KEY ARTISTS:
Vigee-Le Brun (Rococo), David, Canova & Ingres (Neoclassicism)
KEY MEANINGS:
Depictions of men/women (portraits/figures etc.)
Work
Contemporary Events
Conflict & Suffering
KEY CONTEXTS:
Economic |
Social |
Political |
Philosophical |
France was experiencing a severe drought.
King Louie XVI put the nation in debt and this big financial trouble became a major cause of the French Revolution. |
There was a renewed interest in Classicism.
The Salon was the only gateway for artists to show their work. The French Revolution broke out in 1789, followed by the Reign of Terror. It was a time of great uncertainty and political turmoil. In 1798, Napoleon invaded Egypt, attracting Western interest to the Middle East. Orientalism supported French imperialism. |
The monarchy was overthrown after the French Revolution in 1789.
The Reign of Terror saw many people die in the name of revolution. Napoleon emerged as the hero who saved the day, then he became a self-declared emperor - only to fall after about a decade of being in power. |
The Enlightenment influenced the minds of the revolutionaries.
It put emphasis on progress, equality, democracy and the power of rational thinking. It encouraged people to evaluate their position in the world, and to challenge those in power to make the world a better place for them. |
What caused the French Revolution? |
The Full Documentary: The French Revolution 1789 |
The Age of Enlightenment |
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The Reign of Terror 1793 |
Napoleon, a Hero or a Tyrant? |
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ROCOCO ARTISTElisabeth Vigee-Lebrun (1755-1842)Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun is one of the finest 18th-century French painters and among the most important of all women artists. She had exceptional skills as a portraitist, she achieved success in France and Europe during one of the most eventful, turbulent periods in European history. Vigée Le Brun is famous for her association with Marie Antoinette, for whom she produced many beautiful paintings. Obliged to flee France in 1789 because of her friendship with the queen, she worked from various cities across Europe. She was remarkable not only for her technical gifts but for her understanding of and sympathy with her sitters. Why is Vigée Le Brun important? • The odds facing women artists in the 18th century were great. The artist was virtually self-taught. Despite the difficulties, Vigée Le Brun developed into one of the leading artists in all of Europe, able to command higher prices for her portraits than any other artist of her time. • The Rococo style was in decline by the time of Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun's introduction to the French royal court. In her able hands, however, she deftly combined the grace and elegance of this earlier style with the new trend of Neoclassicism. Although she would never adopt the hard, linear style associated with the high Neoclassical tradition, most notably in the history paintings of her contemporary, Jacques-Louis David, she found ways to integrate notions of the past, such as in adopting the attire of antiquity, into her portraiture. https://www.theartstory.org/artist-vigee-le-brun-elisabeth-louise.htm |
NEOCLASSICAL ARTISTJacques-Louis David (1748-1825)A true, enlightened Neoclassical artist
David is the artist who best represents the ideas of the Enlightenment. He was technically proficient and he won the Prix de Rome in 1774. Whilst in Italy he went to Pompeii. He immersed himself in a study of classical reliefs and sculpture. He also listened to Diderot, the French philosopher who articulated the ideas of the Enlightenment. David saw in painting a way to convey the ideas of the Enlightenment, as a vehicle for the political and social messages he wished to convey. Rejecting Rococo art of the aristocrats His work embodied the rising tide of public opinion against the frivolousness of the monarchy and its Rococo style, instead, promoting the high moral virtues seen in classical art and literature under a democratic system. As a member of the bourgeois, middle class, David said “art should have no other guide than the torch of Reason”. The contrast between David’s neoclassical art and the whimsical Rococo brought David great support and success nearing the French Revolution. Art as propaganda for the Revolution & The Terror Jacques-Louis David soon found himself at the forefront of the revolutionary wave. Under his guidance Neoclassicism became to art and style of the Revolution. He joined the revolutionary parliament called the “National Convention” and voted for the king's execution in 1793. After the French Revolution, David was in charge of the world of French art: what art was taught in schools and shown in museums, and he made sure it all supported revolutionary ideas. He also remained as a strong political figure in the Reign of Terror, during which suspected counter-revolutionaries were guillotined. The Terror ended in 1794 with the execution of his close friend and the leader of the time, Robespierre. David was put in prison for his involvement in the Terror. He risked being guillotined himself but, instead, was released after six months. Rising and falling with Napoleon Post-Revolution, Jacques-Louis David became Napoleon’s official painter. His art glamorised Napoleon’s heroism, the success of his military campaigns, and the splendour of his court. In 1816, after Napoleon was ousted from power, David had to leave France into exile because he had publicly stated that he would become an enemy of the state if Napoleon were ever removed from power. He went to Belgium and died in 1825. His family and supporters tried to bring David’s body back into France but the French republic refused to accept David for his active involvement in the Terror. By this time, Neoclassicism was going out of style, and the Romantic era was coming in. http://www.pariscultureguide.com/jacques-louis-david.html |
NEOCLASSICAL ARTISTAntonio Canova (1757-1822)Canova came from a family of stone masons and sculptors and his early tuition was from his grandfather. He studied nature and also followed archaeologists who were excavating classical works.
• Canova travelled to Rome in 1779 and 1781. The trips opened his eyes to Neoclassicism, a style rising in reaction to Rococo. Neoclassicism aimed to recapture the spirit of the classical world, especially the art of ancient Greece and Rome. Neoclassicism favored order, heroism, and idealized human forms. Figures had perfect anatomy without the scars, wrinkles, or imperfections of real life. They also had restrained emotions and stoic expressions even when depicted in highly dramatic or emotional scenes. • He was acknowledged by the end of his career the most proficient Neoclassical sculptor of his time. His work was avidly collected by the English aristocracy. • Unlike the Neoclassical painters Canova avoided politics. • Simplicity and natural expression characterized Canova's style. |
NEOCLASSICAL ARTISTJean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (1780-1867)One of the most talented students in the studio of Jacques Louis David, Ingres found early success, winning the coveted Prix de Rome on only his second attempt. Yet while Ingres would always reflect the classical style associated with David, he complicated his master's legacy by distorting his figures and in choosing narratives that broke with the moral exemplars of his teacher.
In pursuit of more beautiful forms and harmonious line, Ingres pushed the abstraction of the body beyond the idealism of the Neoclassical. He abstracted his figures, even departing from the plausible construction of the body, to emphasize graceful contours and a pleasant visual effect. Despite his transgressions, when compared to the painterly brushwork and brilliant palettes of the Romantics, such as Eugène Delacroix, Ingres was undoubtedly connected to the classical tradition and academic style. A talented draftsman known for his serpentine line and impeccably rendered, illusionistic textures, he was at the centre of a revived version of the ancient debate: is line or colour the most important element of painting? Yet Ingres was not always successful; his experiments with abstracting the body and introducing more exotic and emotionally complex subjects earned harsh criticism in his early career. In truth, his work is best understood as a hybrid between Neoclassicism and Romanticism. It was only as the foil to the more dramatic Romanticism of Eugène Delacroix that Ingres came to be widely accepted as the defender of traditional painting and classicism. www.theartstory.org/artist/ingres-jean-auguste-dominique/life-and-legacy/#nav |
KEY ART WORKS BY INGRES
✨CLICK✨ on the art works for more information.
What is Orientalism?
Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres (1780–1867) never travelled to the East, but used the harem setting to conjure an erotic ideal in his voluptuous odalisques. Beyond their implicit eroticism, harem scenes evoked a sense of cultivated beauty and pampered isolation to which many Westerners aspired. https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/euor/hd_euor.htm |