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Neoclassicism. Late 18 th , early 19 th century. Neoclassicism has its base in France and was ruled by dictator Napoleon Bonaparte Napoleon hated the exuberance and frivolity of the Baroque and Rococo style Preferred the classic art of ancient Greece and Rome
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Neoclassicism Late 18th, early 19th century
Neoclassicism has its base in France and was ruled by dictator Napoleon Bonaparte • Napoleon hated the exuberance and frivolity of the Baroque and Rococo style • Preferred the classicart of ancient Greece and Rome • Neoclassicism arises in part from a rejection of the Rococo but particularly from a renewed interest in Classical ideas • Napoleon uses this style to reinforce his image as an all-powerful leader
What’s Up with France? • At this time France was in the middle of a Revolution. • There were two main opposing sides: • the Jacobins (who supported a democratic government) and… • the Royalists (who supported the monarchy).
Robespierre was the leader of the Revolution, connected with the Jacobins. • The Revolution was very violent: if you were not for the Revolution (read: the good of France) then you were in opposition and needed to be destroyed. • This began the Reign of Terror, in which Robespierre led mass executions for anyone not supporting the resistance to the monarchy. The guillotine was invented as a more effective means of putting someone to death.
Jacques-Louis David 1748- 1825
Jacques-Louis David (1748- 1825) • Began painting under King Louis XVI, became an important artist under Napoleon • Other artists were unable to make the transition after the French Revolution • JLD traveled to Rome in 1775, drew Classical sculptures in great detail • His style = clean, crisp, hard-edged, no evidence of brushstrokes tolerated in his own work or his students • Used Greek and Roman subject matter to show parallels with contemporary French politics
Jacques-Louis David. Oath of the Horatii. 1784-85 o/c 11’x14’
Jacques-Louis David. Oath of the Horatii. 1784-85 • Uses a Roman story to arouse passion for French unity • It is a story of conflict between love and patriotism • The Horatii brothers are chosen to defend Rome in battle of neighbouring Alba • But one of the Horatii sisters is engaged to an Alban and a brother is engaged to an Alban.
Even so, the three brothers take an oath on the raised swords held by their father to defend Rome • They appear rigid, manly and heroic and symbolize patriotism and loyalty • The grieving sisters on the far right embody love and sorrow
Why this painting is Neoclassical: • Patriotism is the clear winner over love • Every figure is painted with sharp clarity • Edges are hard and crisp • The figures seem frozen in action on a dramatically lit stage
Jacques-Louis David. Napoleon in His Study. 1812 o/c 801/4 x 491/4
Jacques-Louis David. Napoleon in His Study. 1812 • The details of this painting are meant to reveal aspects of his personality to the French people • The burnt-down candle and the clock set at 4:13 a.m. suggest that the emperor had been working all night in the service of the country • The figure is solid like a statue with sharply focused lighting
The Other Side of David: • David was an active supporter of the Jacobins. • He was elected a Deputy from the city of Paris, and voted for the execution of Louis XVI. • He was active in numerous agencies of the reign of terror, and historians have identified more than 300 victims for whom David signed execution orders. • He was president of the Jacobin club on the day when his good friend and fellow Jacobin, Jean-Paul Marat, was killed. • Marat, friend of Robespierre, Jacobin deputy to the Convention, and editor-in-chief of L'Ami du Peuple, was a fiery orator; he was also a violent man, quick to take offense.
The Death of Marat • On July 13, 1793, a young Royalist Charlotte Corday, managed to gain entry into his apartment. When Marat agreed to receive her, she stabbed him in his bathtub, where he was accustomed to sit hour after hour treating the disfiguring skin disease from which he suffered. • David, Marat's colleague in the Convention, had visited him only the day before the murder, and he recalled the setting of the room vividly, the tub, the sheet, the green rug, the wooden packing case, and above all, the pen of the journalist. He saw in Marat a model of antique “virtue.” • The day after the murder, David was invited by the Convention to make arrangements for the funeral ceremony, and to paint Marat's portrait. He accepted with enthusiasm, but the decomposed state of the body made a true-to-life representation of the victim impossible. This circumstance, coupled with David's own emotional state, resulted in the creation of this idealized image.
Jacques-Louis David. The Death of Marat. 1793o/c 65” x 50 3/8”
In this portrait, Marat is dying: his eyelids droop, his head weighs heavily on his shoulder, his right arm slides to the ground. • His body, as painted by David, is that of a healthy man, still young. The face is marked by suffering, but is also gentle. • David has surrounded Marat with a number of details borrowed from his subject's world, including the knife and Charlotte Corday's petition. • The letter loosely translates to "My great unhappiness gives me a right to your kindness“ as Charlotte asks for help. • David wanted the portrait to take place at the moment when Marat was writing to send financial help to this mother of five, whose husband had died in the defense of his country.
The face, the body, and the objects are suffused with a clear light, which is softer as it falls on the victim's features and harsher as it illuminates the assassin's petition. • David leaves the rest of his model in shadow. In this sober and subtle interplay of elements can be seen, in perfect harmony with the drawing, the blend of compassion and outrage David felt at the sight of the victim. • The painting was presented to the Convention on 15 November 1793. It was immediately the object of extravagant praise; one critic claimed "the face expresses a supreme kindness and an exemplary revolutionary spirit carried to the point of sacrifice."
Jacques Louis David. The Death of Socrates 1787 Oil on Canvas, 51" x 77 1/4"
Jacques Louis David. The Death of Socrates • The story: The Athenian government condemned Socrates to death or exile because they disagreed with his teaching methods, accusing him of arousing skepticism in religion and the government. • Socrates heroically rejected exile and accepted death from hemlock. • Socrates represents those who are unjustly condemned but who sacrifices himself for an abstract principle. • The over-exaggerated gestures and poses of the characters is typical of Neoclassicism, along with the strong contrasts of light and dark.
Jacques Louis David. The Death of Socrates • Here the philosopher continues to speak even while reaching for the cup, demonstrating his indifference to death and his unyielding commitment to his ideals. • Most of his disciples and slaves swirl around him in grief, betraying the weakness of emotionalism. His wife is seen only in the distance leaving the prison. • At the time, this had great political relevance as there were large numbers of political prisoners in the king's jails or in exile. On the eve of the Revolution, this picture served as a trumpet call to duty, and resistance to unjust authority. • Thomas Jefferson was present at its unveiling, and admired it immensely.
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres • A child prodigy, Ingres started art school at 11 years old and studied with David at seventeen. • Ingres never allowed his brushwork to show, but his style was softer than David’s, and was more sensitive to texture and flesh. • Ingres would draw figures in the nude to make sure all the proportions were correct, then he would “dress” them.
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres. Louis Bertin, 1832. oil on canvas 46’ x 37 ½”
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres. Louis Bertin, 1832. • Ingres is noted for his crisp polished portraits which have an almost photographic quality
Ingres. Portrait of Napoleon on the Imperial Throne 1806 o/c. • Outstanding example of texture, balance and composition • Note the folds of the robe and the short pile of the furs. • The delicate fringes are also expertly handled
Ingres. Pauline Eleanore de Galard de Brassac de Bearn, Princesse de Broglie 1853 o/c 473/4 x 353/4 inches • "If I had to select just one artist whose work is the most fruitful and instructive to the historian of dress for the period covering the first half of the Nineteenth Century, it would be Ingres. • From that time, when the fashion spotlight was on the dress and appearance of women rather than on men. • Ingres has left an unrivalled and detailed record of the female image.
Ingres. Pauline Eleanore de Galard de Brassac de Bearn, Princesse de Broglie 1853 • Ingres's heightened depiction of the visible and the tactile becomes our experience, too. • When one looks in detail at the surviving costume of the period, it is astonishing to see not just how accurate Ingres is in terms of the cut and construction of garments and the depiction of fabrics and accessories in his work, but also how alive he is to the nuances and the sense of clothing. • Not only will Ingres paint the brilliance of a fine cashmere shawl, for example, where the colours flow like all oriental imagery, but he will also lead the eye to such tiny but telling details as the way in which the twisted fringe on the border of the fine wool gets caught up on the fabric of a dress..
Ingres. La Grande Odalisque. 1814 o/c 91 x 162cm • Odalisque: woman kept in a harem • What is wrong with her proportions? • What are some possible reasons Ingres painted her like this?
Ingres The Valpincon Bather. 1808 o/c 146 x 97.5 cm
These early portraits are notable for their calligraphic line and expressive contour, which had a sensuous beauty of its own beyond its function to contain and delineate form. It was a feature that formed the essential basis of Ingres's painting throughout his life. • During his first years in Rome he continued to execute portraits and began to paint bathers, a theme which was to become one of his favorites.
Ingres is a puzzling artist and his career is full of contradictions. Yet more than most artists he was obsessed by a restricted number of themes and returned to the same subject again and again over a long period of years. • He said paint should be as smooth `as the skin of an onion'--but he was often attacked for the expressive distortions of his draughtsmanship
Elizabeth Vigee-Lebrun • One of the most successful of all women painters, Elizabeth first studied with her father • Excellent portrait painter before she was twenty. • 24 yrs old: called to Versailles to paint Marie Antoinette, where she stayed to become Painter to the Queen • When the Revolution broke out, she went to Italy, Vienna, Prague, Dresden, Moscow and London receiving commissions everywhere she went, before returning to Paris. • Over her career, she had painted 600 portraits and 200 landscapes!
Elizabeth Vigee-Lebrun Portrait of Marie Antoinette a la rose. o/c 1785
Jean Antoine Houdon (1741 – 1828) • Started his work under King Louis XIV, managed to adjust and transition well. • Napoleon wasn’t a big fan of Houdon; philosophers Voltaire and Rousseau were his admirers.
His work is anatomically accurate and was able to capture the personality of the sitter. • In France, he sculpted Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson. Through them he was invited to a new country, the United States. • In 1785, he carved the first president, George Washington, in marble
