French revolution started. -
The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters is an example Spanish Romanticism art that comments on the current issues of the time with art that uses animals and surreal scenes to convey the meaning behind it. This piece was a part of Los Caprichos, a series of prints made for the public to see and learn from. The meaning behind it is that if reason and logic are absent from our lives, we would be ruled by our arrogances and superstitions about the world. -
Napoleon on his Imperial Throne is an example of how Neoclassical art borrowed from Greco-Roman art to imply power and the right to rule. The posing of Napoleon is reminiscent of the statue of Zeus from Olympia who also has their arm raised holding a staff and the raised arm is like the adlocutio pose, a pose reserved for great leaders and to showcase authority. The tone of the artwork is stoic with a strong simple composition to focus on Napoleon’s strength. -
Oedipus and the Sphinx is a examples of a Neoclassical history painting that highlights the themes of the period with myth. The themes of the period were enlightenment, rational thinking and duty. The scene showcases these traits with Oedipus solving the riddle of the Sphinx, which will save Thebes. The scene does not only showcase his intellect but his physical form as well, just like in classical Greek statues that would show off male forms to present what the idealize form should be. -
Morning Mist is an example of Swedish Romanticism that focuses on the awe of nature and the sublime. The painting’s subject matter is a mountain top covered in mist with the tips of trees breaking through the mist. This creates a feeling of mystery and power, almost as if the mist is hiding the true grandioseness of the mountain. This helps give people that sublime. The mist and blurriness of the mountain can also be an early example of atmospheric perspective in use. -
The Orientalism period started in 1810 to 1890, the period started when France invade Egypt and Egyptian items and art were brought back. People's interest in cultures they saw as exotic started the Orientalism period. The majority of art made was by western artist, due to this the art would be bias and enforced stereotypes that portray them in a poor light to justify invading them. The most common type of paintings made were genre scenes and nudes that would sexualize woman of other cultures.
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The Grande Odalisque is an example of the shift from justifying nudity in art. In previous art movements, artists would do paintings of mythology figures such as Venus to justify why they would be nude. But in this artwork, they reason comes from the suggestive pose of the woman, her role as an Odalisque, a woman that belonged to a haram. Odalisque is also the name of pose in which a woman is laying down for the male gaze, just like subject matter of this painting. -
The Third of May depicts a current event during the conception of the artwork. It depicts the moment when French soldiers were executing Spanish citizens who had rebelled against the invading French army. The artwork is considered one of the first modern images of war with how it shows the harshness of war. The compositions of the art focus on the people’s suffering with the usage of light to highlight them as well as the implied lines created from the soldier's guns pointing towards them. -
This painting is a strong example of the emotional aspect of Germen Romanticism. The subject matter is a man standing over fog and mountains peaks with his back turned towards us. The painting works towards creating a feeling of the sublime, which is a strong emotional response when a person is confronted with something much larger than themself. But having the man over the scenic view can be commentary on man’s need to reach those peaks and that it’s not impossible. -
Liberty leading the people represents the rise of people during the French revolution. The woman leading the charge is a personification of liberty and the hat she wears is a Phrygian cap, it represents library throughout Roman culture. The focus of the painting is on heroics to inspire people. This strong focus on emotion and socialism was a large part of French romanticism. The defeated soldiers being undressed are to show their humiliation and is reminiscent of the Victory Stele of Naram-Sin. -
The Realism art period is considered the first modern art movement that moved away from academic art which dominated the art world. Instead of focusing on an idealized world with a hierarchy of genres that focused on History paintings being the most desired by the state or critics, there was a focus on presenting the world as it with no attention to pleasing the salon. This movement started in France during the 1840s. Artist would mostly draw genre scenes depicting everyday life.
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The subject matter of Ploughing in Nevers is of a group of farmers using oxen to work the land for crops on a sunny day. Other paintings depicting rural farm work usually present it in a melancholic manner showing how different it is. But this painting shows animal and man working together in the bright sunlight that showcase the humble life of farm work. The painting itself was one of Bonheurs' early popular works made during the early years of the realism period. -
Bonheur’s The Horse Fair depicts a chaotic illuminated scene of horsemen riding together with onlookers in the background. The scene can be intrepid as a display of man’s control over the wild with the horses representing the wild. But the attention to detail on the horse's face and their terrified expression makes the viewer sympathy with their struggle. The painting’s attention to the animal’s expression and the dynamic sense of motion made this painting Bonheur’s most popular work. -
Millet’s The Gleaners is a painting that focus on rural work done by women. The task the women are preforming is gleaning; this was the act of picking up leftover crops after a harvest. This kind of work was extremely difficult and could be considered unimportant, but Millet presents it with the same attention to detail that would be given to religious paintings. This painting highlighted the struggle of the lower class which caused the higher class to be afraid that they would revolt. -
Millet’s The Angelus subject matter is of a man and woman in the middle of a potato field praying while the sun sets in the background. This painting serves as an example of the change in focus of what artist painted. While Academic art prized historical paintings with an idealized view of the world, Millet’s painting chooses to focus on the more real moment when a man and woman pray together in a quiet moment that connects religion to the mundane. -
The Turkish Bath is an example of Orientalism art that focus on sexualizing women from places they deemed “exotic. But they also change the looks of how the woman would really look to fit their western beauty standards. The subject matter of the painting is of nude woman laying sitting together around the room. This kind of setting would fit the western idea of what a harem would like despite the reality that it was just a private space for woman in their households. -
The Impressionism art movement was another stepping stone that would lead to modern art taking over. Artists would not paint the world as close to reality as possible but instead paint the world based on quick observations and emotions which would lead to the artwork having rougher and more visible brushstrokes. To capture light and colors, artists would paint outside. The movement’s artist also started their own exhibitions to showcase their work when it was rejected by the Pairs Salon.
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The Slave Market is a genre painting of a woman being examined by slave owners. This artwork serves as the best example of the purpose of Orientalism art, to present the middle east as a place without morals or human decency. The woman is light skin to make her more relatable to western viewers of the painting while the men around her are dressed in middle eastern clothes with darker skin. This is to associate dark skin and the middle east with slave owners. -
This painting’s subject matter is the execution of the emperor of Mexico by French soldiers. This painting uses the same composition of Goya’s The Third of May 1808, but with the twist that it’s a more realistic take on it. Instead of using a light to highlight the victim, the lighting is more real and mundane. The painter Manet was inspired by the current events of the time to paint this moment as a historical painting without over exaggerating or romanticizing it. -
The painting depicts a group of ballerinas stretching while two men are instructing one of them. The space they occupy is large with a mirror in the back. The framing of the room from an angle makes the view more natural and as if we are in the room, immersing ourselves in the work. The artist for the piece wanted to capture the struggle that ballerinas went through during their training. This can be seen as exploitative because he was profiting from their pain while not giving back to them. -
The painting's subject matter is a sunrise seen through smog over a river with boats and a harbor in the background. The usage of vague rough brushstroke conveys an ambiguity and clandestine that would have been lost if the painting was too detailed. This painting captures the fleeting emotion and light that could only be seen for a moment. When the painting was first shown, it was heavily criticized. The movement received its name from a chide review that was meant to belittle the work. -
The subject matter is a ballerina and her moment to shine on the stage. But a man in the background can be seen along with other ballerinas in the parodos. This painting can a representation of the euphoria a ballerina would feel before the reality of the situation returns. Ballerinas at the time were girls from lower class background that needed sponsor for training. But those same sponsors would take advantage of them and ballerinas having no other opportunities to escape poverty would stay. -
In Cassatt’s In the Loge, it shows a woman sitting in balcony seat watching a performance with a spyglass, while a man is watching her from the background. The painting can be showcasing a problem woman face in public spaces, the male gaze. The woman is not dressed in an erotic fashion or posing for anyone but despite this she is still subjective to the male gaze by strangers. This artwork is an example of early Feminist art that focus on woman experience with artwork by a woman. -
This painting is a genre scene of a nude boy with a snake entertaining a group of men. The purpose of the painting was to present the men of the middle east in perverse fashion. The men are watching a nude boy which implies a pedophilic nature among them. Also, the boy is light skinned which would make European viewers sympathize with the boy first. This painting was made with European bias of men from the middle east. -
The Post-Impressionism movement would take it a step further from Impressionism with the usage of bolder colors and shape. Artwork would become more abstracted with visible shorter brushstrokes used to showcase the artist’s vision of the world. The type of paintings made during this time were scenes that had more personal meaning to the artist, and again it did not follow any kind of hierarchy of genres that academic art followed.
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This painting’s subject matter is of a woman working behind a bar with a mirror revealing a large space in which people are drinking and enjoying themselves. In most genre paintings, the focus would be on a group with their collective emotions setting the tone. But this painting pulls a reversal and instead focuses on the service workers that tend to the people’s needs. This painting gives a personal and realistic look at the workers' feelings in the moment. -
The subject matter for Seurat’s Bathers at Asnières is a scene of people enjoying their Leisure by the river bay. Additionally, there is a factory that can be seen in the background. The painting can be a representation of people wanting to escape the industrialization of cities and factories, but despite their effort industry still looms behind them. This painting is Seurat’s first success in developing his own unique style as well as using a new technique in brushstrokes called balayé. -
The subject matter for this painting is a sunny day at the park with pets, children, women and men taking shade from the sun. The distinguished look of the painting comes from the artist’s usage of a technique called pointillism. The method uses a combination of colored dots that when seen from a distance looks like an image. The same principles apply to how magazines use the ben day process to color their books. The artwork took 2 years to make and it inspired the movement, neo-impressionism. -
The Sick Child’s subject matter is of a bedridden child with a woman beside her with her head held low. The rough nature of the painting can be to convey the pain of the mother while the dark colors around the lightest point, that point being the child’s face can be seen as her life just like the color is dimming. The artwork is one of Munch’s early works, made for his sister who had passed away from sickness. This painting serves as an example of how strong emotions control the tone of the art. -
The subject matter for Gogh’s The Starry Night is of a town during nighttime with mountains in the background and a tree in the foreground. The usage of short brushstrokes paired with the colors creates a kind of swirling wave that looks like the sky is an ocean of stars drifting through. This kind of landscape painting conveys the feeling of the sublime. The painting itself is one of Gogh’s most popular art pieces that was made while he was hospitalized at an asylum. -
Gogh’s The Bedroom subject matter as the title states, is a bedroom with two chairs, a bed, frames on the wall and personal belongings scattered around. The usage of a cool blue with the greens and browns of the painting gives a quaint humble feeling to the small room. Short brushstrokes can also be seen building up the whole scene stroke by stroke. The context for this artwork is that Gogh painted his own room he rented, the building’s name was the yellow house. -
The Primitivism art tread is defined by its inspiration from cultures that were seen as primitive by western countries' standards. The movement would use strong flat colors along with geometric shapes to build human figures or scenes. Paintings would be made of indigenous people, but they were made by people outside of the culture. This movement has been criticized for cultural appropriation and for romanticizing indigenous people because of their lack of industrialization and large cities.
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The subject matter for this piece is of a girl lying on her stomach on a bed while looking back with an agitated expression. The background is made up of purple along with a figure in black. This painting can be seen as the invasion of domestic space by spiritual elements such as deceased ancestors with the figure in black representing the latter. This painting was made by the while the artist was in Tahiti and serves as example of how primitivism artists would steal the aesthetics of a culture. -
This painting’s subject matter is of a mother with her child on her lap. The mother is washing her child’s feet indoors. The painting presents a very personal moment using soft brush work to emphasize the warmth the mother is portraying for her child. Another element that conveys the warmth between the mother and child is the colors used for the scene. The space and clothes are the mother wears blue and cool colors that contrast warm tones the baby and mother’s skin have. -
Munch’s The Scream is one of the most popular artworks from the Post-Impressionism period. It’s subject matter is a man screaming with a bright orange red sky and an abstracted landscape. The painting was inspired by an experience in which Munch was walking with some friends, then the sky turned red and Munch suddenly felt a panic wash over him. The usage of abstraction and distortion of the person conveys the feeling the artist felt when he was panicking. -
This painting’s subject matter is of a church during sunset with a ground view of the scene. The usage of blue and orange, which are complementary colors, strengthens the contrast between light and shadow giving them temperature. This painting serves as example of how impressionist artists were experimenting with more saturated colors within their art. The painting is a part of a series exploring how different times of day’s lighting will affect the same place differently. -
The scene depicted in the painting is two women with their chest exposed with one of them holding a bowl of fruits with a casual look. The interpretation that can be made is that these women are more open sexually because of their exposed chest and the fruits she is carrying can be associated with primal urges like eating, which corresponds with how sex is a primal urge. The artwork serves as an example of how primitivism would sexualize indigenous women through the colonial gaze. -
The bodies of the woman and background are built up using geometric shapes which gives the painting a flatten look to the piece. The faces of the women are reminiscent of African tribal masks with the shapes of the eye as well as the elongation of the face. The painting when it was first revealed was considered an offence to art. -
The subject matter for this artwork is a four-way street in the middle of a city with people scattered. There are four trams with three of them close to each other. The scene itself is painted in an abstracted fashion with flat colors used to increase it’s boldness with some colors being mixed with green. The artwork uses the same flat colors as previous paintings about nature but instead paints an urban landscape to possibly make the connection that cities themselves are a kind of jungle. -
The subject matter for this painting is of a street with multiple people walking up and down the street. The main focus is on two well-dressed woman decorated with feathers on their dress and hat. The painting’s usage of sharp shapes to create the figures gives this painting a dynamic motion to the scene and the blue and pink gives the sense a relaxed energy. The painting itself was made to showcase German street life and the kind of people that out like prostitutes. -
The subject matter shown in the painting is a chaotic scene made of geometric shapes colored in grayscale. The figures seen are 6 people in states of distress with a horse and ox. The painting was made as a response to the bombing of Guernica during the Spanish war. With the context in mind, the painting’s subject matter can be a visual representation of the chaos during the bombing. The Ox can be a reference to wartime rape violence with how Picasso uses the same visual cue in other paintings.