19th-Century Art (Neoclassicism, Romanticism, Realism, Impressionism)
What the exam tests
The nineteenth century is examined as a sequence of competing responses to revolution, industrialisation, and the art market. You must distinguish Neoclassicism, Romanticism, Realism, and Impressionism by formal choices and by their relation to academic institutions, Salons, and new audiences. PAU questions frequently ask you to explain a shift in subject matter or brushwork, not merely to label a painting.
Core rules and concepts
- Neoclassicism. Winckelmann's ideal, archaeological discovery (Pompeii, Herculaneum), and civic virtue. David's Oath of the Horatii uses shallow space, austere setting, and sculptural figures; Ingres continues linear contour and polished surface.
- Romanticism. Emotion, sublime nature, and individual genius against academic rule. Delacroix's Liberty Leading the People mixes allegory and contemporary event; Friedrich's landscapes use Rückenfigur and mist; Goya's Black Paintings and Disasters of War expose irrational violence.
- Realism. Courbet's "show me an angel and I'll paint one" rejects idealisation; subjects are labour, peasants, and urban life (The Stone Breakers, A Burial at Ornans). Millet and Daumier extend social observation; photography and print culture reshape evidence and reproduction.
- Impressionism. Plein-air painting, visible facture, and optical colour (complementary contrasts, broken brushwork). Monet's series investigate light over time; Morisot and Cassatt expose gendered access to public space. The independent exhibitions from 1874 bypass the Salon jury.
Worked example
Prompt: "Why is Olympia by Manet a turning point?" Reasoning: identify the subject - a nude who is not a mythological Venus but a named courtesan, returning the viewer's gaze; note the flattened modelling, harsh tonal contrasts, and reference to Titian's Venus of Urbino; then explain the institutional shock at the 1865 Salon and its bridge from Realism to Impressionism. A strong answer connects subject, technique, and reception rather than calling it simply "modern".
Traps that cost marks
- Treating Romanticism as only landscape; it also includes history painting and portraiture.
- Confusing Realism's social subjects with photographic naturalism.
- Saying Impressionists "invented" colour theory; they applied contemporary optical ideas.
- Forgetting Salon and Académie structures that defined success.
- Using "modern" without specifying what changed - subject, market, technique, or exhibition.