Cours Flashcards
Ex de portrait + landscape
Thomas Gainsborough, Mr and Mrs Andrews, 1750, NG
Les terres à l’époque
Enclosure acts were the norm at this time. It was used to limit the property. In the beginning of the 18th century there were common lands (that people could cross but also take their animals, they belonged to everyone) and waste lands (=jachère, terre qui n’est pas cultivée). But a gradual privitisation of lands through legal acts occurred from the middle age. At the time of the painting, enclosure acts became systemtics. We can see here the hedges that encloses the land.
Ex de conversation piece
Thomas Gainsborough, Conversation dans un parc, 1746, Louvre
Peinture anglaise qui inspire les fr
Constable, The Hay Wain, 1821, NG
It was exhibited at the French Salon in 1824. French needed a new form of art, and the future romantics found inspiration in this painting. It was radical for the time because it is a 6-footer landscape. It is a just a hay wain crossing the river. It shows his nostalgia for a countryside free from industrialization. He received the gold medal from the French salon. Stendhal said that Constable was mirroring nature, but he wished that he had pointed the mirror to a more magnificent nature, such as the nature near Grenoble.
Ex d’autoportrait
1745: Autoportrait de William Hogarth
Ex de gravure
Hogarth is known for his engravings and for starting a national tradition. He started working in the 1720’s and painted conversation pieces in the 30’s that were moral fables. He called those paintings his “modern moral subjects”. He often painted them in series, such as A Harlot’s Progress (1732) which tells the history of a vicar’s daughter getting corrupted. These stories had a great success and were printed around the country. His most famous one is Mariage à la mode.
2 plus grandsportraitistes du 18e
Gainsborough and Reynolds were the most famous portraitors of the 18th.
Grand manner
Reynolds teches to the national academy students what he calls Grand Manner. Originally theorized for history paintings, he thought of applying it to portraiture. He advises to not focus so much on the particularities of the model but to translate the general air. He also encourages to simplify the clothes and echo Greek mythology. He applies his theory in Three ladies adoring a term of Hymen (1773).
The aristocracy loved it. Bc it broke the tradition of posing portrait. For men, the equestrian portrait came back in style. He inspired Lawrence and later John Singer Sargent who added a modern twist to the Grand Manner with a sexual tension.
Gravure sur la révolution industrielle
Sanby’s watercolour Fulling Mill (1750) showed the introduction of mechanisation into rural life.
Ex du sublime
Martin’s Pandemonium (1841) is the sublime genre.
Portrait qui embellit
Lady Alston by Gainsborough is a swagger portrait, made to emphasize the greatness of the sitter. Both in full leght portraits and ¾ length.
Portrait d’enfants
The children portraits are extremely british, it is a trend from the 18th and 19th century called fancy pictures. It captures their life at a time where children mortality was important. Here an exemple with Henry Raeburn’s innocence.
Le beau
The Bristish were influenced by Le Lorrain (they call him Claude) for what they call the Beautiful. Ex : Port de mer au soleil couchant (1639).
Le pittoresque
Then emerged a taste for representing more natural, british landscapes. It’s the Picturesque, it was defined by WIliam Gilpin in the 18th century. Idea of representing rustic naturalness. It was detached from biblical and literary references and concentrated on the topographical. It is a rugged beauty (pas lisse).
Turner also did picturesque paintings : St Catherine’s Hill (1831).
Le sublime
The Sublime was defined by Kant in Germany and Burke in Britain. It is the other side of the spectrum, opposed to the Beautiful.
John Martin : The end of the world (1853).
Les pré raphaelites
Morris was inspired by preraphaelites who were highlignting beauty and called Stunners. The préraphaélites is a brotherhood (confrérie) that was formed by Hunt, Millais and Gabriel Rosetti. Around them, many artists evolved. It ends in 1905 with the death of Hunt, but the central group only lasted a couple years : from 1848 to 1852. The three of them learned about renaissance art in the Academy where they wish to go back to a form of sincerity that existed before Raphael. They do not reject Raphael but its followers.
The preraphaelites want to promote the work of art through their details. So they consider themselves craftsmen, they are debunking the hiarchy of genres before Morris. Their first painting exposed was the girlhood of Mary Virgin by Rossetti, signed PRB (no one knew the meaning at the time).
Ex de peinture pré raphaelite
Millais : Christ in the House of his parents (1849).
Les immortels
The PRB have a list of immortals (Christ and Raphael for exemple) they also have a magazine where they publish poems ans literature.
Auteur qui défend la création artistiqie
John Ruskin was a writer and an artist, very important in the 18th century. He defended the work of Turner before everyone and was fighting for moderne paintings. He also defended the PRB (preraphaelites brotherhood). He also buys their art and takes them on trips. On one of those trips, Millais falls in love with Ruskin’s wife. She eventually divorces him to mary Millais, but Ruskin still publishes good critics of Millais.
A&C movement
William Morris founded a firm called Morris & co in 1861 to raise craftmanship to the level of art. They shared the ethic of labor with the Preraphaelites. The great exhibition in 1851 showcased the power of the British empire and the A&C rejected the ignorance of materials in many objects that were exhibited. So the firm was created in the context of machine dominated production. Morris believed that not only through the recreation of guilds he would imporve the life of the craftmen but also improve their life by surrounding them with beauty. The utopian idea was that the craftmen would live in homes with the objects, but the objects produced by Morris immediately became too expensive.
The architecture by Philip Webb is special because the first thing you see is the barn, and then the main house. He made the Red house for William Morris, made out of red bricks, a local material.
Gagosian
The article explores Larry Gagosian’s transformative influence on the art world, highlighting his rise as the most influential and successful art dealer globally. Here’s a summary of the key points:
- Early Life and Entry into Art: Gagosian, born into a middle-class Armenian-American family, started his career humbly by selling posters in Los Angeles. Over time, his entrepreneurial instincts and bold strategies elevated him to the upper echelons of the art world.
- Mega-Gallery Model: Gagosian revolutionized art dealing by focusing on established, high-value artists and secondary markets, unlike traditional dealers who nurtured emerging talent. His “mega-gallery” empire spans 19 galleries worldwide, featuring renowned artists like Cy Twombly, Jenny Saville, and Damien Hirst.
- Clientele and Business Tactics: Known for his aggressive and often secretive business practices, Gagosian built a clientele of ultra-wealthy collectors. He thrives on creating exclusivity, fostering competition among buyers, and leveraging the social aspirations of his clients.
- Cultural Impact: Beyond sales, Gagosian introduced museum-quality exhibitions in commercial galleries, blending scholarly presentation with salesmanship. His influence extends to shaping art market trends and collector tastes.
- Criticism and Controversy: Gagosian’s unapologetic focus on commerce, occasional artist poaching, and opacity in dealings have drawn criticism. However, his sharp eye for art and relentless work ethic have solidified his reputation as both a business titan and a cultural force.
- Legacy and Succession: Despite his advancing age, Gagosian remains active and resists discussions of succession. His dominance has redefined the art market, merging art with luxury and creating a lasting, if controversial, legacy.
L’art pendant la 1GM
Vorticism = Similar to Futurism but in the UK, one of the main avant garde movements at the beginning of the 20th century in the UK. People were not allowed to produce art during war, no pleasurable activities while people are fighting.
Paul Nash is one of the most famous artists fro this period. “We are making a new world” 1918. Representing the battlegroung after a battle. Linked to a poem by TS Eliot : The wasteland. The poem strats with le line “April is the cruelest moth”. Because it’s the month the nature rebirth. There is also the idea of rebirth in this painting. These are very rganic shapes, kind of like hands coming out the ground.
Période edwardienne
Walter Sickert is a painter from the Edwardian Era = period in the early 20th century that spanned the reign of King Edward VII from 1901 to 1910. It is commonly extended to the start of the First World War in 1914, during the early reign of King George V. The era is dated from the death of Queen Victoria in January 1901, which marked the end of the Victorian era. Edward VII, was already the leader of a fashionable elite that set a style influenced by the art and fashions of continental Europe. Described as a time when women wore picture hats and did not vote, when the rich were not ashamed to live conspicuously, and the sun never set on the British flag.
The works from this period reflect peacefullness and naiveness. Sickert war a member of the Camden town group. They wanted to represent a down to earth life, and stepped aside from academic painting. This group was a part of the modern art spectrum. Its members ware also a part of the New English Art Club (NEAC) (opposed to academism, many english members of impressionnim).
Sickert : Ennui (1914). Shows his interest for daily life. He also liked to represent the stage life, as he was once an actor. He was also influenced by his german origins as he was born in munich. Also inspired by working class. We can link this to Hogarth Gin Lane.
Ex de post impressionnisme
Sickert : Mornington Crescent Nude (1907). Post impressionnism. Painted after his memory of a prostitute. Disturbing because of raw nakedness, and we don’t know if she is dead or sleeping. At the time of a murder of a prostitute affair making headlines. We don’t know if we are the murderer looking at the victim (us = society).
Vorticisme
Vorticism was the equivalent of futurism in England, mostly between 1913 et 1915. Main abstract movement in the country at the time. Fondé par Wyndham Lewis, peintre et écrivain avec son manifeste Blast ! en 1914.
David Bomberg The mud bath (1914). Abstract lines depicting figures. Sharp lines and vivid colours to represent modernity and mimic architecture.
Bloomberg group
Such as Bloomsbury group that was associated with NEAC. Virginia Woolf was a member for exemple. They painted each other and painted interior. Vanessa Bell as a member, emphasizing forms over content. She founded the Omega Workshop to apply modernism to decorative art such as tapestry and carpet.
Groupe dans les 70’s avec le minimalisme
Exhibition The Human Clay in 1976, at the hight of minimalism art. You could find If Not Not by Kitaj. School of London Painters.
Also Lucian Freud (from this group) and his tiny portrait of the Queen Elisabeth II in 2001. She had asked from him to paint her portrait but it was very unflattering.
David Hockney associated to the School of London painter although he was more published.
Paula Rego also. She was a portugese artist who emigrated to UK. Ex with Snare (= trap) made in 1987. Strange work she seems to be dominating the dog, she is not a docile little girl. The horse is trying to escape the scene. The girl is gigantic.
