Nineteenth-Century Art and Historicism
Nineteenth-century art and historicism covers Neoclassicism, Romanticism, Realism, Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, Symbolism, Art Nouveau and revivalist architecture. The exam tests stylistic identification, the Salon system, new materials and the tension between academic norms and avant-garde challenge.
Core rules
- Neoclassicism: David's Oath of the Horatii; Ingres; crisp contour, archaeological reference, moral exemplum.
- Romanticism: Géricault's Raft of the Medusa; Delacroix; Friedrich's sublime landscape; Turner's atmosphere.
- Realism: Courbet's Stone Breakers; Millet; Daumier; contemporary labour, unidealised.
- Impressionism: Monet, Renoir, Morisot, Degas; plein-air, visible brushwork, modern leisure, serial effects.
- Post-Impressionism: Cézanne's constructive stroke; Van Gogh's expressive colour; Gauguin's synthetism; Seurat's pointillism.
- Historicism: Neo-Gothic, Neo-Renaissance, Neo-Baroque; Vienna Ringstrasse; Palais Garnier; Houses of Parliament.
Worked example
Two works show stonebreakers and a railway station. Identify each approach and justify. Answer: Courbet's Stone Breakers is Realism; Monet's Gare Saint-Lazare is Impressionism. Reasoning: Courbet presents unglamorous labour with rough facture and a moral claim about visibility; Monet dissolves the station into light, steam and colour, recording a modern sensory instant. The subject is modern in both, but Realism insists on social evidence while Impressionism insists on perception.
Traps
Impressionism was not simply unfinished; it was a different account of finish. Romanticism and Neoclassicism can share subjects but differ in line versus colour and restraint versus excess. Post-Impressionism is not one style. Historicism is not history painting: it is revivalist design. Do not date photography as a twentieth-century invention; it transforms nineteenth-century documentation and market.