* © 2010, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Chapter Twenty-One The Modern World: 1800-1945 Movements: Neoclassicism Romanticism Realism Impressionism Post-Impressionism Fauvism and Expressionism, Cubism Fantasy and Futurism Dada and Surrealism Building New Societies: Harlem Renaissance, De Stijl, and Bauhaus © 2010, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved. * For 19th-century artists and writers, walking through the teeming streets was the equivalent of today’s channel surfing—one sensation followed quickly by another, offering fleeting glimpses of thousands of lives. They found it overwhelming, thrilling, and sometimes disturbing—artists recognized it as new and termed it “modern.” This was the world of mass production, mass advertising, and mass consumption; the world of leisure activities, shopping, entertainment, and visiting art museums and galleries. We have already seen unique qualities from diverse traditions in art. We have also seen how diverse cultures have integrated new influences. As you look at these movements, you will realize that artists build upon or react against established traditions. In this age of communication, artists begin reacting more quickly, hence the number of rapidly accumulating movements. The changes of modernity occurred everywhere in Europe, but the debates they provoked played out most dramatically in France, especially in Paris, and this brief survey largely focuses there. * © 2010, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Neoclassicism and Romanticism Figure 21.2 Eugène Delacroix, The Women of Algiers, 1834. Figure 21.1 Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, Jupiter and Thetis, 1811. © 2010, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved. * We ended Chapter 17 with the rejection of Baroque & Rococo in the Neoclassical work of David. These artists favored emotional reserve, classical compositions, and precise draftsmanship. Ingres was a pupil of David, the leading painter of Neoclassicism and the most influential teacher in France at the turn of the 19th century. Ingres inherited his master’s admiration of ancient Greek and Roman Art, and emphasis on clean contours, a smooth finish, and precise draftsmanship. On the left, Jupiter and Thetis, figures from Homer’s Iliad, are portrayed. Here Thetis is shown pleading with Jupiter to intervene in the war on behalf of her son. With its clear contours, clean colors, and precise draftsmanship, the painting clearly shows Ingres’ debt to his teacher. He felt that the greatest subject matters of all were history, Classical mythology, and Biblical scenes. Ingres’ lifelong rival was Delacroix, champion of the Romantic movement. The Romantic ideal stressed dramatic subject matter, turbulent emotions, and complex compositions. Romanticism was not a style so much as a set of attitudes and characteristic subjects. The 18th century is sometimes known as “the Age of Reason,” for its leading thinkers placed their faith .

1. *
© 2010, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights
Reserved.
Chapter Twenty-One
The Modern World: 1800-1945
Movements:
Neoclassicism
Romanticism
Realism
Impressionism
Post-Impressionism
Fauvism and Expressionism, Cubism
Fantasy and Futurism
Dada and Surrealism
Building New Societies: Harlem Renaissance, De Stijl, and
Bauhaus
© 2010, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights
Reserved.
*
For 19th-century artists and writers, walking through the
teeming streets was the equivalent of today’s channel surfing—
one sensation followed quickly by another, offering fleeting
glimpses of thousands of lives. They found it overwhelming,
thrilling, and sometimes disturbing—artists recognized it as
new and termed it “modern.”
This was the world of mass production, mass advertising, and

2. mass consumption; the world of leisure activities, shopping,
entertainment, and visiting art museums and galleries.
We have already seen unique qualities from diverse traditions in
art. We have also seen how diverse cultures have integrated new
influences. As you look at these movements, you will realize
that artists build upon or react against established traditions. In
this age of communication, artists begin reacting more quickly,
hence the number of rapidly accumulating movements. The
changes of modernity occurred everywhere in Europe, but the
debates they provoked played out most dramatically in France,
especially in Paris, and this brief survey largely focuses there.
*
© 2010, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights
Reserved.
Neoclassicism and Romanticism
Figure 21.2 Eugène Delacroix, The Women of Algiers, 1834.
Figure 21.1 Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, Jupiter and Thetis,
1811.
© 2010, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights
Reserved.
*
We ended Chapter 17 with the rejection of Baroque & Rococo in
the Neoclassical work of David. These artists favored emotional
reserve, classical compositions, and precise draftsmanship.
Ingres was a pupil of David, the leading painter of
Neoclassicism and the most influential teacher in France at the
turn of the 19th century. Ingres inherited his master’s
admiration of ancient Greek and Roman Art, and emphasis on
clean contours, a smooth finish, and precise draftsmanship.
On the left, Jupiter and Thetis, figures from Homer’s Iliad, are
portrayed. Here Thetis is shown pleading with Jupiter to

3. intervene in the war on behalf of her son. With its clear
contours, clean colors, and precise draftsmanship, the painting
clearly shows Ingres’ debt to his teacher. He felt that the
greatest subject matters of all were history, Classical
mythology, and Biblical scenes.
Ingres’ lifelong rival was Delacroix, champion of the Romantic
movement. The Romantic ideal stressed dramatic subject matter,
turbulent emotions, and complex compositions. Romanticism
was not a style so much as a set of attitudes and characteristic
subjects. The 18th century is sometimes known as “the Age of
Reason,” for its leading thinkers placed their faith in
rationality. Romanticism championed emotion, intuition, and
subjectivity.
Delacroix, visiting North Africa, was fascinated by this exotic
world, filling numerous sketchbooks. Later, he drew upon this
material to create paintings such as The Women of Algiers, a
harem scene. Note the freer technique where contours are
blurred and colors are broken.
*
© 2010, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights
Reserved.
Realism
Figure 21.3 Gustave Courbet, The Artist’s Studio: A Real
Allegory Summing Up Seven Years of My Life as an Artist,
1855.
© 2010, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights
Reserved.
*
The Realist movement in French Art came somewhat later than

4. Neoclassicism and Romanticism and was, in effect, a reaction
against both. Realist artists sought to depict the everyday and
the ordinary (genre), rather than the heroic or the exotic. Their
concerns were very much rooted in the present. One of the
leaders of the Realist movement was Courbet. Here we see the
artist’s past, or his roots, on the left. His current friends are on
the right. In the center is the artist surrounded by Innocence and
Truth.
*
© 2010, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights
Reserved.
Manet and Impressionism
Figure 21.4 Edouard Manet, Le Dejeuner sur l’herbe, 1863.
© 2010, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights
Reserved.
*
In 19th century France, acceptance to the annual Salon
exhibition was the mark of an artist’s success. The rejection of
almost 3,000 works resulted in an uproar and a second
exhibition called “Salon des Refusés.” This painting was the
most notorious among them.
Manet seems to have wanted to accomplish two goals with his
work. The first was to join Courbet and other artists in painting
modern life. But the other was to prove that modern life could
produce eternal subjects worthy of the great masters of the
museums. His solution was to update two famous Renaissance
images, Titian’s “Fête Champêtre” and Raphael’s “The
Judgment of Paris.” One critic lamented that Manet was trying
to achieve celebrity the easy way, by shocking his public. His
painting is odd, and art historians still debate just what he

5. meant by it. The title is translated as Luncheon on the Grass.
The forms appear flattened and the perspective is off. Note the
relative sizes of the rowboat and the bather next to it. The right
side is spatially flattened to a flat green expanse. It feels like a
stage setting with figures posed on a set.
*
© 2010, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights
Reserved.
Impressionism
Figure 21.6 Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Le Moulin de la Galette,
1876.
Figure 21.7 Berthe Morisot, Summer’s Day, 1879.
© 2010, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights
Reserved.
*
The Impressionists looked to Manet as their philosophical
leader, as they also believed that modern life itself was the most
suitable subject for modern art. With Impressionism, art moved
outdoors—not the artificial outdoors of Manet, but the true
outdoors. Painting up until then had been a studio product, in
part because of the cumbersome materials it involved. Thanks to
the new availability of portable oil colors in tubes, many of the
Impressionists took their canvases, brushes, and paints outside
to be part of the shifting light they wanted to depict. This is a
transitory moment, as light shifts rapidly.
The light in Renior’s Le Moulin de la Galette is a light we have
not seen before in painting, the dappled, shifting, transient light
that filters through leaves stirred by the breeze. Traditional
chiaroscuro required a steady and even source of light for
modeling form. But light in nature was not always like that. For

6. these artists, loose, rapid brushwork was an essential part of the
effect.
Berthe Morisot was a founding member of the Impressionist
group. Summer’s Day is a good example of her style – the
palette is light, and the brushwork is varied and free.
*
© 2010, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights
Reserved.
Post-Impressionism
Figure 21.8 Paul Gauguin, Te Aa No Areoi ( The Seed of
Areoi),1892.
Figure 21.9 Paul Cézanne, Mont Sainte-Victoire, 1902-04.
© 2010, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights
Reserved.
*
The Post-Impressionists each had a unique style. They admired
the brighter palette and direct painting technique of the
Impressionists. But what they had in common was the rejection
of the transient moment in favor of enduring concepts.
Paul Gaugain sought to escape from the emotional effects of
modern life in Tahiti, his island paradise. Again we see a
tendency to use exaggerated, bright colors, but within flattened
areas. He felt the need for more substance and solidity. He
expressed spiritual meaning through strong outlines, tertiary
color harmonies to portray the exotic. Her pose, with legs
shown in profile, shoulders depicted frontally, is derived from
Egyptian art.
Cézanne also exaggerated color, but his was a unique concept.
Instead of flattening space, he did the opposite. He actually
broke space up into geometric, solid forms: rectangular

7. landscape, pyramid-shaped mountain. His brushstrokes are also
geometric. A favorite subject of his was this mountain near his
home, which he drew or painted 75 times.
Picasso was intrigued by his writings on viewing nature in
terms of its geometric structure: the cube, cylinder, and cone.
This was an influence on the later Cubism movement.
*
© 2010, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights
Reserved.
Bridging the Atlantic
Figure 21.11 Mary Cassatt, The Boating Party 1893-94.
Figure 21.10 George Bingam, Fur Traders Descending the
Missouri c. 1845.
America in the 19th Century
© 2010, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights
Reserved.
*
Exploring their artistic roots, American artists often studied in
Europe, taking advantage of the museums. Many European
artists explored new opportunities in America. But American
artists were all aware of the new art being shown in Europe.
In America, Romanticism was often expressed in the
glorification of the landscape. Bingham paints the air heavy
with the golden light of dawn about to break. The boat glides
silently, as father and son both look our way. Adding to the
mystery of this piece, a bear cub is chained to the prow.
Mary Cassatt, an American artist, moved to Paris where she
portrayed intimate, domestic scenes of mothers and children
(genre). The Boating Party, painted in bold, simplified forms,
broad areas of color and “bird’s eye view” reflects the influence

8. of Japanese prints, which were recently introduced through
museums in Europe.
*
© 2010, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights
Reserved.
Into the 20th Century
Figure 21.12 Henri Matisse,
The Joy of Life, 1905-06.
Figure 21.13 Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Street, Dresden, 1907.
The Avant Garde
Freeing Color: Fauvism and Expressionism
© 2010, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights
Reserved.
*
The avant-garde was originally a military term, referring to the
detachment of soldiers that went first into battle. By the 1880s,
younger artists began to refer to themselves as the avant-garde.
The fauves (wild beasts) gained this name through the use of
wild, subjective colors. Henri Matisse used color to convey
emotions, freed from its role in describing objects. In The Joy
of Life, we see colors used arbitrarily to describe the artist’s
feeling, not the landscape itself. Fauvism did not last long, a
mere three years or so, but was crucial for the development of
modern art.
Fauvism was part of a larger trend in Europe called
Expressionism, which arose as artists came to believe that the
fundamental purpose of art was to express their intense feelings
toward the world. In Germany, artists were disillusioned by
plagues, wars, economic depression, and an oppressive
government. The bright colors of the Post-Impressionists and
the Fauves are used in a subjective way, and shapes are further

9. distorted to focus on emotional impact. Expressionist artists
looked to Gauguin, Van Gogh, and Edvard Munch as their
predecessors.
Kirchner’s street is teeming with activity, yet each person is
alone in the crowd. The child in the center, feet planted apart to
resist the flow, may be a stand-in for the artist questioning the
purpose of all this solitary coming and going.
*
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Reserved.
Shattering Form
Figure 21.15 Picasso, Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, 1907
Cubism
Fragmented, multiple viewpoints
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Reserved.
*
Contrasting with the Expressionists’ emphasis on color were
two Parisians that sought to concentrate on the representation of
form in space. Pablo Picasso, at age 26, painted Les
Demoiselles d’Avignon, a pivotal work in the development of
20th century art. Following Cézanne’s advice on form, Picasso
rocked the art world with this shockingly geometric version of
nudes. The figure-ground begins to flatten and meld together.
Picasso consciously broke traditions that had been followed
since the Renaissance period. Form is fragmented like diamond
facets to present multiple viewpoints, rather than the fixed
position required of linear perspective. This painting is our first
glimpse of the Cubism movement. These prostitutes are far from
enticing with their disturbing, angular forms. Note the use of
the Egyptian eye on the left and the “primitive” African masks

10. on the right. The Africans were adept at the use of abstraction
to produce startling effects long before the Europeans.
Picasso’s partner in this movement was Georges Braque. Their
styles became so closely intertwined that they even ceased
signing their works for a brief time. Following Cézanne’s
advice, they reduced forms to the cube, cylinder, and cone.
They also restricted color to gray, ochre, and green. As Cubism
progressed they added stenciled letters, newspaper, and fabric
elements, creating collage. While these two artists worked hand
in hand, Picasso received most of the credit.
*
© 2010, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights
Reserved.
Fantasy and Futurism
Figure 21.19 UmbertoBoccioni,
Unique Forms of Continuity in Space, 1913.
Figure 21.18 Giorgio de Chirico, The Disquieting Muses, 1916.
© 2010, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights
Reserved.
*
Giorgio de Chirico proclaimed, “that we should rid art of all
that it has contained of recognizable material.” Fantasy art
entered the realms of childhood visions and dreams. No sign of
nature appears in The Disquieting Muses, composed of ancient
Rome, the Renaissance and the Industrial Revolution,
represented by the Classical columns, the statue and the factory.
By contrast, the Futurists decided that motion itself was the
glory of the new 20th century. Boccioni’s Unique Forms of
Continuity in Space represents a striding human figure imagined
in the light of contemporary science. The sleek surfaces and
wind-swept form suggests the power and possibilities of life in

11. the modern world.
*
© 2010, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights
Reserved.
World War I and After
Figure 21.23 Salvador Dali, The Persistence of Memory, 1931.
Figure 21.21 Marcel Duchamp, Fountain, 1963 replica of 1917
original.
Dada and Surrealism
© 2010, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights
Reserved.
*
The dark side of science and technology was revealed when
every major power in Europe was drawn into World War I
beginning in 1914. The ideal of progress was shown to be
utterly hollow, and ten million people lost their lives in one of
the bloodiest wars in history. A group of artists waiting out the
war in Zurich, in neutral Switzerland, banded together in a
protest art movement called Dada. Dada is a nonsense word,
which these artists felt embraced the concept behind the
movement. This is an example of one of Duchamp’s “ready-
mades,” a work of art that the artist has not made, but has
“designated.” His intention was to find an object that had no
aesthetic value, sign it, and exhibit it as art. While other artists
were debating art history, he was debating the meaningless of
life and art itself.
Dali’s ants suggest that time may be melting away, and nothing
survives but the frenetic activity of the insects, who may outlive
man.

12. *
© 2010, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights
Reserved.
Figure 21.29 Fernand Léger, Woman and Child 1922.
Between the Wars
Building New Societies
© 2010, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights
Reserved.
*
The horrors of the times also brought artistic endeavors to build
a better society. The De Stijl movement is epitomized by the
artist Mondrian (21.26), who thought of his canvases as places
where we could turn to stabilize ourselves and restore our calm.
The Bauhaus and De Stijl both sought to create harmony
between individual lives and modern industry and technology.
The Bauhaus was a school formed in Germany in 1928, designed
to eliminate divisions between painters, sculptors, architects,
crafts, and designers. This “building house” sought new
principles for designing with 20th century technology. They
envisioned clean lines for “a return to order” and economical
manufacturing made available for everyone. This is when the
elements and principles became common terminology in arts
education.
Léger presents a vision of harmony between life and modern
industry. He uses straight lines, right angles, clear shapes, pure
colors, and surfaces of industrial production in his painting.
Even the bodies seem to be made of manufactured parts. The
woman and child seem to be content in their calm, ordered,
well-lit world.

13. *
© 2010, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights
Reserved.
Harlem Renaissance: dedicated to building a better society
through education and the arts
Figure 21.30 Aaron Douglas, Aspects of Negro Life: From
Slavery through Reconstruction, 1934.
Between the Wars
Building New Societies
© 2010, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights
Reserved.
*
Following World War I, one of the most vibrant movements to
build a better society arose in the New York neighborhood
known as Harlem. This predominantly African-American
neighborhood became a magnet for artists, musicians,
composers, playwrights, actors, scientists, and educators.
Musicians Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington, as well as
writer Langston Hughes and the poet Countee Cullen are well
known examples of the talent in Harlem. There is no single
style, but this artist is representative of their aspirations. This is
one of a series of murals for public libraries. This segment is
called “From Slavery through Reconstruction.” Douglas’
simplification and stylization of forms surely derived from his
studies of West African sculpture. Note the left to right
progression from slavery to freedom. The dominant central
figure points the way upward to freedom.
*
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Reserved.

14. Chapter Twenty-One
The Modern World: 1800-1945
Movements:
Neoclassicism
Romanticism
Realism
Impressionism
Post-Impressionism
Fauvism and Expressionism, Cubism
Fantasy and Futurism
Dada and Surrealism
Building New Societies: Harlem Renaissance, De Stijl, and
Bauhaus
© 2010, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights
Reserved.
*
For 19th-century artists and writers, walking through the
teeming streets was the equivalent of today’s channel surfing—
one sensation followed quickly by another, offering fleeting
glimpses of thousands of lives. They found it overwhelming,
thrilling, and sometimes disturbing—artists recognized it as
new and termed it “modern.”
This was the world of mass production, mass advertising, and
mass consumption; the world of leisure activities, shopping,
entertainment, and visiting art museums and galleries.
We have already seen unique qualities from diverse traditions in
art. We have also seen how diverse cultures have integrated new
influences. As you look at these movements, you will realize
that artists build upon or react against established traditions. In
this age of communication, artists begin reacting more quickly,
hence the number of rapidly accumulating movements. The
changes of modernity occurred everywhere in Europe, but the

15. debates they provoked played out most dramatically in France,
especially in Paris, and this brief survey largely focuses there.