Art Of The Late Ninegteenth Century Essay

Speaking about the late 19th century wile, it is necessary to say that the transition from one century to a nonher is al instructions marked by the feeling of disillusionment as far as conventional themes and methods be concerned. There is an emptiness which prompts artists to look for new mannequins, new means of expression. It is not always easy, however, which leads them to aspiration to escape from the usual veracity to strange countries and ways of life. The cultural phenomenon of fin de ciecle (end of the century) naturally manifested itself in visual arts and lead to emergence of effectism and post-impressionism.Partially, impressionism manner was caused by the fastening of life tempo and industrial revolution. As a result, impressionists aimed to depict the ever-changing reality they wanted to catch the moment of the life flow, which is never the same. Impressionist painters inherited the romantic naturalist ism barely chose different devices to reveal nature. The term postimpressionism was coined by the English artist and critic Roger Fry (1866-1934) in 1910 as a name for the various movements that grew out of Impressionism, but moved away from its naturalist tendencies. In the current paper I intend to analyze some of postimpressionists paintings to trace the influence of traditional art and innovation.One of the most prominent painters on the brink of the centuries was Paul Gauguin. When we speak of fascination with primitive and alien art, we primarily mean this artists attempt to move in this direction. Like most postimpressionists he started as impressionism and was devoted to traditional objective rendering of nature with the encourage of new coloring and agility and shadow effects. In the course of time, when he was already a famous painter he agnise inherent limitations impressionism had in itself and chose another direction. He did it not only in the figurative sense but he physically moved to Tahiti to investigate new opportu nities for art progress. Lets look most at some of his canvasses of Tahitian period to discover what novelty they bear and how they correlate with impressionist tradition, on the one hand, and primitive art forms on the other hand.One of the most illustrative pictures of the series is called Femmes de Tahiti Sur la plage (Tahitian Women On the Beach) The name itself suggests that the conventional subject matter of impressionism conveying fleeting states of nature is put aside. The painter do people his objects and applied revolutionary technique to depict them. The fist thing the eye catches is the unusual strange coloring for the sky, the sea and the sand, which has nothing in common with the palette applied for European landscapes.The colors are rich and warm it seems they soaked exotic sunlight. At the same time we see that the artist doesnt aim at showing every pestilent hue (if we speak of color) or every subtle bend of human body (if we speak of shape). On the contrary, he wants to make the impression of ultimate control of color and form, which follows the tradition of primitive art. Despite of this primitivism, the women in the painting feel exceptionally real and palpable, not in terms of photographic similarity and anatomic precision but in terms of sensation conveyed. Natural rich colors of Pacific islands and simplicity of form make them a part of environ nature. As a result they feel real in a sense that they are innocuous of any artificial glossiness, which civilization imposes.Another famous painting of Gauguin, which was considered to be scandalous and indecent by many of his contemporaries, is called Spirit of the Dead Watching. It depicts a nude young girl lying and mystical existence surrounding her. This painting inherits the tradition of primitive art not only in terms of form but also in discovering the mythology of Tahitians. In this case Gauguin managed to do a unique thing with the help of simple, rough, down-to-earth colors and forms he depicted an ephemeral world of spiritsEdgar Degas is another famous postimpressionist of the late nineteenth century. Unlike Gauguin, he was not some(prenominal) into exotic themes. He inherited much from impressionist tradition, and was greatly influenced by the naturalist philosophy of romanticism. Still, if we look at his landscape paintings, it becomes plain that the accent mark is quite different, as well as the role of nature.For example, the canvass Aux courses en province (At the Races in the Country) is a perfect illustration to this dual influence. The painting is no way an ode to nature, as it was the case with impressionists and romanticists. It is rather the point, where the devil worlds rural and urban intersect. The contrast between the picturesque scenery and the people who came to the country to enjoy themselves is in reality huge. This contrast is not manifested through color but through some specific details, which make the impression that the people are outsiders for the nature.Thus, a sun parasol a woman wears, her husbands spend hat, the cart among the field, and especially the horses eyes covered with blinders all these details disclose the painters idea that people no longer belong to the nature. Degas is said to be the one who was greatly influenced by the revolutionary contrivance of the late nineteenth century photography. Thus, his painting Absinthe is illustrative of the new perspective and spacing photography opened to artists. The canvass reminds of the technology of painting black and white photos, which was applied at this period of time.To check up, the late nineteenth century was marked by the trend of transformation, transition from Romantic to Postimpressionist art and way of thinking. The painters of these periods were exposed to dual influence- on the one hand, they inherited the technique and tradition of impressionist art and naturalist philosophy, on the other hand the felt like the old princip les and themes were exhausted, thats why they resorted to new sources of breathing in like primitive exotic art and photography.BibliographyBroude, Norma. Impressionism A Feminist Reading the Gendering of Art, Science, and Nature in the ordinal Century. Boulder, Colo. Westview Press, 1997.Impressionism , in Painting. The Columbia Encyclopedia . 6th ed. 2004.Rewald, John. Post-Impressionism From Van Gogh to Gauguin. New York Museum of Modern Art, 1956.