Chapter 27 Romanticism, Realism, Photography: Europe and America, 1800 to 1870

Chapter 27 Romanticism, Realism, Photography: Europe and America, 1800 to 1870

 

Napoleon Bonaparte was an important patron of the arts in France at the turn of the 19^th century, appointing the Neoclassicist Jacques-Louis David as First Painter of the Empire. But early in the 19^th century, Neoclassicism gave way to Romanticism as the dominant art form in Europe. Delacroix and Gericault became the leading Romantic painters in France, favoring exotic subject matter and employing bold, loose brushstrokes and vibrant color. In England, Germany, and America, Romantic landscape painters took on transcendental themes. Photography was invented simultaneously in France and England, and by the middle of the century it was a burgeoning new artistic and documentary medium. The American Civil War was one of the first major conflicts to be thoroughly documented in photographs. In the mid-19^th century, Realism emerged as the dominant painting style, with artists such as Gustave Courbet in France and Thomas Eakins rejecting revivalist styles and historical themes in favor of depicting the people and events of their own times. Edouard Manet’s shocking contemporary subject matter and no illusionistic painting style established the terms of early Modern art.