Toward the Modern Era: 1870 - 1914

Frederic Bartholdi, "Liberty Enlightening the World", Liberty Island, New York, New York 1876-1886

Chapter 18: Toward the Modern Era: 1870-1914 OUTLINE The Growing Unrest New Movements in the Visual Arts Impressionism Postimpressionism Fauvism and Expressionism New Styles in Music Orchestral Music at the Turn of the Century Impressionism in Music The Search for a New Musical Language New Subjects for Literature Psychological Insights in the Novel Responses to a Changing Society: The Role of Women Outline Chapter 18

Timeline Chapter 18 Timeline Chapter 18: Toward the Modern Era: 1870 – 1914 1863 1866 1872 1876 1879 1886 1889 1889 1891 1893 1900 1902-1906 1905 1907-1914 Manet, Dèjeuner sur l'Herbe / Luncheon on the Grass Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment Monet, Impression Sunrise Renoir, Le Moulin de la Galette Ibsen, A Doll's House Rodin, The Kiss Van Gogh , Starry Night Cassatt, Mother and Child Gauguin, Ia Orana Maria Munch, The Scream Freud, Interpretation of Dreams Cèzanne, Mont Sainte-Victoire First Fauve exhibition in Paris; Matisse, The Joy of Life Picasso and Braque develop Cubism in Paris

The last years of the nineteenth century The last years of the nineteenth century saw the threat of war gathering with increasing speed over Europe. The gap between the prosperous and the poor, the growth of the forces of big business, overcrowding and food shortages in the cities all tended to create a climate of unease that the rivalries of the major European powers exacerbated. Many emigrated to America in search of a new start. For the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche only drastic remedies could prevent the collapse of Western civilization.

Impressionist Painting

In each of the arts the years leading up to World War I were marked by far-reaching changes. In the case of painting, the impressionist school developed in Paris. Foreshadowed in the work of Šdouard Manet, impressionist art represented a new way of looking at the world. Painters like Claude Monet, Auguste Renoir, and Berthe Morisot reproduced what they saw rather than visually interpret their subjects. The depiction of light and atmosphere became increasingly important. The figure studies of Edgar Degas and Mary Cassatt avoided the careful poses of earlier times in favor of natural, intimate scenes.

Käthe Kollwitz

K ä the Kollwitz, artist German, 1867 - 1945

Ende (End), sixth plate in the series

Ein Weberaufstand (Weavers' Revolt), 1897 Etching, aquatint, and sandpaper 24.6 x 30.6 cm (image) K ä the Kollwitz, artist German, 1867 - 1945

Sturm (Storm), fifth plate in the series Ein Weberaufstand

(Revolt of the Weavers), 1897 etching and sandpaper 23.7 x 29.4 cm (image);

Manet, Edouard, Luncheon on the Grass

Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe, ("Luncheon on the Grass"), 1863

Manet, Edouard,

A Bar at the Folies Bergère

“A Bar at the Folies-Bergère”,

1863

Claude Monet,

Impression, Sunrise Impression, soleil levant (Impression, Sunrise)

1873 (210 Kb); Oil on canvas, 48 x 63 cm (19 x 24 3/8"); Musee Marmottan, Paris

Claude Monet,

haystacks Meule, Effet de Neige, le Matin (Morning Snow Effect) Meule, Soleil Couchant

1891

Meule, Degel, Soleil Couchant

Renoir, Pierre-Auguste

Seated Bather

c. 1883-1884 (140 Kb); Oil on canvas

Dance at Bougival

1883

Gabrielle with a Rose

1911

Miss Lala at the Cirque Fernando 1879 Degas, Edgar

Woman combing her hair c.1887-90

Cassatt, Mary

Little Girl in a Blue Armchair

1878

At the Theater

1879

Rodin, Auguste

The Kiss

1886 (100 Kb); Bronze

The Burghers of Calais

1884-86 (30 Kb); Bronze

Seurat, Georges:

Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte Seurat, Georges 1884-86; "Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte"; Oil on canvas, 81 x 120 in

Seurat, Georges: The Circus

The Circus 1891; Oil on canvas, 73 x 59 1/8 in

The Postimpressionists

The various schools that developed out of impressionism are collectively known as postimpressionist although they have little in common with one another. Among the leading artists were Paul Gauguin, with his love of exotic subjects, and Vincent van Gogh, whose deeply moving images have made him perhaps the best known of all nineteenth-century painters. In historical terms, the most important figure was probably Paul CÈzanne: his works are the first since the dawn of the Renaissance to eliminate perspective and impose order on nature rather than try to reproduce it.

Cézanne, Paul

Maison et arbres

1890-94

House and Trees Bend in Road

1900-06

Le Mont Sainte-Victoire

c. 1897-98

Vincent van Gogh

Self-Portrait

1889

The vase with 12 sunflowers Wheat Field Under Threatening Skies

1890 (260 Kb); Oil on canvas, 50.5 x 100.5 cm

Expressionism and the Fauves

In the early years of the twentieth century two movements began to emerge: fauvism and expressionism, the former in France and the latter in Germany and Scandinavia. Both emphasized bright colors and violent emotions, and the works of Edvard Munch and other expressionists are generally tormented in spirit. Henri Matisse, the leading fauve artist, however, produced works that are joyous and optimistic; he was to become a major force in twentieth-century painting.

Matisse, Henri

Notre-Dame, A Glimpse of Notre Dame in the Late Afternoon

1902

The Joy of Life

1905-06

La Musique

1939

The Scream (or The Cry)

1893

Edvard Munch

The Dead Mother

1899-1900

Orchestral Music at the Turn of the Century

Composers of orchestral music in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries turned increasingly to the rich language of post-Wagnerian harmony and instrumentation to express either extramusical "programs" or to compose "autobiographical" works. The leading figures of the period included Richard Strauss and Gustav Mahler. Many of Strauss' operas have held the stage since their first performances, while his tone poems use a vast orchestra either to tell a story (as in Don Juan) or to describe his own life (Domestic Symphony). Mahler's symphonies, neglected in the composer's lifetime, have come to represent some of the highest achievements of the symphonic tradition. Openly autobiographical, they reflect at the same time the universal human problems of loss and anxiety In France the music of Claude Debussy, and to a lesser extent Maurice Ravel, set out to achieve the musical equivalent of impressionism. In works like La Mer Debussy used new harmonic combinations to render the atmosphere of a seascape

New Approaches to Music: Schoenberg and Stravinsky

The experiments of composers like Mahler and Debussy at least retained many of the traditional musical forms and modes of expression, although they vastly extended them. In the early years of the twentieth century Arnold Schoenberg and Igor Stravinsky wrote works that represented a significant break with the past. Schoenberg's atonal and, later, serial music sought to replace the traditional harmonic structure of Western musical style with a new freedom, albeit one limited by the serial system. In The Rite of Spring and other works Stravinsky revealed a new approach to rhythm. Both composers profoundly influenced the development of twentieth-century music.

Literature and the Subconscious

Like the other arts, literature also underwent revolutionary change in the last decades of the nineteenth century. In the hands of Fyodor Dostoyevsky and Marcel Proust, the novel became a vehicle to reveal the effects of the subconscious on human behavior. In Dostoyevsky's books self-knowledge and psychological truth are combined to explore the nature of human suffering. Proust's massive exploration of the past not only seeks to uncover his own memories; it deals with the very nature of time itself. Both writers, along with many of their contemporaries, joined painters and musicians in pushing their art to its limits in order to extend its range of expression.

Writers and the Changing Role of Women

A more traditional aim of literature was to effect social change. At a time when society was becoming aware of the changing role of women in the modern world, writers aimed to explore the implications for marriage and the family of the gradual emancipation of women and the increasing availability of divorce. The plays of Henrik Ibsen not only described the issues of his day, including feminist ones, they were also intended to open up discussion of topics-venereal disease, incest-that his middle-class audience would have preferred to ignore.

The Impact of World War I

With the outbreak of war in 1914, the arts were wrenched from their traditional lines of development to express the anxieties of the age. Nothing-in art, culture, politics, or society-was ever to return to its former state.