The Modern Age

1. The Modern Age Industrial Revolution to World Wars

2. Industrial Revolution • British and Dutch have highest standard of living in the world. • British farmers could produce more food cheaper, while still making a profit. • More workers not needed for food production. • British government inexpensive, low tax burden. • More money available for investment and spending.

3. Britain Takes the Lead • Free enterprise, initiative encouraged • Cotton gained importance as it was cheaper and easier to be worked by hand. • Mechanization of cotton pushed investment and invention in other areas. • Steam engine, coal mining, steel production • Britain had the means to produce goods and then export them around the world.

4. Social Consequences • People flocked to the Industrial Centers. • They overwhelmed the city’s capacity. • So, shantytowns became very common on the outskirts of towns. • Children were brought into the labor force as a cheap alternative to adults. • Despite this, the living conditions of the laboring poor improved in England.

5. Friedrich Engels • German Socialist • The Condition of the Working Class in England (1845) • Showed the sharp divisions between the rich and the poor • Disliked capitalism and hailed a Socialist Revolution

6. Karl Marx • German Philosopher • Hated the fact that millions were working and starving so a few thousand could wallow in luxury • Das Kapital – criticized capitalism • The Communist Manifesto (1848)

7. Marxism • Popular in countries where industrialism was just starting and agriculture was still the main industry. • Russia –1917 • China – After WWII

8. Technological Advances • Crystal Palace – Great Exhibition in London 1851 • Seen as an engineering marvel and as optimistic of the future • Railroad • Steamship • Telegraph • Telephone • Electricity

10. Liberalism • Liberals believed that the sufferings of the poor were a small price to pay for the benefits of industrialization. • Believed if people were able to follow their own self-interests, would benefit all. • State shall interfere as little as possible with the economy. • Policy of Laissez-faire—leave alone

11. Reform Movement • 1830s and 1840s: public opinion pushes British government to do something about abuses of industry. • New breed of liberals push to gain better working conditions. • See government as mediator/protector to prevent oppression from owner to worker. • Vote seen as a privilege for all.

12. Utopian Communities • Critics of industrial economy see evils of industry come from private property. • Seek to establish communities where the property is owned by all who work and live there. • Thought that basic industry and essential services should be operated by the community for the good of all. • Charles Fourier devised a utopian community where each did the work they were best suited for and all shared in the profits.

13. Women’s Rights • Seneca Falls Convention • Women meet peacefully in upper New York • Wanted to organize themselves to fight for more rights • Moved from abolitionist movement to gaining the vote for women • Sojourner Truth, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, Susan B. Anthony • Drew up the “Declaration of Sentiments” 12 resolutions including right to vote

14. John Stuart Mill • Eloquent advocate for women’s rights • Wrote The Subjection of Women • Son of John Mill an early liberal • Writer, member of Parliament • Opposed slavery and oppression of the poor

15. Voting Rights • 1917 gain the right to vote in Canada • 1920: US • 1928: England • Not until after WWII in France • Even after voting rights won, still much discrimination against women

16. Realism and Beyond • Art and architecture needed to change with industrialization. • Architects struggle to define a style for the 19th century. • New functions, needs, and materials pose new problems and need new solutions.

17. The Crystal Palace: Great Exhibition of London 1851 • Need for an exhibition hall one-third of a mile long presented many problems. • Joseph Paxton proposed a modular glass box made of cast and wrought iron framing and glass. • Prefabricated parts shipped by rail were erected in Hyde Park. • Lighted naturally, cooled by louvered windows that opened mechanically.

20. Problems for Architects • Limited land, money, and time • Need for adequate space and light • The tall office building provided the solution • Now possible due to elevators, fireproofing, and perfection of iron and steel framing • What should a skyscraper look like?

21. Chicago Fire 1871 • Architects must try to rebuild city. • William LeBaron Jenney designed the Home Insurance Building • Entire surface hangs on its steel and iron frame • Worked with Louis Sullivan and Daniel Burnham to innovate the building

22. Commercial Style • Louis Sullivan: influential Chicago architect • In partnership with Dankmar Adler produced series of buildings • Verticality should be emphasized • Wainwright building in St. Louis • Entire structure is built on a fire-proof steel frame

23. Burnham and Root • Reliance Building in Chicago • Used a self-supporting metal cage with glass infill • Simple to erect and maintain • Walls are great expanses of glass • Clear expression of its function: tall, economical, and useful • No classical orders, no pointed arches

24. What should they paint, for whom and how? Some used industrialism itself for subject matter. J. M. W. Turner: Rain, Steam and Speed Tried to illustrate what he had witnessed during a storm while riding on a train. Not accepted by the public, wanted smooth surfaces and academic perfection Painting: Realism

25. Gustave Courbet • French painter: The Stonebreakers • Considered himself a realist: to translate the customs, ideas, and appearances of his epoch • Artists painted what they saw • Lower classes more important than upper • Depicted the harshness of peasant life • Sketched out-of-doors, painted in the studio

27. Ford Madox Brown • English painter: Work • Worked out-of-doors, drawing subjects from nature • Wanted to create an intensified illusion of reality • Filled his paintings with detail • Subjects had social or philosophical relevance

29. Thomas Eakins • American painter: Max Schmitt in a Single Scull • Influenced by Velazquez • Created intense, ordered, and descriptive paintings • Studied light • Tried to capture a moment in time

31. Photography • Could capture more detail and information than the eye could. • If realism is defined as recreating what was seen, then could be replaced by camera. • If realism is an attitude of honesty of subject matter and everyday life, then not as threatening. • Artists will combine these philosophies.

32. Realism in Literature • Philippe Duranty said it was the process of recreating “the exact, complete, and sincere reproduction of the social milieu in which we live.” • Saw the novel as the best way to represent the varied dimensions of society.

33. Reasons for Success • Increase in literacy among middle and lower classes • Increase importance of journalism • Novels published in serial form in cheap and accessible newspapers and journals. • People wanted to read about others like themselves in similar circumstances.

34. Realist Writers • French realists: • Stendhal: The Red and the Black • Honoré de Balzac: The Human Comedy • Gustave Flaubert: Madame Bovary • England: • Charles Dickens, George Eliot, William Thackeray • US • Henry James, William Dean Howells, Stephen Crane

35. Characteristics • Belief in an objective reality • Material and psychological • Uses words to depict the way things look and feel, and the way that people act. • Realistically motivated characters who do not act in unexpected ways. • Pay close attention to detail

36. Naturalism • Human character is a result of the material and social environment into which man is placed. • Interested in Darwin’s theories of evolution • Believed certain conditions in the environment will produce certain traits in a person. • Emile Zola, Theodore Dreiser, Richard Wright

37. Poet and the City: Baudelaire • French poet and art critic • Tried to portray outward reality through an inner spiritual vision • Les fleurs du mal (The Flowers of Evil): shocked the bourgeois public • Poems about life in Paris present a haunted view of urban life • Influenced T. S. Eliot in The Waste Land

38. Late-Nineteenth-Century Thinkers and Writers • Victorian Age • Industrialism prevails, increased materialism • Saw a time when progress of industry would create a world where everyone would be surrounded by mechanical comforts.

39. Charles Darwin • Origin of the Species, The Descent of Man • Published his evolutionary theories • Showed that humans were a species that had evolved from primates • Huge protest against his theories from religious groups • Saw life as a continual struggle: Nature red in tooth and claw

40. Herbert Spencer • Proclaimed the doctrine of agnosticism (impossibility of knowing the existence of God) • “Social Darwinism”—Survival of the fittest • Believed government had no business interfering in the “natural” economic process or protecting the weak and unfit • Very popular with the “robber barons” of the US

41. Friedrich Nietzsche • German poet and philosopher • Developed theories very different from Spencer • Denounced hypocrisy, morality, and rationalism of society • Saw evolution in human nature, but an evolution that was spiritual and intellectual not physical

42. Influences and Ideas • Wanted a revolt against the limits of reason and a return to greater power in the irrational and myth • Moral values of Jews and Christians were the expressions of weaklings or slaves • Idea of a “superman” used by the Nazis as basis for belief in the superiority of the Aryan race

43. Fyodor Dostoevsky • Russian writer • Began as a socialist, arrested by the tsarist regime and sent to Siberia • Wrote The House of the Dead • Converted to the mystical Russian Orthodoxy • Portrayed characters in the extremes of moral degradation and spiritual enlightenment

44. Beliefs • Praised the extremes of human existence • Believed that humanity could be saved through faith in Christ • Crime and Punishment, The Idiot, The Possessed, The Brothers Karamazov • Ideas are given flesh and blood through the complexity of his tortured characters and their miserable settings

45. From Realism to Symbolism • Realism is seen as a limitation • Novelists and poets see reality as beyond the grasp of “realism” • Began experimenting with new ways • “Impressionists” developed from this shift in thought • Painted outdoors, experimented with light, brushes, colors, and art of Japan

46. Edouard Manet • Transitional figure used the subject matter of the realists, but with different tools. • Influenced by Velazquez, Japanese art, and photography • Set his subjects in a strong harsh light to flatten them into their background • Used contrasts of light and dark to give a sense of 3D

47. Olympia • Exhibited in the Salon of the Refused in 1863—countershow to the government sanctioned Salon • Paris was shocked by the bold young lady who engaged the viewer with her direct look • No Venus, too present and familiar • Elimination of detail, the surface textures create the sensation of a scene glimpsed for an instant

48. Olympia

49. Degas • Considered himself a draftsman like Ingres • Concentrated on human subjects, particularly ballerinas • Influenced by Japanese art and photography, like Manet • Tried to express a sense of fleeting, momentary time, like a picture glimpsed through a window

50. L’Absinthe • Painted in 1876, example of Degas’s scenes from café life • Shows the isolation and misery of the anonymous lower-class workers • Colors are light, muted, cool colors: life through a smoky haze • Degas later would use pastels—used color in a way to create the patterns and surfaces that interested him