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Period: to
Later Europe and Americas I
Citations:
https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/monarchy-enlightenment/rococo/v/fragonard-the-swing-1767
https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/monarchy-enlightenment/english-portraiture/america-ageof-revolution/a/houdon-george-washington
http://metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/32.62.17
https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-americas/us-art-19c/romanticism-us/v/cole-oxbow
https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/becoming-modern/Victorian-art-architecture/early-victorian/v/palace-westminster -
The Swing. Jean-Honoré Fragonard. 1767 C.E. Oil on canvas.
The Swing is one of the defining works of the Rococo movement, a style of painting tailored for the care-free aristocracy. Like many Rococo works, the artist (in this case, Fragonard) uses themes of sensuality and vivid detailing and coloring in order to depict the fantasies and realities of the wealthy elite. Rococo's appeal to wealth later led to realism and romanticism in opposition.
By Jean-Honoré Fragonard - wartburg.edu, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=611509 -
George Washington. Jean-Antoine Houdon. 1788-1792 C.E. Marble.
This sculpture of an American icon was created by the French artist Houdon, certainly due to his mastery of the Neoclassical style popular in France at the time. Houdon uses both American and Greco-Roman symbols of civil heroics as an embellishment of the classical Washington. The connection to Roman civic duty exists almost to stabilize the US's civil turmoil at the time.
By User:AlbertHerring - Image taken by me for Wikipedia, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=14578733 -
Y no hai remedio (And There's Nothing to Be Done), from Los Desastres de la Guerra (The Disasters of War), plate 15. Francisco de Goya. 1810-1823 C.E. (published 1863).
This etching of multiple executions comes from Goya's series The Disasters of War. Goya created this series in response to a Spanish general asking Goya to depict Spain's triumph over France's atrocities. Goya instead chose to depict the equal horrors committed by both sides of the battle, a controversial motivation that may be the reason for the series' posthumous publishing.
By Francisco Goya - Cropped Commons image, Public Domain, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=16996092 -
The Oxbow (View from Mount Holyoke, Northampton, Massachusetts, after a Thunderstorm). Thomas Cole. 1836 C.E. Oil on canvas.
The Oxbow is the defining work of the 19th-century American Landscape movement, a style popular among the American middle class. Aside from a beautiful recreation of natural beauty, the Oxbow contains imagery suggesting the human conquering (right) of the new, wild America (left). The work's Christian imagery leads many to believe the "conquering" represents the Manifest Destiny.
By Thomas Cole - Metropolitan Museum of Art, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=182973 -
Palace of Westminster (Houses of Parliament). London, England. Charles Barry and Augustus W. N. Pugin (architects). 1840-1870 C.E. Limestone masonry and glass.
After a fire burned down the previous palace in 1834, a contest was held to design a new Palace in the "British" Gothic or Elizabethan style. This was a reaction against the Neoclassical style popular in France and the US. While notable decorations of the building are completed in a Gothic style, the structure's regularity/sense of balance is more consistent with the Neoclassical
Mайкл Гиммельфарб (Mike Gimelfarb) - Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5049123
