{"id":3124,"date":"2026-06-17T19:18:28","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T19:18:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/chapter\/romanticism-and-realism\/"},"modified":"2026-07-16T17:12:19","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T17:12:19","slug":"romanticism-and-realism","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/chapter\/romanticism-and-realism\/","title":{"raw":"Romanticism and Realism","rendered":"Romanticism and Realism"},"content":{"raw":"<h2 id=\"chapter-overview-and-introduction-8\">Chapter Overview and Introduction<\/h2>\r\nIn the early 19<sup>th<\/sup> century, the Neoclassical style was still prominent, particularly under Napoleon\u2019s authority and the stylistic dominance of Jacques-Louis David. However, two new styles developed in the early to mid-19<sup>th<\/sup> century in rejection of the cool logic of the Neoclassical: Romanticism and Realism. The styles of Romanticism and Realism correspond to major historical and societal shifts in the 19<sup>th<\/sup> century (1800-1900). The status of the artist began to change and the concept of \u201cmodern\u201d emerged. Romanticism as a movement introduced the theme of social justice into the visual arts along with new ways of representing the natural world. In the mid-19<sup>th<\/sup> century, Realism turned to focus on labor and the working class. With Realism, the avant-garde was born and new forms of subject matter and technique emerged, including American Realism. The 19<sup>th<\/sup> century also introduced the revolutionary medium of photography.\r\n<h3 id=\"focus-artworks-8\">Focus Artworks<\/h3>\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres,\u00a0<em>Napoleon on his Imperial Throne<\/em>, 1806, oil on canvas<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres,\u00a0<em>La Grande Odalisque<\/em>, 1814, oil on canvas<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Eug\u00e8ne Delacroix,\u00a0<em>Liberty Leading the People<\/em>\u00a0(July 28, 1830), September\u2013December 1830, oil on canvas<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Th\u00e9odore Gericault,\u00a0<em>Raft of the Medusa,\u00a0<\/em>1818-1819, oil on canvas<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Francisco Goya, Plate 43,\u00a0<em>The sleep of reason produces monsters<\/em>\u00a0from<em>\u00a0Los Caprichos<\/em>, 1799, etching, aquatint, drypoint, and burin<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Francisco Goya,\u00a0<em>The Third of<\/em>\u00a0<em>May\u00a01808<\/em>\u00a0<em>in Madrid or \u201cThe Executions,\u201d<\/em>\u00a01814, oil on canvas<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Joseph Mallord William Turner,\u00a0<em>The Slave Ship<\/em>, 1840, oil on canvas<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Gustave Courbet,\u00a0<em>The Stone Breakers,\u00a0<\/em>1849, oil on canvas<\/li>\r\n \t<li>\u00c9douard Manet,\u00a0<em>Olympia<\/em>, 1863, oil on canvas<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Joseph Nic\u00e9phore Ni\u00e9pce,\u00a0<em>View from the Window at Gras<\/em>, 1826, heliograph<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Henry Ossawa Tanner,\u00a0<em>The Banjo Lesson<\/em>, 1893, oil on canvas<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<h3 id=\"term-list-8\">Term List<\/h3>\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>Romanticism<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Napoleonic Wars<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Odalisque<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Orientalism<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Poussinists<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Rubenists<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Aquatint<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Sublime<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Beautiful<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Picturesque<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Realism<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Industrial Revolution<\/li>\r\n \t<li><em>The Communist Manifesto<\/em><\/li>\r\n \t<li>Modern<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Capitalism<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Avant-garde<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Photography<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Daguerreotype<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Calotype<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Collodion<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Pre-Raphaelites<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<h2 id=\"jean-auguste-dominique-ingres-napoleon-on-his-imperial-throne\">Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres,\u00a0<em>Napoleon on His Imperial Throne<\/em><\/h2>\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_3462\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"204\"]<img class=\"wp-image-3462 size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/50966797762_f48aa3ebba_k-204x300.jpg\" alt=\"Ingres, Napoleon on his Imperial Throne, painting depicting Napoleon seated on an ornate throne, dressed in luxurious robes and holding a scepter and staff. The painting features rich colors, intricate gold detailing, and a majestic pose symbolizing authority and power.\" width=\"204\" height=\"300\" \/> Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, <em>Napoleon on his Imperial Throne<\/em>, 1806, oil on canvas, 260 x 163 cm (Mus\u00e9e de l\u2019Arm\u00e9e, Paris; photo: <a href=\"https:\/\/flic.kr\/p\/2kDLajs\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Steven Zucker<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-sa\/2.0\/deed.en\">CC BY-NC-SA 2.0<\/a>)[\/caption]\r\n<h3 id=\"napoleon-art-and-politics\">Napoleon, art, and politics<\/h3>\r\nFew world leaders have had a better understanding of the ways in which visual art can do political work on their behalf than did Napoleon Bonaparte. From the time he ascended to power during the French Revolution until his ultimate removal from office in 1815, Napoleon utilized art (and artists) to speak to his political (and sometimes his military) might. One of the best-known images that serves this exact end is Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres\u2019s 1806 painting\u00a0<em>Napoleon on His Imperial Throne<\/em>. In this painting, Ingres shows Napoleon not only as an emperor of the France, but almost as if he were a divine ruler.\r\n\r\nOne could say that with Napoleon\u2019s conquest of much of Europe, the old power centers of the church and the monarchy were replaced by more modern, more rational administrative systems. Though he ultimately declared himself emperor (1804), Napoleon wrote a code of laws and dissolved many monasteries and religious institutions. This was the culmination of anticlerical sentiment that was apparent during the Revolution, when so much religious art (associated as it was with the monarchy), was defaced and destroyed. The revolutionaries also looted collections and took control of historic and sacred sites and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/museums-politic-louvre\/\">the Louvre<\/a>\u00a0(once the royal palace) was remade as a public museum.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/napoleons-appropriation-of-italian-cultural-treasures\/\">Napoleon also confiscated<\/a>\u00a0(and just outright looted) art from across Europe and brought many of the finest works to Paris. Much, though not all of this, was returned when he was defeated.\r\n<h3 id=\"transforming-napoleon\">Transforming Napoleon<\/h3>\r\nShortly after the turn of the 19th century, Ingres was one of the rising stars and fresh voices of the French\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/neoclassicism-an-introduction\/\">Neoclassical movement<\/a>, an artistic style that was in part founded by Ingres\u2019s prestigious teacher, Jacques-Louis David. By 1806, David had painted Napoleon many times. Two of the most famous of these works are\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/jacques-louis-david-napoleon-crossing-the-alps\/\"><em>Napoleon Crossing the Alps<\/em><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/David-Napoleon-scaled.jpg\"><em>The Coronation of Napoleon<\/em><\/a>, the latter, a painting that is contemporary with Ingres\u2019s portrait. In both of these images, David went out of his way to glorify his patron. This, too, was one of Ingres\u2019s primary goals, and the portraitist utilized furniture, attire, and setting to transform Napoleon from a mere mortal to a powerful god.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"1197\"]<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/no-frame-david-napoleon-full.jpg\"><img src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/no-frame-david-napoleon-full.jpg\" alt=\"David, Napoleon Crossing the Alps or Bonaparte at the St Bernard Pass, depicting Napoleon in military uniform riding a rearing white horse on a rocky mountain path. The scene features dramatic movement with flowing cape and detailed attire, highlighting a moment of leadership and determination.\" width=\"1197\" height=\"1406\" \/><\/a> Jacques-Louis David, <em>Napoleon Crossing the Alps<\/em> or <em>Bonaparte at the St Bernard Pass<\/em>, 1800\u201301, oil on canvas, 261 x 221 cm (Chateau de Malmaison, Rueil-Malmaison, Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:David_-_Napoleon_crossing_the_Alps_-_Malmaison2.jpg\">Wikimedia<\/a>, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a>)[\/caption]\r\n<h3 id=\"throne-and-armrest\">Throne and armrest<\/h3>\r\nNapoleon sits on an imposing, round-backed, and gilded throne, one that is similar to those that God sits upon in Jan van Eyck\u2019s Flemish masterwork, the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/van-eyck-the-ghent-altarpiece\/\"><em>Ghent Altarpiece<\/em><\/a>. It\u2019s worth noting that, as a result of the Napoleonic Wars, the central panels of the<em>\u00a0Ghent Altarpiece,<\/em>\u00a0which include the image of God upon a throne, were in the Mus\u00e9e Napol\u00e9on (now the Louvre) when Ingres painted this portrait. The armrests in Ingres\u2019s portrait are made from pilasters that are topped with carved imperial eagles and highly polished ivory spheres.\r\n<h3 id=\"rug\">Rug<\/h3>\r\nA similarly spread-winged imperial eagle appears on the rug in the foreground. Two\u00a0cartouches\u00a0can be seen on the left-hand side of the rug. The uppermost is the scales of justice (some have interpreted this as a symbol for the zodiac sign for Libra), and the second is a representation of Raphael\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Raphael_Madonna_della_seggiola.jpeg\"><em>Madonna della Seggiola<\/em><\/a>, an artist and painting Ingres particularly admired.\r\n<h3 id=\"crest\">Crest<\/h3>\r\nOne final ancillary element should be mentioned. On the back wall over Napoleon\u2019s left shoulder is a partially visible heraldic shield. The iconography for this crest, however, is not that of France, but is instead Italy and the Papal States. This visually ties the Emperor of the French to his position\u2014since 1805\u2014as the King of Italy.\r\n\r\nIt is not only the throne that speaks to rulership. He unblinkingly faces the viewer. In addition, Napoleon is bedazzled in attire and accouterments of his authority. He wears a gilded laurel wreath on his head, a sign of rule (and more broadly, victory) since classical times.\r\n\r\nIn his left hand, Napoleon supports a rod topped with the hand of justice, while with his right hand he grasps the scepter of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/charlemagne-part-1-of-2\/\">Charlemagne<\/a>. Indeed, Charlemagne was one of the rulers Napoleon most sought to emulate (one may recall that Charlemagne\u2019s name was incised on a rock in David\u2019s earlier\u00a0<em>Napoleon Crossing the Alps<\/em>). An extravagant medal from the\u00a0<em>L\u00e9gion d\u2019honneur<\/em>\u00a0hangs from the Emperor\u2019s shoulders by an intricate gold and jewel-encrusted chain.\r\n\r\nAlthough not immediately visible, a jewel-encrusted coronation sword hangs from his left hip. The reason why the sword\u2014one of the most recognizable symbols of rulership\u2014can hardly be seen is because of the extravagant nature of Napoleon\u2019s coronation robes. An immense ermine collar is under Napoleon\u2019s\u00a0<em>L\u00e9gion d\u2019honneur<\/em>\u00a0medal. Ermine\u2014a kind of short-tailed weasel\u2014have been used for ceremonial attire for centuries and are notable for their white winter coats that are accented with a black tip on their tail. Thus, each black tip on Napoleon\u2019s garments represents a separate animal. Clearly, then, Napoleon\u2019s ermine collar\u2014and the ermine lining under his gold-embroidered purple velvet robes\u2014has been made with dozens of pelts, a certain sign of opulence. The purple color of the garment was a deliberate choice, and has a long tradition as a hue restricted for imperial use. Indeed, Roman emperors had the exclusive right to wear purple, and it was through this tradition that Jesus also came to wear violet robes. All these elements\u2014throne, scepters, sword, wreath, ermine, purple, and velvet\u2014speak to Napoleon\u2019s position as Emperor.\r\n<h3 id=\"position\">Position<\/h3>\r\nBut it is not only what Napoleon wears. It is also how the emperor sits. In painting this portrait, Ingres borrowed from other well-known images of powerful male figures. Perhaps the most notable was a long-since-destroyed but still well-known image of Zeus (the ancient Greek God, king of the gods of Mount Olympus) that Phidias, one of the most famous Greek sculptors, made around 435 B.C.E. This \u201ctype\u201d showed Zeus seated, frontal, and with one arm raised while the other was more at rest. Indeed, this is the posture Jupiter takes in a slightly later Ingres painting,\u00a0<em>Jupiter and Thetis.<\/em>\u00a0Thus, Ingres is working in yet another rich visual tradition and, in doing so, seems to remove Napoleon Bonaparte from the ranks of the mortals of the earth and transforms him into a Greek or Roman god of Mount Olympus. Never once accused of modesty, there is no doubt that Napoleon approved of such a comparison.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_3464\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"240\"]<img class=\"wp-image-3464 size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/Jupiter_y_Tetis_por_Dominique_Ingres-240x300.jpeg\" alt=\"A classical painting depicting a seated male figure draped in a pink robe holding a staff, with a kneeling female figure embracing him. The scene includes clouds, an eagle on the right, and intricate carvings on the throne, suggesting a mythological or divine context.\" width=\"240\" height=\"300\" \/> Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, <em>Jupiter and Thetis<\/em>, 1811, oil on canvas, 32.7 x 26 cm (Mus\u00e9e Granet, Aix-en-Provence, Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:J%C3%BApiter_y_Tetis,_por_Dominique_Ingres.jpg\">Wikimedia<\/a>, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a>)[\/caption]\r\n\r\nLooking at Ingres\u2019s\u00a0<em>Napoleon on His Imperial Throne<\/em>\u00a0is a visually overwhelming experience. Its colossal size (it measures 260 x 163 cm) and Neoclassical precision eloquently speak to Napoleon\u2019s political authority and military power. The low eye level\u2014about that of Napoleon\u2019s knees\u2014also indicates that the viewer is looking up at the seated ruler, as if kneeling before him. The sum total of this painting is not just the coronation of Napoleon but almost his divine apotheosis. Ingres shows him not just as a ruler, but as an omnipotent immortal.\r\n<h2 id=\"painting-colonial-culture-ingress-la-grande-odalisque\">Painting colonial culture: Ingres\u2019s\u00a0<em>La Grande Odalisque<\/em><\/h2>\r\nhttps:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=PPwz3iaT71M\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_3465\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"300\"]<img class=\"wp-image-3465 size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/IngresOdalisque-300x168.jpg\" alt=\"Ingres, La Grande Odalisque, painting featuring a reclining female nude viewed from the backside. The elongated figure wears fabric wrapped around her head and holds a peacock feather duster while looking out at the viewer. \" width=\"300\" height=\"168\" \/> Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, <em>La Grande Odalisque<\/em>, 1814, oil on canvas, 91 x 162 cm (Louvre, Paris; photo: (Louvre, Paris; photo:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/flic.kr\/p\/2kGBiVF\">Steven Zucker<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-sa\/2.0\/deed.en\">CC BY-NC-SA 2.0<\/a>)[\/caption]\r\n<h3 id=\"a-quick-study\">A quick study<\/h3>\r\nJean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres\u00a0was an artist of immense importance during the first half of the nineteenth century. Ingres was a quick study. In 1797, at the tender age of 16 years, he won the Acad\u00e9mie Royale de Peinture, Sculpture et Architecture in Toulouse first prize in drawing. Clearly destined for great things, Ingres packed his trunks less than six months later and moved to Paris to begin his instruction in the studio of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/jacques-louis-david-oath-of-the-horatii\/\">Jacques-Louis David<\/a>, the most strident representative of the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/neoclassicism-an-introduction\/\">Neoclassical style<\/a>. David stressed to those he instructed the importance of drawing and studying from the nude model. In the years that followed, Ingres not only benefitted from David\u2019s instruction\u2014and the prestige and cach\u00e9 that such an honor bestowed\u2014but also learned from many of David\u2019s past students who frequented their former teacher\u2019s studio.\r\n<h3 id=\"the-rome-prizea-bright-future\">The Rome Prize\u2014a bright future<\/h3>\r\nThe Prix de Rome\u2014the Rome Prize\u2014was the most prestigious fellowship that the French government awarded to a student at the Paris \u00c9cole des Beaux-Arts (School of Fine Arts), the leading art school in France from its founding in 1663 until it was finally dissolved in 1968. The recipient of the\u00a0Prix de Rome was provided with a living stipend, studio space at the French Academy in Rome, and the opportunity to immerse themselves in Rome\u2019s classical ruins and the works of\u00a0Renaissance and Baroque masters. It promised to be a great five years for any aspiring artist. Joseph-Marie Vien, David\u2019s own teacher, had won the award in 1743. David won the award in 1774\u2014after four unsuccessful attempts. Ingres was formally admitted to the painting department of the \u00c9cole des Beaux-Arts in October 1799. The following year\u2014in only his first attempt\u2014Ingres\u00a0tied for second place. In 1801, his painting of\u00a0<em>The Ambassadors of Agamemnon in the Tent of Achilles<\/em>\u00a0won him the Prix de Rome. He turned 21 years old that August. Ingres had a bright future indeed.\r\n<h3 id=\"hierarchy-of-subjects\">Hierarchy of subjects<\/h3>\r\nThe Prix de Rome\u2014to say nothing of the instruction Ingres received within David\u2019s studio and at the \u00c9cole des Beaux-Arts\u2014reinforced the hierarchy of the subjects of painting that had been a foundational element of French art instruction for more than a century. Artists with the greatest skill aspired to complete grand manner history paintings. These were\u00a0immense compositions often depicting narratives from the classical past or from the Jewish and Christian Bibles. In addition to being large\u2014and expensive\u2014these works allowed the most accomplished and intellectually engaged artists to provide the art-viewing public with an important moral message\u2014an\u00a0<em>exemplum virtutis<\/em>\u00a0(an example of virtue). David\u2019s 1784 masterwork\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/jacques-louis-david-oath-of-the-horatii\/\"><em>Oath of the Horatii<\/em><\/a>\u00a0is\u00a0one such example.\r\n<h3 id=\"the-nude-and-not-the-classical-past\">The nude (and not the classical past)<\/h3>\r\nBy 1808, Ingres was beginning to walk on both sides of the neoclassical\/romantic divide.\u00a0In few works is a Neoclassical style fused with a romantic subject matter more clearly than in Ingres\u2019s 1814 painting\u00a0<em>La Grande Odalisque<\/em>. Ingres completed his time at the French Academy in Rome in 1810. Rather than immediately return to Paris however, he remained in the Eternal City and completed several large-scale history paintings. In 1814 he traveled to Naples and was employed by Caroline Murat, the Queen of Naples (who also happened to be Napoleon Bonaparte\u2019s sister). She commissioned\u00a0<em>La Grande Odalisque<\/em>, a composition that was intended to be a pendant to his earlier composition,\u00a0<em>Sleeper of Naples<\/em>.\r\n\r\nAt first glance, Ingres\u2019s subject matter is of the most traditional sort. Certainly, the reclining female nude had been a common subject matter for centuries.\u00a0Ingres was working within a visual tradition that included artists such as Giorgione (<em>Sleeping Venus<\/em>, 1510), Titian (<a href=\"http:\/\/smarthistory.org\/titian-venus-of-urbino\/\"><em>Venus of Urbino<\/em><\/a>, 1538) and Velazquez (<em>Rokeby Venus<\/em>, 1647-51). But the titles for all three of those paintings have one word in common: Venus. Indeed, it was common to cloak paintings of the female nude in the disguise of classical mythology.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"2560\"]<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Giorgione_-_Sleeping_Venus_-_Google_Art_Project_2.jpeg\"><img src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/Giorgione_-_Sleeping_Venus_-_Google_Art_Project_2.jpeg\" alt=\"Giorgione, Sleeping Venus, painting of a reclining female nude sleeping in the foreground with a village scene and mountain scene in the background. \" width=\"2560\" height=\"1577\" \/><\/a> Giorgione, <em>Sleeping Venus<\/em>, c. 1510, oil on canvas, 108.5 x 175 cm (Gem\u00e4ldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden, Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/File:Giorgione_-_Sleeping_Venus_-_Google_Art_Project_2.jpg\">Wikimedia<\/a>, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a>)[\/caption]\r\n\r\nIngres (and Goya, who was working within a similar vein with his\u00a0<em>La Maja Desnuda<\/em>)\u00a0refused to disguise who and what his female figure was. She was not the Roman goddess of love and beauty. Instead, she was an odalisque, a concubine who lived in a harem and existed for the sexual pleasure of the sultan.\r\n\r\nIn his painting\u00a0<em>La Grande Odalisque\u00a0<\/em>(below), Ingres transports the viewer to the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/orientalism-2\/\">Orient<\/a>, a far-away land for a Parisian audience in the second decade of the nineteenth century (in this context, \u201cOrient\u201d\u00a0means Near East more so than the Far East). The woman\u2014who wears nothing other than jewelry and a turban\u2014lies on a divan, her back to the viewer. She seemingly peeks over her shoulder, as if to look at someone who has just entered her room, a space that is luxuriously appointed with fine damask and satin fabrics. She wears what appears to be a ruby and pearl encrusted broach in her hair and a gold bracelet on her right wrist. In her right hand she holds a peacock fan, another symbol of affluence, and another piece of metalwork\u2014a facedown bejeweled mirror, perhaps?\u2014can be seen along the lower left edge of the painting.\r\n\r\nAlong the right side of the composition we see a hookah, a kind of pipe that was used for smoking tobacco, hashish and opium. All of these Oriental elements\u2014fabric, turban, fan, hookah\u2014did the same thing for Ingres\u2019s odalisque as\u00a0Titian\u2019s Venetian courtesan being labeled \u201cVenus\u201d\u2014that is,\u00a0it provided a distance that allowed the (male) viewer to safely gaze at the female nude who primarily existed for his enjoyment.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_3466\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"236\"]<img class=\"wp-image-3466 size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/IngresOdalHookah-236x300.jpg\" alt=\"Hookah (detail), Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, La Grande Odalisque, showing the figure's foot overlapped in front of a hookah. The detail scene is set in front of a patterned blue cloth. \" width=\"236\" height=\"300\" \/> Hookah (detail), Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, <em>La Grande Odalisque<\/em>, 1814, oil on canvas, 91 x 162 cm (Louvre, Paris; photo: <a href=\"https:\/\/flic.kr\/p\/2kGBjhN\">Steven Zucker<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-sa\/2.0\/deed.en\">CC BY-NC-SA 2.0<\/a>)[\/caption]\r\n<h3 id=\"orientalism\">Orientalism<\/h3>\r\nSnake charmers, carpet vendors, and veiled women\u00a0may conjure up ideas of the Middle East, North Africa, and West Asia, but they are also partially indebted to Orientalist fantasies. To understand these images, we have to understand the concept of Orientalism, beginning with the word \u201cOrient\u201d itself. In its original medieval usage, the \u201cOrient\u201d referred to the \u201cEast,\u201d but whose \u201cEast\u201d did this Orient represent? East of where?\r\n\r\nWe understand now that this designation reflects a Western European view of the \u201cEast,\u201d and not necessarily the views of the inhabitants of these areas. We also realize today that the label of the \u201cOrient\u201d hardly captures the wide swath of territory to which it originally referred: the Middle East, North Africa, and Asia. These\u00a0are at once distinct, contrasting, and yet interconnected regions. Scholars often link visual examples of\u00a0Orientalism alongside the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/a-beginners-guide-to-romanticism\/\">Romantic<\/a>\u00a0literature and\u00a0music of the early nineteenth century, a period of rising imperialism and tourism when Western artists traveled widely to the Middle East, North Africa, and Asia. We now understand that the world has been interconnected for much longer than we initially acknowledged and we can see elements of Orientalist representation much earlier\u2014for example, in religious objects of the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/what-were-the-crusades-1-of-4\/\">Crusades<\/a>, or Gentile Bellini\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/gentile-bellini-portrait-of-sultan-mehmed-ii\/\">painting\u00a0of the Ottoman sultan\u00a0(ruler) Mehmed II<\/a>, or in the arabesques (flowing\u00a0s-shaped\u00a0ornamental forms)\u00a0of early modern textiles.\r\n<h3 id=\"the-politics-of-orientalism\">The politics of Orientalism<\/h3>\r\nIn his groundbreaking 1978 text\u00a0<em>Orientalism<\/em>, the late cultural critic and theorist Edward Sa\u00efd argued\u00a0that a dominant\u00a0European political ideology created the notion of the Orient in order to subjugate and control it. Sa\u00efd explained\u00a0that the concept embodied distinctions between \u201cEast\u201d (the Orient) and \u201cWest\u201d (the Occident) precisely so the\u00a0\u201cWest\u201d\u00a0could control and authorize views of the \u201cEast.\u201d\u00a0For Sa\u00efd, this nexus of power and knowledge enabled the \u201cWest\u201d to generalize and misrepresent North Africa, the Middle East and Asia. Though his text has itself received considerable criticism, the book nevertheless remains a pioneering intervention. Sa\u00efd continues to influence many disciplines of cultural study, including the history of art.\r\n<h3 id=\"representing-the-orient\">Representing the \u201cOrient\u201d<\/h3>\r\nAs art historian Linda Nochlin argued in her widely read essay, \u201cThe Imaginary Orient,\u201d from 1983, the task of critical art history is to assess the power structures behind any work of art or artist. [footnote]Linda Nochlin, \u201cThe Imaginary Orient,\u201d\u00a0<em>Art in\u00a0America<\/em>, volume IXXI, number 5 (1983), pp. 118\u201331.[\/footnote] Following Nochlin\u2019s lead, art historians have questioned underlying power dynamics at play in the artistic representations of the \u201cOrient,\u201d many of them from the nineteenth century. In doing so, these scholars challenged not only the ways that the \u201cWest\u201d represented the \u201cEast,\u201d but they also complicate the long-held misconception of a unidirectional westward influence. Similarly, these scholars questioned how artists have represented people of the Orient as passive or licentious subjects.\r\n<h3 id=\"representing-the-nude\">Representing the Nude<\/h3>\r\nWhen glancing at the painting, one can immediately see the linearity that was so important to David in particular, and the French neoclassical style more broadly. But when looking at the odalisque\u2019s body, the same viewer can also immediately notice how far Ingres has strayed from David\u2019s particular style of rendering the human form\u2014look for instance at her elongated back\u00a0and right arm. David was largely interested in idealizing the human body, rendering it not as it existed, but as he wished it did, in an anatomically perfect state.\r\n\r\nStudents often stray from their teacher\u2019s instruction, however. In\u00a0<em>La Grande Odalisque<\/em>, Ingres rendered the female body in an exaggerated, almost unbelievable way. Much like the Mannerists centuries earlier\u2014Parmigianino\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/smarthistory.org\/parmigianino-madonna-of-the-long-neck\/\"><em>Madonna of the Long Neck<\/em><\/a>\u00a0(c. 1535) immediately comes to mind\u2014Ingres distorted the female form in order to make her body more sinuous and elegant. Her back seems to have two or three more vertebrae than are necessary, and it is anatomically unlikely that her lower left leg could meet with the knee in the middle of the painting, or that her left thigh attached to this knee could reach her hip. Clearly, this is not the female body as it really exists. It is the female body, perhaps, as Ingres wished it to be, at least for the composition of this painting. And in this regard, David and his student Ingres have attempted to achieve the same end\u2014idealization of the human form\u2014though each strove to do so in markedly different ways.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_3467\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"300\"]<img class=\"wp-image-3467 size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/IngresOdalTorso-300x176.jpg\" alt=\"Torso (detail), Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, La Grande Odalisque, featuring the figure's elongated back and close up details of the yellow, white, and blue textured fabric. \" width=\"300\" height=\"176\" \/> Torso (detail), Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, <em>La Grande Odalisque<\/em>, 1814, oil on canvas, 91 x 162 cm (Louvre, Paris; photo: <a href=\"https:\/\/flic.kr\/p\/2kGAGHa\">Steven Zucker<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-sa\/2.0\/deed.en\">CC BY-NC-SA 2.0<\/a>)[\/caption]\r\n\r\nA brief comparison between teacher and student makes clear how far Ingres had strayed from the neoclassical path David had laid. In some ways,\u00a0<em>La Grande Odalisque<\/em>\u00a0is based upon David\u2019s 1800 portrait of\u00a0<em>Madame R\u00e9camier<\/em>.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"800\"]<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/800px-David._Madame_Re%CC%81camier.jpg\"><img src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/800px-David._Madame_Recamier.jpg\" alt=\"Painting depicts a woman reclining on an ornate chaise lounge, dressed in a flowing white gown with a floral headpiece. Dark, minimalist background contrasts with detailed furniture and soft fabric textures, emphasizing calm and contemplative mood.\" width=\"800\" height=\"568\" \/><\/a> Jacques Louis David, <em>Portrait of Madame R\u00e9camier<\/em>, 1800, oil on canvas, 174 x 224 cm (Louvre, Paris, Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Madame_R%C3%A9camier_-_Jacques-Louis_David.jpg\">Wikimedia<\/a>, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a>)[\/caption]\r\n\r\nBoth images show a recumbent woman who peers over her shoulder to look at the viewer. David and Ingres utilize line in a similar way. However, David depicts R\u00e9camier at the height of neoclassical fashion, wearing an Empire waistline dress and an<em>\u00a0\u00e0 la grecque<\/em>\u00a0hairstyle. One gets the sense that there is real a body underneath that dress. In contrast, Ingres\u2019s odalisque is a naked \u201cother\u201d from the Orient, and no clothing could disguise the elongations and anatomical inaccuracies of her body. David remained a committed neoclassicist, while his former student retained his neoclassical line to embrace, in this case, a geographically distant and romantic subject. This tension between Neoclassicism and Romanticism will continue throughout the first half of the nineteenth century as painters will tend to side with either Ingres and his precise linearity or the painterly style of the younger painter\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/eugene-delacroix\/\">Eug\u00e8ne Delacroix<\/a>.\r\n<h2 id=\"romanticism-an-introduction\">Romanticism, an introduction<\/h2>\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"2560\"]<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/RomanticismCover.jpg\"><img src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/RomanticismCover-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A dark, atmospheric painting depicting a desolate graveyard with leafless trees surrounding a ruined gothic structure. The scene features muted colors with a faint light source creating an eerie, somber mood.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1534\" \/><\/a> Caspar David Friedrich, <em>Abbey in the Oak Forest<\/em>, 1809 or 1810, oil on canvas, 110.4 x 171 cm (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.smb-digital.de\/eMuseumPlus?service=ExternalInterface&amp;module=collection&amp;objectId=968249&amp;viewType=detailView\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlin<\/a>, Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Caspar_David_Friedrich_-_Abtei_im_Eichwald_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg\">Wikimedia<\/a>, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a>)[\/caption]\r\n<h3 id=\"th-century-stylistic-developments\">19th-century stylistic developments<\/h3>\r\nAs is fairly common with stylistic rubrics, the word \u201cRomanticism\u201d was not developed to describe the visual arts but was first used in relation to new literary and musical schools in the beginning of the 19th century. Art came under this heading only later. Think of the Romantic literature and musical compositions of the early 19th century: the poetry of Lord Byron, Percy Shelley, and William Wordsworth and the scores of Ludwig van Beethoven, Richard Strauss, and Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Chopin\u2014these Romantic poets and musicians associated with visual artists. A good example of this is the friendship between composer and pianist Chopin and painter\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/delacroix-liberty-leading-the-people\/\">Eug\u00e8ne Delacroix<\/a>. Romantic artists were concerned with the spectrum and intensity of human emotion.\r\n\r\nEven if you do not regularly listen to classical music, you\u2019ve heard plenty of music by these composers. In his epic film,\u00a0<em>2001: A Space Odyssey<\/em>, the late director Stanley Kubrick used Strauss\u2019 \u201cThus Spake Zarathustra\u201d (written in 1896, Strauss based his composition on Friedrich Nietzsche\u2019s book of the same name). Kubrick\u2019s\u00a0<em>A Clockwork Orange<\/em>\u00a0similarly uses the sweeping ecstasy and drama of Beethoven\u2019s Ninth Symphony, in this case to intensify the cinematic violence of the film.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"2560\"]<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/ThirdofMay.jpeg\"><img src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/ThirdofMay.jpeg\" alt=\"Goya's, The Third of May shows a group of unarmed people being prepared for execution by an anonymous group of gunmen. Loose brushwork and a dark atmosphere create a sense of a dread. \" width=\"2560\" height=\"1953\" \/><\/a> Francisco Goya, <em>The Third of May, 1808<\/em>, 1814\u201315, oil on canvas, 8\u2032 9\u2033 x 13\u2032 4\u2033 (Museo del Prado, Madrid, photo:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:El_tres_de_mayo_de_1808_en_Madrid.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Botaurus<\/a>, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a>)[\/caption]\r\n\r\nRomantic music expressed the powerful drama of human emotion: anger and passion, but also quiet passages of pleasure and joy. So too, the French painter Eug\u00e8ne Delacroix and the Spanish artist\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/goya-third-of-may-1808\/\">Francisco Goya<\/a>\u00a0broke with the cool, cerebral idealism of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/jacques-louis-david-oath-of-the-horatii\/\">Jacques-Louis David<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/ingres-napoleon-on-his-imperial-throne\/\">Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres<\/a>\u2018\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/neoclassicism-an-introduction\/\">neoclassicism<\/a>. They sought instead to respond to the cataclysmic upheavals that characterized their era with line, color, and brushwork that was more physically direct and emotionally expressive.\r\n<h2 id=\"eug\u00e8ne-delacroix-liberty-leading-the-people\">Eug\u00e8ne Delacroix,\u00a0<em>Liberty Leading the People<\/em><\/h2>\r\nhttps:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=6skizQlC-uU\r\n<h3 id=\"poussinists-vs.-rubenists\">Poussinists vs. Rubenists<\/h3>\r\nIf Jacques-Louis David is the most perfect example of French Neoclassicism, and his most accomplished pupil Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, represents a transitional figure between Neoclassicism and Romanticism, then Eug\u00e8ne Delacroix stands (with, perhaps, Theodore Gericault) as the most representative painter of French romanticism.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"975\"]<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/af7265e470f5e8c6a9f754933d44e50febcbffcc.jpeg\"><img src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/af7265e470f5e8c6a9f754933d44e50febcbffcc.jpeg\" alt=\"Two side-by-side classical portrait paintings depict young men with serious expressions. The left portrait shows a man in a brown coat holding a paintbrush, while the right portrait features a man with curly hair and a mustache wearing a dark coat and green scarf.\" width=\"975\" height=\"600\" \/><\/a> Left: Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, <em>Self Portrait at the age of 24<\/em>, 1804 (Mus\u00e9e Cond\u00e9, Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Ingres,_Self-portrait.jpg\">Wikimedia<\/a>, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a>); right: Eug\u00e8ne Delacroix,\u00a0<em>Self-Portrait<\/em>, c. 1837 (Mus\u00e9e du Louvre, Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Eugene_delacroix.jpg\">Wikimedia<\/a>, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a>)[\/caption]\r\n\r\nFrench artists in early nineteenth century could be broadly placed into one of two different camps. The Neoclassically trained Ingres led the first group, a collection of artists called the Poussinists (named after the French baroque painter Nicolas Poussin). These artists relied on drawing and line for their compositions. The second group, the Rubenists (named in honor of the Flemish master Peter Paul Rubens), instead elevated color over line. By the time Delacroix was in his mid-20s\u2014that is, by 1823\u2014he was one of the leaders of the ascending French romantic movement.\r\n\r\nFrom an early age, Delacroix had received an exceptional education. He attended the Lyc\u00e9e Imperial in Paris, an institution noted for instruction in the Classics. While a student there, Delacroix was recognized for excellence in both drawing and Classics. In 1815\u2014at the age of only 17\u2014he began his formal art education in the studio of Pierre Gu\u00e9rin, a former winner of the prestigious\u00a0<em>Prix de Rome<\/em>\u00a0(Rome Prize) whose Parisian studio was considered a particular hotbed for romantic aesthetics. In fact, Theodore Gericault, who would soon become a romantic superstar with his\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/theodore-gericault-raft-of-the-medusa\/\"><em>Raft of the Medusa<\/em><\/a>\u00a0(1818\u201319), was still in Gu\u00e9rin\u2019s studio when Delacroix arrived in 1815. The young artist\u2019s innate skill and his teacher\u2019s able instruction were an excellent match and prepared Delacroix for his formal admission to the Ecole des Beaux-Arts (the School of Fine Arts) in 1816.\r\n<h3 id=\"liberty-leading-the-people\">Liberty Leading the People<\/h3>\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"2560\"]<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/dellibwholesm.jpg\"><img src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/dellibwholesm-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Delacroix, Liberty Leading the People (July 28, 1830) painting depicting a dramatic revolutionary scene with a central female figure holding a French flag, leading a diverse group of fighters over fallen bodies. The composition features dynamic poses, dark and muted colors contrasted with the bright flag, and a smoky, chaotic background symbolizing struggle and uprising.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"2014\" \/><\/a> Eug\u00e8ne Delacroix, <em>Liberty Leading the People (July 28, 1830)<\/em>, September\u2013December 1830, oil on canvas, 260 x 325 cm (Mus\u00e9e du Louvre, Paris, Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:La_Libert%C3%A9_guidant_le_peuple_-_Eug%C3%A8ne_Delacroix_-_Mus%C3%A9e_du_Louvre_Peintures_RF_129_-_apr%C3%A8s_restauration_2024.jpg\">Wikimedia<\/a>, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a>)[\/caption]\r\n\r\nAlthough Delacroix completed this painting during same year in which the event occurred, it is, at its core, a history painting. Indeed, Delacroix depicts an event from the July Revolution of 1830, an event that replaced the abdicated King Charles X (r. 1824\u201330)\u2014a member of the Bourbon family and the younger brother of the guillotined King Louis XVI (r. 1774\u20131792)\u2014with Louis Philippe I (r. 1830\u201348), the so-called Citizen King. This uprising of 1830 was the historical prelude to the June Rebellion of 1832, an event featured in Victor Hugo\u2019s famous novel,\u00a0<em>Les Mis\u00e9rables<\/em>\u00a0(1862), and the musical (1980) and films that followed. Anyone familiar with Claude-Michel Sch\u00f6nberg and Alain Boublil\u2019s musical can look at Delacroix\u2019s\u00a0<em>Liberty Leading the People<\/em>\u00a0and hear the lyrics of the song that serves as a call to revolution:\r\n\r\n\u201cDo you hear the people sing? Singing a song of angry men? It is the music of a people. Who will not be slaves again.\u201d\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"2560\"]<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/libertyprofilesm.jpg\"><img src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/libertyprofilesm-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Liberty (detail), Eug\u00e8ne Delacroix, Liberty Leading the People (July 28, 1830), depicting a woman leading a group of revolutionaries, holding a flag in one hand and a pistol in the other, symbolizing liberty and resistance. The artwork features dramatic lighting, dynamic poses, and a background of smoke and battle, emphasizing themes of struggle and freedom.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1440\" \/><\/a> Liberty (detail), Eug\u00e8ne Delacroix, <em>Liberty Leading the People (July 28, 1830)<\/em>, September\u2013December 1830, oil on canvas, 260 x 325 cm (Mus\u00e9e du Louvre, Paris, Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:La_Libert%C3%A9_guidant_le_peuple_-_Eug%C3%A8ne_Delacroix_-_Mus%C3%A9e_du_Louvre_Peintures_RF_129_-_apr%C3%A8s_restauration_2024.jpg\">Wikimedia<\/a>, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a>)[\/caption]\r\n<h3 id=\"liberty\">Liberty<\/h3>\r\nDelacroix\u2019s painting,\u00a0<em>Liberty Leading the People,<\/em>\u00a0at first seems to be overpowered by chaos, but on closer inspection, it is a composition filled with subtle order. The first thing a viewer may notice is the monumental\u2014and nude to the waist\u2014female figure. Her yellow dress has fallen from her shoulders, as she holds a bayonetted musket in her left hand and raises the tricolor\u2014the French national flag\u2014with her right. This red, white, and blue arrangement of the flag is mimicked by the attire worn by the man looking up at her. She powerfully strides forward and looks back over her right shoulder as if to ensure those who she leads are following. Her head is shown in profile\u2014like a ruler on a classical coin\u2014and she wears atop her head a Phrygian cap, a classical signifier of freedom. This is an important bit of costuming\u2014in ancient Rome, freed slaves were given one to wear to indicate their newly liberated status, and this headwear became a symbol of freedom and liberty on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.\r\n\r\nClearly, this figure is not meant to be a portrait of a specific individual, and Delacroix did not mean to suggest that there was a half-naked woman running around carrying a loaded firearm and a flag during the\u00a0<em>Trois Glorieuses<\/em>\u2014the Three Glorious Days as it came to be known\u2014of the July Revolution. Instead, she serves as an allegory\u2014in this instance, a pictorial device intended to reveal a moral or political idea\u2014of Liberty. In this, she is similar to an example familiar to those in the United States, Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Auguste Bartholdi\u2019s\u00a0<em>Statue of Liberty<\/em>\u00a0(1886). Clearly, this monumental statue is not a portrait of a woman named Liberty who wears a Roman toga, carries a torch, and an inscribed tablet. Instead, she represents an idea. The same is true of Delacroix\u2019s painted Liberty.\r\n<h3 id=\"a-revolution-for-everyone\">A revolution for everyone<\/h3>\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"2560\"]<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/dellibleftsm.jpg\"><img src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/dellibleftsm-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A photograph of a Figures at left (detail), Eug\u00e8ne Delacroix, Liberty Leading the People (July 28, 1830), depicting a chaotic battle scene with armed men in 19th-century attire. The painting features dark, dramatic colors, detailed expressions, and dynamic poses, emphasizing tension and movement during conflict.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1745\" \/><\/a> Figures at left (detail), Eug\u00e8ne Delacroix, <em>Liberty Leading the People (July 28, 1830)<\/em>, September\u2013December 1830, oil on canvas, 260 x 325 cm (Mus\u00e9e du Louvre, Paris, Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:La_Libert%C3%A9_guidant_le_peuple_-_Eug%C3%A8ne_Delacroix_-_Mus%C3%A9e_du_Louvre_Peintures_RF_129_-_apr%C3%A8s_restauration_2024.jpg\">Wikimedia<\/a>, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a>)[\/caption]\r\n\r\nBut if the female figure represents an allegory, those who surround her represent different types of people. The man on the far left holds a briquet (an infantry saber commonly used during the Napoleonic Wars). His clothing\u2014apron, working shirt, and sailor\u2019s trousers\u2014identify him as a factory worker, a person in the lower end of the economic ladder. His other attire identifies his revolutionary leanings. The handkerchief around his waist, that secures a pistol, has a pattern similar to that of the Cholet handkerchief, a symbol used by Fran\u00e7ois Athannase de Charette de la Contrie, a Royalist solider who led an ill-fated uprising against the First Republic, the government established as a result of the French Revolution. The white cockade and red ribbon secured to his beret also identify his revolutionary sensibilities.\r\n\r\nThis factory worker provides a counterpoint to the younger man beside him who is clearly of a different economic status. He wears a black top hat, an open-collared white shirt and cravat, and an elegantly tailored black coat. Rather than hold a military weapon like his older brother-in-arms, he instead grasps a hunting shotgun. These two figures make clear that this revolution is not just for the economically downtrodden, but for those of affluence, too.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"788\"]<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/fece4dcbb430f72eea77a66811691d4d9cefe806.jpeg\"><img src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/fece4dcbb430f72eea77a66811691d4d9cefe806.jpeg\" alt=\"Side by side details from Eug\u00e8ne Delacroix, Liberty Leading the People. On the left a figure in blue and red looks upward while on the right, a young boy holds a gun in his hand above his head. \" width=\"788\" height=\"587\" \/><\/a> Left: fallen adolescent, and right, Boy wielding two pistols (detail), Eug\u00e8ne Delacroix, <em>Liberty Leading the People<\/em>, oil on canvas, September\u2013December, 1830 (exhibited and purchased by the state from the Salon of 1831) 2.6 x 3.25m (Louvre, Paris, Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:La_Libert%C3%A9_guidant_le_peuple_-_Eug%C3%A8ne_Delacroix_-_Mus%C3%A9e_du_Louvre_Peintures_RF_129_-_apr%C3%A8s_restauration_2024.jpg\">Wikimedia<\/a>, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a>)[\/caption]\r\n\r\nThis revolution is not only for the adults\u2014two young boys can be identified among the insurgents. On the left, a fallen adolescent who wears a light infantry\u00a0<em>bicorne<\/em>\u00a0and holds a short saber, struggles to regain his footing amongst the piled cobblestones that make up a barricade. The more famous of the pair, however, is on the right side of the painting (image, right). Often thought to be the visual inspiration for Hugo\u2019s character of Gavroche in\u00a0<em>Les Mis\u00e9rables<\/em>, this boy wildly wields two pistols. He wears a\u00a0<em>faluche<\/em>\u2014a black velvet beret common to students\u2014and carries what appears to be a school or cartridge satchel (with a crest that may be embroidered) across his body.\r\n<h3 id=\"a-modern-subject\">A modern subject<\/h3>\r\nWith no less than five guns and three blades among these six primary figures, it is not surprising that the ground is littered with the dead. Some are members of the military, note the uniform decorated with shoulder epaulettes on the figure in the lower right, while others are likely revolutionaries. In total, the painting accurately renders the fervor and chaos of urban conflict. And it is, of course, an urban conflict. Notre Dame, perhaps the defining architectural monument of Paris (at least until the Eiffel Tower arrived at the end of the nineteenth century) can be clearly seen on the right side of the painting. Importantly, Delacroix signed and dated his painting immediately underneath this monument.\r\n\r\nAlthough not everyone can pick up a weapon and stand a post in a war, Delacroix would have us believe that everyone can be a revolutionary. When corresponding with his brother on 28 October 1830\u2014less than three months after the July Revolution, Delacroix wrote, \u201cI have undertaken a modern subject, a barricade, and although I may not have fought for my country, at least I shall have painted for her. It has restored my good spirits.\u201d In doing so, Delacroix completed what has become both a defining image of French romanticism and one of the most enduring modern images of revolution. It has even been appropriated\u2014although slightly altered\u2014by the British rock band Coldplay as an album cover for their 2006 release\u00a0<em>Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends.<\/em>\r\n<h2 id=\"th\u00e9odore-g\u00e9ricault-raft-of-the-medusa\">Th\u00e9odore G\u00e9ricault,\u00a0<em>Raft of the Medusa<\/em><\/h2>\r\n<h3 id=\"a-radical-work-of-art\">A radical work of art<\/h3>\r\nIn 1819, a young man bolted through the streets of Paris. Years later, he said he must have looked crazy as he ran all the way home. He was the painter, Eug\u00e8ne Delacroix, and he had just seen Th\u00e9odore G\u00e9ricault\u2019s astonishing painting,<em>\u00a0Raft of the Medusa<\/em>, in the painter\u2019s studio. Today, visitors to the Louvre museum stop in front of the painting as they make their way through the galleries, but in 1819 it was a truly radical work of art that astonished everyone.\r\n\r\nThere had never been a painting like\u00a0<em>Raft of the Medusa<\/em>. It was on the grand scale of French history painting (think, for example, of Jacques Louis David\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/jacques-louis-david-oath-of-the-horatii\/\"><em>Oath of the Horatii<\/em><\/a>) but instead of ideal forms and a moralizing story from history, G\u00e9ricault offered the Salon audience a thoroughly modern,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/romanticism-in-france\/\">Romantic<\/a>\u00a0depiction of death and suffering based on a contemporary event that was in the news. To create his painting, G\u00e9ricault investigated everything about the story of the raft and talked with many of the survivors. He then brought all of the research together to create a radical painting that responded to the\u00a0conservative tradition of history paintings.\r\n\r\nNo one who wrote about the painting in 1819 was unmoved. Conservative critics and writers were appalled and accused G\u00e9ricault of creating a disgusting, repulsive mistake. More progressive writers who supported the modern, Romantic approach marveled at the artist\u2019s shocking painting that caused them to tremble and admire the scene of the horrific events on the raft. When he ran through Paris after seeing\u00a0<em>Raft of the Medusa<\/em>, completed in G\u00e9ricault\u2019s studio, young Delacroix experienced that same shock. He had seen something completely new that challenged every expectation for history painting and experienced an entirely kind of painting on a grand scale.\r\n\r\nhttps:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=jlVBaqyGKMs\r\n<h2 id=\"romanticism-in-spain-francisco-goya-the-sleep-of-reason-produces-monsters\">Romanticism in Spain: Francisco Goya,\u00a0<em>The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters<\/em><\/h2>\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"297\"]<img src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/image215.jpeg\" alt=\"A monochromatic etching depicting a person asleep at a table surrounded by various nightmarish creatures, including bats, owls, and cats, symbolizing irrational fears. Text on the table reads &quot;El sue\u00f1o de la raz\u00f3n produce monstruos,&quot; highlighting the theme that the sleep of reason produces monsters.\" width=\"297\" height=\"450\" \/> Francisco Goya, Plate 43, <em>The sleep of reason produces monsters<\/em> from <em>Los Caprichos<\/em>, 1799, etching, aquatint, drypoint, and burin, plate: 21.2 x 15.1 cm (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.metmuseum.org\/art\/collection\/search\/338473\">The Metropolitan Museum of Art<\/a>, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a>)[\/caption]\r\n<h3 id=\"a-dark-vision\">A dark vision<\/h3>\r\nIn this ominous image, we see the dark vision of humanity that characterizes Goya\u2019s work for the rest of his life.\r\n\r\nA man sleeps, apparently peacefully, even as bats and owls threaten from all sides and a lynx lays quiet, but wide-eyed and alert. Another\u00a0creature sits at the center of the composition, staring not at the sleeping figure, but at us. Goya forces the viewer to become an active participant in the image\u2013\u2013the monsters of his dreams even threaten us.\r\n<h3 id=\"los-caprichos\"><em>Los Caprichos<\/em><\/h3>\r\nOn 6 February 1799, Francisco Goya put an advertisement in the<em>\u00a0Diario de Madrid<\/em>. \u201cA Collection of Prints of Capricious Subjects,\u201d he tells the reader, \u201cInvented and Etched by Don Francisco Goya,\u201d is available through subscription. We know this series of eighty prints as\u00a0<em>Los Caprichos<\/em>\u00a0(caprices, or follies).\r\n\r\n<em>Los Caprichos<\/em>\u00a0was a significant departure from the subjects that had occupied Goya up to that point\u2013\u2013tapestry cartoons for the Spanish royal residences, portraits of monarchs and aristocrats, and a few commissions for church ceilings and altars.\r\n\r\nMany of the prints in the\u00a0<em>Caprichos<\/em>\u00a0series express disdain for the pre-Enlightenment practices still popular in Spain at the end of the Eighteenth century (a powerful clergy, arranged marriages, superstition, etc.). Goya uses the series to critique contemporary Spanish society. As he explained in the advertisement, he chose subjects \u201cfrom the multitude of follies and blunders common in every civil society, as well as from the vulgar prejudices and lies authorized by custom, ignorance or interest, those that he has thought most suitable matter for ridicule.\u201d\r\n\r\nThe\u00a0<em>Caprichos<\/em>\u00a0was Goya\u2019s most biting critique to date, and would eventually be censored. Of the eighty aquatints, number 43, \u201cThe Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters,\u201d can essentially be seen as Goya\u2019s manifesto and it should be noted that many observers believe he intended it as a self-portrait.\r\n<h3 id=\"imagination-united-with-reason\">Imagination united with reason<\/h3>\r\nIn the image, an artist, asleep at his drawing table, is besieged by creatures associated in Spanish folk tradition with mystery and evil. The title of the print, emblazoned on the front of the desk, is often read as a proclamation of Goya\u2019s adherence to the values of the Enlightenment\u2014without Reason, evil and corruption prevail.\r\n\r\nHowever, Goya wrote a caption for the print that complicates its message, \u201cImagination abandoned by reason produces impossible monsters; united with her, she is the mother of the arts and source of their wonders.\u201d\r\n\r\nIn other words, Goya believed that imagination should never be completely renounced in favor of the strictly rational. For Goya, art is the child of reason in combination with imagination.\r\n<h3 id=\"the-beginnings-of-romanticism\">The beginnings of Romanticism<\/h3>\r\nWith this print, Goya is revealed as a transitional figure between the end of the Enlightenment and the emergence of Romanticism. The artist had spent the early part of his career working in the court of King Carlos III who adhered to many of the principles of the Enlightenment that were then spreading across Europe\u2013\u2013social reform, the advancement of knowledge and science, and the creation of secular states. In Spain, Carlos reduced the power of the clergy and established strong support for the arts and sciences.\r\n\r\nHowever, by the time Goya published the\u00a0<em>Caprichos<\/em>, the promise of the Enlightenment had dimmed. Carlos III was dead and his less respected brother assumed the throne. Even in France, the political revolution inspired by the Enlightenment had devolved into violence during an episode known as the Reign of Terror. Soon after, Napoleon became Emperor of France.\r\n\r\nGoya\u2019s caption for \u201cThe Sleep of Reason,\u201d warns that we should not be governed by reason alone\u2014an idea central to Romanticism\u2019s reaction against Enlightenment doctrine. Romantic artists and writers valued nature which was closely associated with emotion and imagination in opposition to the rationalism of Enlightenment philosophy. But \u201cThe Sleep of Reason\u201d also anticipates the dark and haunting art Goya later created in reaction to the atrocities he witnessed\u2014and carried out by the standard-bearers of the Enlightenment\u2014the Napoleonic Guard.\r\n\r\nGoya brilliantly exploited the atmospheric quality of aquatint to create this\u00a0fantastical image. This printing process creates the grainy, dream-like tonality visible in the background of \u201cThe Sleep of Reason.\u201d\r\n<h3 id=\"aquatint\">Aquatint<\/h3>\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"481\"]<img src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/image216.jpeg\" alt=\"A detailed of etching depicting several bats in flight against a textured background. The drawing features intricate line work emphasizing wing structure and movement, with bats varying in size and orientation to create a dynamic scene.\" width=\"481\" height=\"450\" \/> Birds (detail), Francisco Goya, Plate 43, <em>The sleep of reason produces monsters<\/em> from<em> Los Caprichos<\/em>, 1799, etching, aquatint, drypoint, and burin, plate: 21.2 x 15.1 cm (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.metmuseum.org\/art\/collection\/search\/338473\">The Metropolitan Museum of Art<\/a>, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a>)[\/caption]\r\n\r\nAlthough the aquatint process was invented in 17th century by the Dutch printmaker, Jan van de Velde, many consider the\u00a0<em>Caprichos<\/em>\u00a0to be the first prints to fully exploit this process.\r\n\r\nAquatint is a variation of etching. Like etching, it uses a metal plate (often copper or zinc) that is covered with a waxy, acid-resistant resin. The artist draws an image directly into the resin with a needle so that the wax is removed exposing the metal plate below. When the scratch drawing is complete, the plate is submerged in an acid bath. The acid eats into the metal where lines have been etched. When the acid has bitten deeply enough, the plate is removed, rinsed and heated so that the remaining resin can be wiped away.\r\n\r\nAquatint requires an additional process, the artist sprinkles layers of powdery resin on the surface of the plate, heats it to harden the powder and dips it in an acid bath.\r\n\r\nThe acid eats around the resin powder creating a rich and varied surface. Ink is then pressed into the pits and linear recesses created by the acid and the flat surface of the plate is once again wiped clean. Finally, a piece of paper is pressed firmly against the inked plate and then pulled away, resulting in the finished image.\r\n<h2 id=\"romanticism-in-spain-francisco-goya-the-third-of-may-1808\">Romanticism in Spain: Francisco Goya,\u00a0<em>The Third of May, 1808<\/em><\/h2>\r\n<h3 id=\"the-2nd-and-3rd-of-may-1808\">The 2nd and 3rd of May, 1808<\/h3>\r\nIn 1807,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/jacques-louis-david-napoleon-crossing-the-alps\/\">Napoleon<\/a>, bent on conquering the world, brought Spain\u2019s king,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/francisco-goya-the-family-of-charles-iv\/\">Charles IV<\/a>, into alliance with him in order to conquer Portugal. Napoleon\u2019s troops poured into Spain, supposedly just passing through. But Napoleon\u2019s real intentions soon became clear: the alliance was a trick. The French were taking over. Joseph Bonaparte, Napoleon\u2019s brother, was the new king of Spain.\r\n\r\nOn May 2, 1808, hundreds of Spaniards rebelled. On May 3, these Spanish freedom fighters were rounded up and massacred by the French. Their blood literally ran through the streets of Madrid. Even though Goya had shown French sympathies in the past, the slaughter of his countrymen and the horrors of war made a profound impression on the artist. He commemorated both days of this gruesome uprising in paintings. Although Goya\u2019s\u00a0<em>Second of May<\/em>\u00a0is a tour de force of twisting bodies and charging horses reminiscent of Leonardo\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/leonardo-and-his-drawings\/\"><em>Battle of Anghiari<\/em><\/a>, his\u00a0<em>The\u00a0Third of May, 1808 in Madrid<\/em>\u00a0is acclaimed as one of the great paintings of all time, and has even been called the world\u2019s first modern painting.\r\n\r\nhttps:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=_QM-DfhrNv8&amp;t=526s\r\n<h2 id=\"romanticism-in-england-j.-m.-w.-turner-slave-ship\">Romanticism in England: J. M. W. Turner,\u00a0<em>Slave Ship<\/em><\/h2>\r\n<h3 id=\"turners-sublime-romanticism\">Turner\u2019s sublime Romanticism<\/h3>\r\nAn influential painter in oils and watercolor who was famous in his time, J.M.W. Turner worked to have landscape recognized as a serious art form. Turner\u2019s\u00a0<em>Slave Ship<\/em>\u00a0aligns with the \u201csublime\u201d aesthetic in art. The sublime was one of three major ways of depicting landscapes in the early 19th century. The \u201cbeautiful\u201d was pleasurable, soft, and calm. The \u201cpicturesque\u201d presented objects of interest in a tranquil scene that had some degree of rustic roughness. The \u201csublime,\u201d however, inspired terror through immense scale, darkness, and other effects meant to make the viewer feel threatened. In the early 19th century, all these modes were popular, but the sublime was favored by one of the most influential movements of the period:\u00a0Romanticism.\r\n\r\nhttps:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=NoCW80MEGXY\r\n<h2 id=\"realism-an-introduction\">Realism, an introduction<\/h2>\r\n<h3 id=\"realism-and-the-painting-of-modern-life\">Realism and the painting of modern life<\/h3>\r\nThe\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/royal-academy-france\/\">Royal Academy<\/a>\u00a0supported the age-old belief that art should be instructive, morally uplifting, refined, inspired by the classical tradition, a good reflection of the national culture, and, above all, about beauty.\r\n\r\nBut trying to keep young 19th-century artists\u2019 eyes on the past became an issue!\r\n\r\nThe world was changing rapidly and some artists wanted their work to be about their contemporary environment\u2014about themselves and their own perceptions of life. In short, they believed that the modern era deserved to have a modern art.\r\n\r\nThe modern era\u00a0begins with the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/what-was-the-industrial-revolution\/\">Industrial Revolution<\/a>\u00a0in the late 19th century. Clothing, food, heat, light and sanitation are a few of the basic areas that \u201cmodernized\u201d the 19th century. Transportation was faster, getting things done got easier, shopping in the new department stores became an adventure, and people developed a sense of \u201cleisure time\u201d\u2014thus the entertainment businesses grew.\r\n<h3 id=\"paris-transformed\">Paris transformed<\/h3>\r\nIn Paris, the city was transformed from a medieval warren of streets to a grand urban center with wide boulevards, parks, shopping districts, and multi-class dwellings (so that the division of class might be from floor to floor\u2014the rich on the lower floors and the poor on the upper floors in one building\u2014instead by neighborhood).\r\n\r\nTherefore, modern life was about social mixing, social mobility, frequent journeys from the city to the country and back, and a generally faster pace which has accelerated ever since.\r\n\r\nHow could paintings and sculptures about classical gods and biblical stories relate to a population enchanted with this progress?\r\n\r\nIn the middle of the 19th century, the young artists decided that it couldn\u2019t and shouldn\u2019t. In 1863 the poet and art critic Charles Baudelaire published an essay entitled \u201cThe Painter of Modern Life,\u201d which declared that the artist must be of his\/her own time.\r\n<h2 id=\"becoming-modern-in-19th-century-europe-an-introduction\">Becoming modern in 19th-century Europe, an introduction<\/h2>\r\nPeople use the term \u201cmodern\u201d in a variety of ways, often very loosely, with a lot of implied associations relating to the new, contemporary, up-to-date, and technological. In 19th-century Europe, however, modernity and its connection with art had certain specific associations that people began recognizing and using as barometers to distinguish themselves and their culture from earlier moments in history.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"2047\"]<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/36586288994_2f6ead3c3c_k.jpg\"><img src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/36586288994_2f6ead3c3c_k.jpg\" alt=\"\u00c9douard Manet, A Bar at the Folies-Berg\u00e8re, painting depicting a barmaid standing behind a marble counter with various bottles, a bowl of oranges, and a glass with a flower. Background shows a crowded caf\u00e9 with patrons and a large mirror reflecting the scene, highlighting social interaction and urban nightlife.\" width=\"2047\" height=\"1542\" \/><\/a> \u00c9douard Manet, <em>A Bar at the Folies-Berg\u00e8re<\/em>, 1882, oil on canvas, 96 x 130 cm (Courtauld Gallery, London; photo: <a href=\"https:\/\/flic.kr\/p\/XK1i57\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Steven Zucker<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-sa\/2.0\/deed.en\">CC BY-NC-SA 2.0<\/a>)[\/caption]\r\n\r\nChronologically, the modern era is often defined as the period from roughly 1848 to 1960. In Europe and North America, it can be said to begin with the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/a-beginners-guide-to-realism\/\">Realist movement<\/a>\u00a0and end with\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/abstract-expressionism-an-introduction\/\">Abstract Expressionism<\/a>\u00a0(though some scholars date the modern era back to the late 18th century). That\u2019s just a little over 100 years. During that period, Europe experienced significant changes that transformed it from an agriculturally-based society into a modern one with cities and factories and mass transportation.\r\n\r\nHere are some important features that characterize 19th-century Europe.\r\n<h3 id=\"capitalism\">Capitalism<\/h3>\r\nIn the 19th century, wealth produced by mass-manufacturing and the exchange of goods (capitalism) competed with aristocratic wealth based on large land holdings. Capitalism became the economic system of the modern era in which people exchanged their labor for a fixed wage. This economic change dramatically affected class relations because it offered opportunities for the accumulation of great wealth through individual initiative, industrialization, and technology (somewhat like the technological and dot.com explosion of the late 20th and early 21st centuries). The\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/what-was-the-industrial-revolution\/\">Industrial Revolution<\/a>, which began in England in the late 18th century and rapidly swept across Europe, radically transformed economic and social relationships, putting many artisans out of work, and offered an ever-increasing number of cheap consumer goods. These consumer goods were largely produced by factory workers (including children) at a time when there were few protections for workers. The Industrial Revolution also fostered a sense of competition and a sense of progress (some real, some illusory) that continues to influence us today.\r\n<h3 id=\"urban-culture\">Urban culture<\/h3>\r\nUrban culture replaced agrarian culture as industrialization and cities grew. Cities were the sites of new wealth and opportunity with their factories and manufacturing potential. People moving from small farm towns to large cities helped to breakdown traditional culture and values. There were also new complications such as growing urban crime, sex work, alienation, and depersonalization.\r\n\r\nIn a small town you probably knew the cobbler who made your shoes, and such a personal relationship often expanded into everyday economics\u2014you might be able to barter food or labor for a new pair of shoes or delay payments. These kinds of accommodations that formed a substructure to agrarian life were swept away with urbanization. City dwellers bought shoes that were manufactured to standardized sizes, transported by railroads, displayed in shop windows, and purchased for cash. Assembly lines, anonymous labor, and advertising created more consumer items but also a growing sense of depersonalization. The gap between the \u201chaves\u201d and the \u201chave nots\u201d was more visible in the city, in England, an often used phrase referred to these groups as \u201cthe two nations.\u201d\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"1450\"]<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/N05779_10.jpeg\"><img src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/N05779_10.jpeg\" alt=\"A painting depicting a crowded interior of a horse-drawn carriage with men, women, and children dressed in 19th-century attire, including top hats and bonnets. The scene highlights social interaction and period fashion, with detailed expressions and a warm, enclosed space framed by a decorative border.\" width=\"1450\" height=\"1536\" \/><\/a> \u201cThe omnibus\u2014a horse-drawn carriage that picked up and deposited people along an established route\u2014was introduced into London on 4 July 1829 and quickly became a popular mode of transport\u201d (Tate, London). William Maw Egley, <em>Omnibus Life in London<\/em>, 1859, oil on canvas, 44.8 x 41.9 cm (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.tate.org.uk\/art\/artworks\/egley-omnibus-life-in-london-n05779\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Tate<\/a>, London, Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:OmnibusLife_William_Maw_Egley1.jpg\">Wikimedia<\/a>, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a>)[\/caption]\r\n<h3 id=\"technology\">Technology<\/h3>\r\nTechnological advances such as steam-powered factories, railroads, gas lighting, streetcars as well as the availability of indoor plumbing, kitchen appliances, and scientific advances dramatically affected the way people lived and thought about themselves. One consequence was that some people in industrialized areas thought of themselves as advanced and modern and considered others as comparatively primitive and backward.\r\n<h3 id=\"secularism-and-politics\">Secularism and politics<\/h3>\r\nModernity is characterized by increasing secularism and diminished religious authority. People did not abandon religion but they paid less attention to it. Organized religions were increasingly less able to dictate standards, values, and subject matter. Art moved from representing human experience and its relationship to God\u2019s creation, to a focus on personal emotions and individual spiritual experiences that were not based in any organized and institutionalized religion. In the same way, political power once held by a hereditary aristocratic elite, slowly broadened to enfranchise the wider populace. In both these ways, the concentration of authority was lessened as the Church and royal families ceded power to the people.\r\n<h3 id=\"optimism\">Optimism<\/h3>\r\nMany people saw these changes as positive, and many did not. Some welcomed innovation and championed progress. Change became a signifier of modernity. Anything that was traditional and static signaled outmoded, old-fashioned, conservative and was to be avoided by the new modern public. Much of Europe internalized these positions and used modernity as a way of determining and validating feelings of superiority. The 19th century was also a period of tremendous, often violent, colonial growth and expansion. Many people recognized and sought to ameliorate the impact on the working class by supporting legislation that limited the hours of the working day, the age of workers, and extension of the franchise, among other things. It\u2019s important to remember that universal suffrage in most countries in Europe was not achieved until the early 20th century.\r\n\r\nMany artists closely identified with modernity and embraced the new techniques and innovations, the spirit of progress, invention, discovery, creativity, and change. They wanted to participate in creating the modern world and they were anxious to try out new ideas rather than following the more conservative guidelines of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/royal-academy-france\/\">Academic art<\/a>. This is not to say that these mid-19th-century artists were the first to challenge an older generation or set of ideas. Many academic artists had argued over formal issues, styles, and subject matter, but this was much like a good-natured agreement within a club; everyone in the group agreed to disagree.\r\n\r\nMany artists were also sympathetic to the plight of the working classes, who seemed to those in power to be increasingly dangerous. Revolutions in 1789, 1830, and 1848 in France, and the\u00a0Chartist movement\u00a0in England are just two examples of the form that resistance to the changes of modernity took. It was in 1848 that Karl Marx wrote in\u00a0<em>The Communist Manifesto<\/em>, \u201cOur epoch, the epoch of the bourgeoisie, possesses, however, this distinct feature: it has simplified class antagonisms. Society as a whole is more and more splitting up into two great hostile camps, into two great classes directly facing each other \u2014 Bourgeoisie and Proletariat.\u201d [footnote]Karl Marx,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.marxists.org\/archive\/marx\/works\/1848\/communist-manifesto\/index.htm\"><em>Manifesto of the Communist Party<\/em><\/a>, 1848.[\/footnote]\r\n<h3 id=\"a-middle-class-audience\">A middle-class audience<\/h3>\r\nBy the mid-1850s, polite academic disagreements moved from the Academy and onto the street. Artists were looking increasingly to the private sector for patronage, tapping into that growing group of bourgeois or middle-class collectors with money to spend and houses to fill with paintings. This new middle-class audience that made its money through industrialization and manufacturing had significant disposable income, and they wanted pictures that they could understand, that were easy to look at, fit into their homes, and addressed subjects they liked. The historical cycles of gods, saints, and heroes\u2014with their complex intellectual associations and references\u2014was not for them; instead, they wanted landscapes, genre scenes, and still lifes. They were not less educated than earlier buyers, but educated with a different focus and set of priorities. Reality was here and now, progress was inevitable, and the new hero of modern life was the modern man.\r\n\r\nModernity is then a composite of contexts: a time, a space, and an attitude. What makes a place or an object \u201cmodern\u201d depends on these conditions.\r\n<h3 id=\"the-avant-garde\">The avant-garde<\/h3>\r\nThroughout the 19th century there were artists who produced pictures that we do not label \u201cmodern art\u201d generally because the techniques or subjects were associated with the conservative academic styles, techniques, and approaches (that often look back to ancient Greece and Rome). On the other hand, modern artists were often called the \u201cavant-garde.\u201d This was originally a military term that described the point man (the first soldier out)\u2014the one to take the most risk. The French socialist Henri de Saint-Simon first used the term in the early 1820s to describe an artist whose work would serve the needs of the people, of a socialist society rather than the ruling classes.\r\n\r\nThe avant-garde is also used to identify artists whose painting subjects and techniques were radical, marking them off from the more traditional or academic styles, but not with any particular political ideology in mind. Avant-garde became a kind of generic term for a number of art movements centered on the idea of artistic autonomy and independence. In some cases the avant-garde was closely associated with political activism, especially socialist or communist movements; in other cases, the avant-garde was pointedly removed from politics and focused primarily on aesthetics. The avant-garde was never a cohesive group of artists and what was avant-garde in one nation was not necessarily the same in others.\r\n<h2 id=\"gustave-courbet-the-stonebreakers\">Gustave Courbet,\u00a0<em>The Stonebreakers<\/em><\/h2>\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"800\"]<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/800px-Courbet_-_Kamieniarze.jpeg\"><img src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/800px-Courbet_-_Kamieniarze.jpeg\" alt=\"Courbet, The Stonebreakers, painting depicting two men breaking rocks in a rural outdoor setting, illustrating manual labor during a historical period. One man kneels using a hammer on rocks while the other stands carrying a pile of stones, with earthy tones and detailed textures emphasizing physical effort and environment.\" width=\"800\" height=\"485\" \/><\/a> Gustave Courbet, <em>The Stonebreakers<\/em>, 1849, oil on canvas, 165 x 257 cm (Gem\u00e4ldegalerie, Dresden [destroyed], Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Gustave_Courbet_-_The_Stonebreakers_-_WGA05457.jpg\">Wikimedia<\/a>, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a>)[\/caption]<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/gustave-courbet-a-burial-at-ornans\/\">Gustave Courbet<\/a>, a young fellow from the Franche-Comt\u00e9, a province outside of Paris, came to the \u201cbig city\u201d with a large ego and a sense of mission. He met Charles Baudelaire and other progressive thinkers within the first years of making Paris his home. Then, he set himself up as the leader for a new art: Realism\u2014\u201chistory painting\u201d about real life. He believed that if he could not see something, he should not paint it. He also decided that his art should have a social consciousness that would awaken the self-involved Parisian to contemporary concerns: the good, the bad, and the ugly.\r\n<h3 id=\"realism-and-reality\">Realism and reality<\/h3>\r\nIf we look closely at Courbet\u2019s painting The\u00a0<em>Stonebreakers<\/em>\u00a0of 1849 (painted only one year after Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels wrote their influential pamphlet,\u00a0<em>The Communist Manifesto<\/em>) the artist\u2019s concern for the plight of the poor is evident. Here, two figures labor to break and remove stone from a road that is being built. In our age of powerful jackhammers and bulldozers, such work is reserved as punishment for chain-gangs.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"800\"]<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Millet_Gleaners.jpeg\"><img src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/Millet_Gleaners.jpeg\" alt=\"Millet, The Gleaners, painting depicts three peasant women gleaning a field, bending over to collect leftover crops after harvest. Warm earth tones and soft lighting emphasize rural labor, with haystacks and workers visible in background, highlighting agricultural life.\" width=\"800\" height=\"640\" \/><\/a> Jean-Fran\u00e7ois Millet,<em> The Gleaners<\/em>, 1857, oil on canvas, 83.5 x 110 cm (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.musee-orsay.fr\/en\/artworks\/des-glaneuses-342\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Mus\u00e9e d\u2019Orsay<\/a>, Paris, Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Jean-Fran%C3%A7ois_Millet_-_Gleaners_-_Google_Art_Project_2.jpg\">Wikimedia<\/a>, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a>)[\/caption]\r\n\r\nUnlike Millet, who, in paintings like\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/millet-the-gleaners\/\"><em>The Gleaners<\/em><\/a>,\u00a0was known for depicting hard-working, but idealized peasants, Courbet depicts figures who wear ripped and tattered clothing. And unlike the aerial perspective Millet used in\u00a0<em>The Gleaners<\/em>\u00a0to bring our eye deep into the French countryside during the harvest,\u00a0the two stone breakers in Courbet\u2019s painting are set against a low hill of the sort common in the rural French town of Ornans, where the artist had been raised and continued to spend a much of his time. The hill reaches to the top of the canvas everywhere but the upper right corner, where a tiny patch of bright blue sky appears. The effect is to isolate these laborers, and to suggest that they are physically and economically trapped. In Millet\u2019s painting,\u00a0the gleaners\u2019 rounded backs echo one another, creating a composition that feels unified, where\u00a0Courbet\u2019s figures seem disjointed. Millet\u2019s painting, for all its sympathy for these poor figures, could still be\u00a0read\u00a0as \u201cart\u201d by\u00a0viewers at an exhibition\u00a0in Paris.\r\n\r\nCourbet wants to show what is \u201creal,\u201d and so he has depicted a man that seems\u00a0too old and a boy that seems still too young for such back-breaking labor. This is not meant to be heroic: it is meant to be an accurate account of the abuse and deprivation that was a common feature of mid-century French rural life. And as with so many great works of art, there is a close affiliation between the narrative\u00a0and the formal choices made by the painter, meaning elements such as brushwork, composition, line, and color.\r\n\r\nLike the stones themselves, Courbet\u2019s brushwork is rough\u2014more so than might be expected during the mid-19th century. This suggests that the way the artist painted his canvas was in part a conscious rejection of the highly polished, refined\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/neoclassicism-an-introduction\/\">Neoclassicist style<\/a>\u00a0that still dominated French art in 1848.\r\n\r\nPerhaps most characteristic of Courbet\u2019s style is his refusal to focus on the parts of the image that would usually receive the most attention. Traditionally, an artist would spend\u00a0the most time on the hands, faces, and foregrounds. Not Courbet. If you look carefully, you will notice that he attempts to be even-handed, attending to faces and rock equally. In these ways,\u00a0<em>The Stonebreakers<\/em>\u00a0seems to lack the basics of art (things like a composition that selects and organizes,\u00a0aerial perspective and finish)\u00a0and as a result,\u00a0it\u00a0feels more \u201creal.\u201d\r\n<div class=\"textbox textbox--key-takeaways\"><header class=\"textbox__header\">\r\n<h2 class=\"textbox__title\">Practicing Visual Analysis<\/h2>\r\n<\/header>\r\n<div class=\"textbox__content\">\r\n\r\nThe <strong>composition<\/strong> of Courbet\u2019s <em>The Stonebreakers<\/em> is unusual. Two <strong>figurative forms<\/strong> turn away from us with only hints at their age: a younger man on the left and an older man on the right. Courbet used a relatively limited <strong>color<\/strong> palette relying mostly on earth tones. Although there is the suggestion of depth with some <strong>atmospheric perspective<\/strong> and <strong>chiaroscuro<\/strong> modeling, the piece appears relatively flat. The figures are set close in the <strong>foreground<\/strong>. The dullness of the <strong>color<\/strong> and <strong>light<\/strong> enhance the monotony of the backbreaking labor. We think about all the intentional choices the artist made to construct the piece. Imagine if Michelangelo painted this scene! The figures would be heroically nude and muscular in their <strong>form<\/strong>. Their faces would be turned toward the viewer allowing us to see their perfectly youthful, symmetrical structure. Michelangelo would use bright <strong>colors<\/strong> and a strong <strong>design<\/strong> to create <strong>pictorial space<\/strong> through techniques like <strong>linear perspective<\/strong>. Courbet? No. The intentional choices Courbet made regarding <strong>composition, space, light<\/strong>, and <strong>color<\/strong> reveal to us a piece that acknowledges the invisible labor of the many. It also asks a poignant question emerging in the 19<sup>th<\/sup> century: can one ever escape their class?\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<h2 id=\"\u00e9douard-manet-olympia\">\u00c9douard Manet,\u00a0<em>Olympia<\/em><\/h2>\r\nMost strongly associated with Realism, \u00c9douard Manet experimented with multiple styles in his pursuit of subject matter that reflected modern urban life. In this portrait of Olympia and Laure, Manet invented what beauty could be for the modern world.\r\n\r\n[embed]https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=nFhgy9mkNRo[\/embed]\r\n<h2 id=\"early-photography-a-modern-invention-with-ni\u00e9pce-talbot-and-muybridge\">Early Photography: A Modern Invention with Ni\u00e9pce, Talbot, and Muybridge<\/h2>\r\nBy modern standards, nineteenth-century photography can appear rather primitive. While the stark black and white landscapes and unsmiling people have their own austere beauty, these images also challenge our notions of what defines a work of art.\r\n\r\nPhotography is a controversial fine art medium, simply because it is difficult to classify\u2014is it an art or a science? Nineteenth century photographers struggled with this distinction, trying to reconcile aesthetics with improvements in technology.\r\n<h3 id=\"the-birth-of-photography\">The birth of photography<\/h3>\r\nAlthough the principle of the camera was known in antiquity, the actual chemistry needed to register an image was not available until the nineteenth century.\r\n\r\nArtists from the Renaissance onwards used a camera obscura (Latin for dark chamber), or a small hole in the wall of a darkened box that would pass light through the hole and project an upside down image of whatever was outside the box. However, it was not until the invention of a light sensitive surface by Frenchman Joseph Nic\u00e9phore Ni\u00e9pce that the basic principle of photography was born.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"325\"]<img src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/image221.jpeg\" alt=\"A black and white photograph depicting a high-contrast, grainy view of a narrow pathway or bridge between two buildings with a distant horizon. The composition emphasizes strong shadows and geometric shapes, creating a moody, abstract atmosphere.\" width=\"325\" height=\"242\" \/> Joseph Nic\u00e9phore Ni\u00e9pce, <em>View from the Window at Gras<\/em> (1826) (Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:View_from_the_Window_at_Le_Gras,_Joseph_Nic%C3%A9phore_Ni%C3%A9pce,_uncompressed_UMN_source.png\">Wikimedia<\/a>, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a>)[\/caption]\r\n\r\nFrom this point the development of photography largely related to technological improvements in three areas, speed, resolution and permanence. The first photographs, such as Ni\u00e9pce\u2019s famous\u00a0<em>View from the Window at Gras<\/em>\u00a0(1826) required a very slow speed (a long exposure period), in this case about 8 hours, obviously making many subjects difficult, if not impossible, to photograph. Taken using a camera obscura to expose a copper plate coated in silver and pewter,\u00a0Ni\u00e9pce\u2019s image looks out of an upstairs window, and part of the blurry quality is due to changing conditions during the long exposure time, causing the resolution, or clarity of the image, to be grainy and hard to read. An additional challenge was the issue of permanence, or how to successfully stop any further reaction of the light sensitive surface once the desired exposure had been achieved. Many of Ni\u00e9pce\u2019s early images simply turned black over time due to continued exposure to light. This problem was largely solved in 1839 by the invention of hypo, a chemical that reversed the light sensitivity of paper.\r\n<h3 id=\"technological-improvements\">Technological improvements<\/h3>\r\nPhotographers after Ni\u00e9pce experimented with a variety of techniques. Louis Daguerre invented a new process he dubbed a daguerreotype in 1839, which significantly reduced exposure time and created a lasting result, but only produced a single image.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"560\"]<img src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/image222.jpeg\" alt=\"Black and white photograph of a tabletop displaying various sculpted masks and decorative objects, including a framed picture hanging on the wall. The scene highlights artistic craftsmanship with detailed facial features on masks and textured surfaces, suggesting a workshop or studio setting.\" width=\"560\" height=\"405\" \/> Louis Daguerre, <em>The Artist\u2019s Studio<\/em>, 1837, daguerreotype (Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Daguerreotype_Daguerre_Atelier_1837.jpg\">Wikimedia<\/a>, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a>)[\/caption]\r\n\r\nAt the same time, Englishman William Henry Fox Talbot was experimenting with his what would eventually become his calotype method, patented in February 1841. Talbot\u2019s innovations included the creation of a paper negative, and new technology that involved the transformation of the negative to a positive image, allowing for more that one copy of the picture. The remarkable detail of Talbot\u2019s method can be seen in his famous photograph,\u00a0<em>The Open Door<\/em>\u00a0(1844) which captures the view through a medieval-looking entrance. The texture of the rough stones surrounding the door, the vines growing up the walls and the rustic broom that leans in the doorway demonstrate the minute details captured by Talbot\u2019s photographic improvements.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"442\"]<img src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/image223.jpeg\" alt=\"Sepia-toned photograph depicting an open doorway with a broom leaning against the doorframe, surrounded by textured stone walls and climbing vines. The composition highlights rustic architectural details and evokes a quiet, abandoned atmosphere.\" width=\"442\" height=\"355\" \/> William Henry Fox Talbot, <em>The Open Door<\/em>, 1844, salted paper print from paper negative (Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:The_Open_Door_MET_DP148629.jpg\">Wikimedia<\/a>, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/zero\/1.0\/deed.en\">CC0 1.0<\/a>)[\/caption]\r\n\r\nThe collodion method was introduced in 1851. This process involved fixing a substance known as gun cotton onto a glass plate, allowing for an even shorter exposure time (3-5 minutes), as well as a clearer image.\r\n\r\nThe big disadvantage of the collodion process was that it needed to be exposed and developed while the chemical coating was still wet, meaning that photographers had to carry portable darkrooms to develop images immediately after exposure. Both the difficulties of the method and uncertain but growing status of photography were lampooned by Honor\u00e9 Daumier in his\u00a0<em>Nadar Elevating Photography to the Height of Art<\/em>\u00a0(1862). Nadar, one of the most prominent photographers in Paris at the time, was known for capturing the first aerial photographs from the basket of a hot air balloon. Obviously, the difficulties in developing a glass negative under these circumstances must have been considerable.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"357\"]<img src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/image224.jpeg\" alt=\"A black and white illustration depicts a man operating an early camera mounted on a hot air balloon basket labeled &quot;Photographie Nadar.&quot; The scene shows multiple rooftops below with signs reading &quot;Photographie,&quot; emphasizing the rise of photography and aerial perspectives in the 19th century.\" width=\"357\" height=\"450\" \/> Honor\u00e9 Daumier, <em>Nadar \u00e9levant la Photographie \u00e0 la hauteur de l\u2019Art (Nadar elevating Photography to Art)<\/em>, lithograph from Le Boulevard, May 25, 1863 (Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Brooklyn_Museum_-_Nadar_%C3%89levant_la_Photographie_%C3%A0_la_Hauteur_de_l%27Art_-_Honor%C3%A9_Daumier.jpg\">Wikimedia<\/a>, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a>)[\/caption]\r\n\r\nFurther advances in technology continued to make photography less labor intensive. By 1867 a dry glass plate was invented, reducing the inconvenience of the wet collodion method.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"320\"]<img src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/image225.jpeg\" alt=\"A black-and-white photographic sequence showing a horse and rider in various stages of galloping, arranged in a grid of twelve frames. This historical study captures motion progression, highlighting the horse's leg positions and rider's posture at different moments during the gallop.\" width=\"320\" height=\"198\" \/> Eadweard Muybridge, <em>The Horse in Motion (\u201cSallie Gardner,\u201d owned by Leland Stanford; running at a 1:40 gait over the Palo Alto track, 19th June 1878),<\/em> 1878 (Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:The_Horse_in_Motion_high_res.jpg\">Wikimedia<\/a>, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a>)[\/caption]\r\n\r\nPrepared glass plates could be purchased, eliminating the need to fool with chemicals. In 1878, new advances decreased the exposure time to 1\/25th of a second, allowing moving objects to be photographed and lessening the need for a tripod. This new development is celebrated in Eadweard Muybridge\u2019s sequence of photographs called\u00a0<em>Galloping Horse<\/em>\u00a0(1878). Designed to settle the question of whether or not a horse ever takes all four legs completely off the ground during a gallop, the series of photographs also demonstrated the new photographic methods that were capable of nearly instantaneous exposure.\r\n\r\nFinally in 1888 George Eastman developed the dry gelatin roll film, making it easier for film to be carried. Eastman also produced the first small inexpensive cameras, allowing more people access to the technology.\r\n\r\nPhotographers in the 19th century were pioneers in a new artistic endeavor, blurring the lines between art and technology. Frequently using traditional methods of composition and marrying these with innovative techniques, photographers created a new vision of the material world. Despite the struggles early photographers must have had with the limitations of their technology, their artistry is also obvious.\r\n<h2 id=\"american-realism-thomas-eakins-the-gross-clinic-and-the-agnew-clinic\">American Realism: Thomas Eakins,\u00a0<em>The Gross Clinic<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0<em>The Agnew Clinic<\/em><\/h2>\r\nAn American painter, sculptor, and photographer, Thomas Eakins\u2019 realist style was influenced by Diego Vel\u00e1zquez as well as photographic aesthetics. Eakins\u2019s deep connection to his birthplace remained a theme throughout his career. Perhaps his most well-known and ambitious work for the city of Philadelphia is\u00a0<em>The Gross Clinic,<\/em>\u00a0a painting completed in 1875\u00a0that spotlights the local physician Samuel David Gross.\r\n\r\nhttps:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=xerjJiBUKxw\r\n<h2 id=\"american-realism-henry-ossawa-tanner-the-banjo-lesson\">American Realism: Henry Ossawa Tanner,\u00a0<em>The Banjo Lesson<\/em><\/h2>\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_3468\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"212\"]<img class=\"wp-image-3468 size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/tanner-212x300.jpg\" alt=\"Tanner, The Banjo Lesson painting depicting an elderly man seated with a child on his lap, both playing a banjo in a dimly lit rustic room. Warm tones highlight a table with a white cloth and kitchenware in the background, while various household items and shadows create a cozy, intimate atmosphere.\" width=\"212\" height=\"300\" \/> Henry Ossawa Tanner,<em> The Banjo Lesson,<\/em> 1893, oil on canvas, 124.5 \u00d7 90.2 cm (Hampton University Museum, Hampton, VA, Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Henry_Ossawa_Tanner_-_The_Banjo_Lesson.jpg\">Wikimedia<\/a>, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a> in the United States)[\/caption]\r\n\r\nHenry Ossawa Tanner was the United States\u2019 first African American celebrity artist. His training at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (under the guidance of\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/smarthistory.org\/eakins-the-gross-clinic\/\">Thomas Eakins<\/a>) and at the Acad\u00e9mie Julian in Paris (with Jean-L\u00e9on G\u00e9r\u00f4me) put him in the unique position of having experienced two vastly different approaches to painting\u2014 American Realism and French academic painting. He was also one of the few artists to have had such training at a time when there were many barriers to education for African Americans. Though Tanner lived most of his life in France and became well known for his lush biblical paintings,\u00a0<em>The Banjo Lesson<\/em>\u00a0is his most famous work and the painting that has become emblematic with his oeuvre.\r\n\r\nHenry Tanner painted\u00a0<em>The Banjo Lesson<\/em>\u00a0in 1893 after a series of sketches he made while visiting the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina four years before. Tanner had been studying and working in Paris until he developed a bout of typhoid fever and was advised to return to the United States to recover his health and dwindling finances. While taking up a teaching post at Clark University in Atlanta, Tanner\u2019s doctor told him to take in some mountain air. His trip to North Carolina opened his eyes to the poverty of African Americans living in Appalachia.\r\n<h3 id=\"the-legacy-of-slavery\">The legacy of slavery<\/h3>\r\nThe United States had abolished slavery only twenty-four years before, in 1865, and the physical and psychological wounds of that brutal institution would continue to be a palpable presence in African American communities\u2014especially so in the South. Though Tanner was born in Pittsburgh within the tight-knit world of highly-educated members of America\u2019s burgeoning African American intelligentsia, Tanner\u2019s mother Sarah had been born a slave and had escaped north to Pennsylvania through the Underground Railroad. His middle name, Ossawa, was chosen by his father, Benjamin Tucker Tanner, a Methodist minister and abolitionist, after Osawatomie, Kansas\u2014the site of the abolitionist John Brown\u2019s bloody confrontation with pro-slavery partisans on August 30, 1856.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_3469\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"239\"]<img class=\"wp-image-3469 size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/Henry_Ossawa_Tanners_image_for_Harpers_Young_People_Dec_5_1893_page_84-239x300.jpg\" alt=\"Black and white drawing depicting an older man teaching a young boy to play a banjo, both seated closely on wooden chairs. Shadows cast on a textured wall behind them emphasize their focused expressions and the intimate, instructional moment.\" width=\"239\" height=\"300\" \/> Illustration by Henry Ossawa Tanner for <em>Harper\u2019s Young People<\/em> 16, no 736 (December 1893), p. 81. (Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Henry_Ossawa_Tanner%27s_image_for_Harper%27s_Young_People,_Dec_5,_1893_page_84.jpg\">Wikimedia<\/a>, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a> in the United States)[\/caption]\r\n\r\nThroughout his education and advancement in the art world in both the United States and Europe, the legacy of slavery haunted Tanner as he tried to establish a niche for himself as painter to be regarded on his own terms.\u00a0<em>The Banjo Lesson<\/em>\u00a0grew out of a set of photographs and illustrations (above) that Tanner made for the periodical\u00a0<em>Harper\u2019s Young People<\/em>\u00a0in 1893.\u00a0The illustration is of an elderly man teaching a young boy how to play the banjo, accompanied a short story by Ruth McEnery Stuart called \u201cUncle Tim\u2019s Compromise on Christmas,\u201d in which the titular character imparts his most prized possession, a banjo, to his grandson on Christmas morning.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"955\"]<img src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/image228.jpeg\" alt=\"Two paintings side by side depict young Black men playing stringed instruments. The left painting shows a smiling boy in colorful clothing and a striped hat playing a banjo, while the right painting features a more subdued figure seated on a green chair, strumming a guitar in a dimly lit setting.\" width=\"955\" height=\"593\" \/> Left: William Sidney Mount, <em>The Banjo Player<\/em>, 1856, oil on canvas, 38 x 29 inches (The Museums at Stoney Brook, Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:William-sidney-mount-the-banjo-player-1856.jpg\">Wikimedia<\/a>, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a>); right: Thomas Eakins,\u00a0<em>Study for \u201cNegro Boy Dancing,\u201d The Banjo Player<\/em>, probably 1877, oil on canvas on cardboard, 49.5 x 27.9 cm (The National Gallery of Art, Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Study_for_Negro_Boy_Dancing.jpg\">Wikimedia<\/a>, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a>)[\/caption]\r\n<h3 id=\"american-realism-the-european-tradition\">American realism + the European tradition<\/h3>\r\nTanner had spent years refining a style of his own that combined elements of American Realism and the European Old Master tradition.\u00a0<em>The Banjo Lesson<\/em>\u00a0has its roots in the genre paintings of African Americans by William Sidney Mount and Thomas Eakins (above) and in Renaissance and Flemish paintings, notably Domenico Ghirlandaio\u2019s\u00a0<em>An Old Man<\/em>\u00a0<em>and His Grandson<\/em>\u00a0and Johannes Vermeer\u2019s\u00a0<em>Woman with a Lute<\/em>.\r\n\r\nWhile studying in Paris, Tanner was also inspired by the works of the French Realists, namely\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/smarthistory.org\/courbet-the-stonebreakers\/\">Gustave Courbet<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/smarthistory.org\/millet-the-gleaners\/\">Jean-Fran\u00e7ois Millet<\/a>, in their depictions of the rural poor. Millet\u2019s\u00a0<em>The Angelus<\/em>, with its quiet, intensely spiritual portrayal of a farmer and his wife praying amid the fields at dusk, is a palpable influence on Tanner\u2019s\u00a0<em>The Banjo Lesson.<\/em>\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"721\"]<img src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/image229.jpeg\" alt=\"Jean-Fran\u00e7ois Millet, The Angelus, painting depicting two peasants standing in a field during sunset, heads bowed in prayer. Dark earthy tones dominate, with a pitchfork and wheelbarrow visible, emphasizing themes of labor and humility.\" width=\"721\" height=\"600\" \/> Jean-Fran\u00e7ois Millet, <em>The Angelus<\/em>, 1857-59, oil on canvas, 55.5 \u00d7 66 cm (Mus\u00e9e d\u2019Orsay, Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Jean-Fran%C3%A7ois_Millet_(II)_001.jpg\">Wikimedia<\/a>, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a>)[\/caption]\r\n<h3 id=\"a-radically-different-image\">A radically different image<\/h3>\r\nThis theme of spiritual solace that Tanner encountered in the paintings of French Realists like Millet resonated with his own upbringing as the son of a Methodist minister. He hoped to find a way of highlighting the dignity and grace of poor African Americans in the manner that he had seen in France\u2014an approach that would be radically different from stereotypical images of the overly servile \u201cUncle Tom\u201d figure (named after the main character in Harriet Beecher Stowe\u2019s iconic 1852 novel) that was familiar to Americans in countless advertisements (like\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/smarthistory.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/ayers.jpg\">this one<\/a>, for Ayer\u2019s Cathartic Pills [The Country Doctor], c. 1883) and popular magazines.\r\n\r\nIn\u00a0<em>The Banjo Lesson<\/em>, Tanner\u2019s desire to show us his vision of the resilience, spiritual grace, and creative and intellectual promise of post-Civil War African Americans is fully realized. The scene is staged within the small confines of a log cabin with the cool glow of a hearth fire casting the scene\u2019s only light source from right corner, enveloping the man and the boy in a rectangular pool of light across the floor. The boy holds the banjo in both hands, his downward gaze a reflection of his focused concentration on his grandfather\u2019s instructions. The older man holds the banjo up gently with his left hand so that the boy is not encumbered by its weight, yet the staging shows us that the man wants the boy to come into the realization of the music and its rewards through his own intuition and hard work.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"1188\"]<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Tanner-Banjo-Lesson-1893-thumb.jpg\"><img src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/Tanner-Banjo-Lesson-1893-thumb.jpg\" alt=\"Detail, Tanner, The Banjo Lesson, painting depicting an elderly man teaching a young child to play a banjo, capturing a moment of shared musical learning and bonding. The scene is set indoors with muted, earthy tones, highlighting the figures against a softly lit background featuring a table with a pitcher and bread.\" width=\"1188\" height=\"714\" \/><\/a> Detail, Henry Ossawa Tanner, <em>The Banjo Lesson<\/em>, 1893, oil on canvas, 124.5 \u00d7 90.2 cm (Hampton University Museum, Hampton, VA, Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Henry_Ossawa_Tanner_-_The_Banjo_Lesson.jpg\">Wikimedia<\/a>, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a> in the United States)[\/caption]\r\n\r\nThe contrast between the man\u2019s age and the boy\u2019s adds to the narrative tension within in the painting as in the Ghirlandaio, a counterpoint between age and experience, and youth and the promise of achievement. The boy is bathed in the glow of the fire\u2019s warmth with a glimmer of white light shining across his forehead, the center of knowledge and understanding. The older man is submerged in the cool shadows of the room. This carefully orchestrated play of warm and cool, of shadow and light, conveys that the success of future generations is built upon the legacy of previous ones. Bathed in muted cool tones of grays and blues, the grandfather is the past, the old America of slavery and The Civil War, of oppression, racism, and poverty, while the boy, caught in the warm glow of the fire\u2019s light, is the new America, of renewed opportunities, advancement, education, and new beginnings.\r\n<h3 id=\"banjos-minstrel-shows-and-stereotypes-of-african-americans\">Banjos, minstrel shows, and stereotypes of African Americans<\/h3>\r\nCertainly Tanner would have seen a great deal of his own life played out in this tender scene. As the educated son of a former slave and a minister and abolitionist, Tanner was always striving to live up to his potential as an artist in the post-Civil War, post-Reconstruction era America. It is also important that the instrument that leads the boy towards enlightenment is the banjo, an instrument highly significant to African American slave culture and the music of the American South. The banjo evolved from the gourd instruments of Africa and the West Indies and became integral to the music of enslaved people throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.\r\n\r\nBy Tanner\u2019s time, it was a mainstay of minstrel shows, popular variety entertainment that featured white actors in blackface performing songs and skits. In minstrel shows, it was the custom to portray African Americans as boisterous, jaunty, buffoonish, and dim-witted. This portrayal fed into the preconceived notions of white racial superiority\u2014that African Americans, even if they were no longer slaves, would still be infantile and incapable of self-determined action or remarkable achievements. The entire visual and popular culture of Uncle Tom imagery and minstrel shows were part of the pernicious psychological chains of slavery that persisted in America throughout much of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The shows also depicted African Americans as having an innate musicality, which acknowledged their talent but undermined their intelligence.\r\n\r\nFor Tanner, painting this image of generational torch-passing, was a way of debunking the entrenched derogatory stereotypes of African Americans propagated by minstrel shows. In Tanner\u2019s painting we see the grandfather and the boy as intelligent, noble, graceful people engaged in an intimate act of sharing creative knowledge. Their lesson becomes emblematic of the larger African American journey of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, from Emancipation,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/seeing-america-2\/antebellum-america-civil-war-and-reconstruction\/\">Reconstruction<\/a>, the terrors and injustices of the Jim Crow laws, the exodus of the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/smarthistory.org\/jacob-lawrence-the-migration-series\/\">Great Migration<\/a>, and the foment and dynamism of the Harlem Renaissance.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"1056\"]<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/AB_2020_16-Tanner_Web.jpg\"><img src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/AB_2020_16-Tanner_Web.jpg\" alt=\"Painting depicting an elderly man and a young boy sitting at a table with a tablecloth, cups, plates, and a pitcher, engaged in a quiet moment. Soft lighting highlights their contemplative expressions and the simple, modest setting, emphasizing themes of reflection and connection.\" width=\"1056\" height=\"828\" \/><\/a> Henry Ossawa Tanner, <em>The Thankful Poor<\/em>, 1894, oil on canvas, 90.3 x 112.5 cm (Art Bridges, Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:The_Thankful_Poor,_1894._Henry_Ossawa_Tanner.jpg\">Wikimedia<\/a>, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a> in the United States)[\/caption]\r\n<h3 id=\"an-american-artist\">An American artist<\/h3>\r\nAfter painting\u00a0<em>The Banjo Lesson<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0<em>The Thankful Poor\u00a0<\/em>(above), Tanner moved back to Paris where he would remain for most of his life. Tanner felt that France was less encumbered with the baggage of racial prejudice towards people of color than the United States. \u201cIn America, I\u2019m Henry Tanner, Negro artist, but in France, I\u2019m \u2018<em>Monsieur Tanner, l\u2019artiste am\u00e9ricaine.<\/em>\u2018\u201d[footnote]Marcia M. Matthews,\u00a0<em>Henry Ossawa Tanner: American Artist<\/em>\u00a0(University of Chicago Press, 1995) p. 90.[\/footnote]\r\n\r\nHis desire to be recognized by the quality of his talent would inspire him to paint prolifically throughout his life, traveling through the Middle East and North Africa in search of authentic imagery for biblical paintings that would become the hallmark of his later career.\u00a0When World War I was declared in Europe, Tanner enlisted in the Red Cross, serving as a medical volunteer as well as making numerous sketches and various paintings of the soldiers in France and Belgium. In 1923, he was awarded the Legion of Honour by the French government for his service during the war.\r\n\r\nBut it is\u00a0<em>The Banjo Lesson<\/em>\u00a0that has become the iconic painting of his entire career. Its economy of scale, its emotional delicacy, its nuanced orchestration of light and shadow and symbolism situates it in a resonant space in American art history. Both\u00a0<em>The Banjo Lesson<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0<em>The Thankful Poor<\/em>\u00a0were remarkable achievements for Tanner\u2014works that according to the art historian Judith Wilson, \u201cinvest their ordinary, underprivileged, Black subjects with a degree of dignity and self-possession that seems extraordinary for the times in which they were painted.\u201d[footnote]<a href=\"http:\/\/scholarworks.umass.edu\/cibs\/vol9\/iss1\/4\">Judith Wilson, \u201cLifting \u201cThe Veil\u201d: Henry O. Tanner\u2019s The Banjo Lesson and The Thankful Poor,\u201d Contributions in Black Studies, vol. 9, article 4 (1992)<\/a>[\/footnote] It is a testament to Tanner\u2019s vision as an artist, and his personal convictions as an African American, amid the possibilities offered by twentieth century, that these two paintings continue to speak so profoundly to us now.\r\n<h2 id=\"th-century-victorian-england-charles-barry-and-a.w.n.-pugin-palace-of-westminster-houses-of-parliament\">19<sup>th<\/sup> century Victorian England: Charles Barry and A.W.N. Pugin, Palace of Westminster (Houses of Parliament)<\/h2>\r\nUnsettled by industrialization and the ugliness of the modern world, Victorians looked back to the Gothic style. Barry and Pugin\u2019s design for the Houses of Parliament, while Gothic in style, was classically organized. Barry was also known for his renovations of elite homes. A master of the Gothic Revival, Catholic convert Pugin designed decorative crafts as well as buildings, publishing books advocating for Gothic style.\r\n\r\nhttps:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=7oBUIo5R5qg\r\n<h2 id=\"th-century-victorian-england-an-introduction-to-the-pre-raphaelites\">19<sup>th<\/sup> century Victorian England: An Introduction to The Pre-Raphaelites<\/h2>\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"870\"]<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/dezoomify-result-scaled.jpg\"><img src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/image233.jpeg\" alt=\"Hunt, The flight of Madeline and Porphyro during the drunkenness attending the revelry (The Eve of St. Agnes), painting depicting a dramatic indoor scene with multiple figures, including a woman in a purple dress embracing a man dressed in Renaissance-style clothing with a feathered hat and sword. The background features a group of people visible through arched windows, several dogs lying on the floor, and a fallen man in armor, highlighting themes of conflict and tension.\" width=\"870\" height=\"617\" \/><\/a> William Holman Hunt, <em>The flight of Madeline and Porphyro during the drunkenness attending the revelry (The Eve of St. Agnes)<\/em>, smaller version of the painting exhibited at the Royal Academy, begun as a sketch, 1847\u201357, oil on panel, 355 x 252 cm (<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20090507004507\/http:\/www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk\/walker\/collections\/19c\/eve_of_stagnes.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool<\/a>, Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:William_Holman_Hunt_-_The_flight_of_Madeline_and_Porphyro_during_the_drunkenness_attending_the_revelry_(The_Eve_of_St._Agnes)_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg\">Wikimedia<\/a>, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a>)[\/caption]\r\n<h3 id=\"at-first-they-were-three\">At first they were three<\/h3>\r\nDuring a visit to the\u00a0Royal Academy\u00a0exhibition of 1848, the young artist and poet Dante Gabriel Rossetti was drawn to a painting entitled\u00a0<em>The Eve of Saint Agnes<\/em>\u00a0by William Holman Hunt. As a subject taken from the poetry of John Keats was a rarity at the time, Rossetti sought out Hunt, and the two quickly became friends. Hunt then introduced Rossetti to his friend John Everett Millais, and the rest, as they say, is history. The trio went on to form the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, a group determined to reform the artistic establishment of Victorian England (1837\u20131901).\r\n<h3 id=\"looking-back-to-look-forward\">Looking back to look forward<\/h3>\r\nThe name \u201cPre-Raphaelite Brotherhood\u201d (PRB) hints at the vaguely medieval subject matter for which the group is known. The young artists appreciated the simplicity of line and large flat areas of brilliant color found in the early Italian painters before\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/raphael-introduction\/\">Raphael<\/a>, as well as in\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/flanders\/\">15th century Flemish art<\/a>. These were not qualities favored by the more academic approach taught at the Royal Academy during the mid-19th century, which stressed the strong light and dark shading of the\u00a0Old Masters. Another source of inspiration for the young artists was the writing of art critic\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/millais-portrait-of-john-ruskin\/\">John Ruskin<\/a>, particularly the famous passage from\u00a0<em>Modern Painters<\/em>\u00a0telling artists\r\n\r\n\u201cto go to nature in all singleness of heart . . . rejecting nothing, selecting nothing and scorning nothing.[footnote]John Ruskin,\u00a0<em>Modern Painters<\/em>, 1843.[\/footnote]\u201d\r\n\r\nThis combination of influences contributed to the group\u2019s extreme attention to detail, and the development of the\u00a0wet white ground technique\u00a0that produced the brilliant color for which they are known. The artists even became some of the first to complete sections of their canvases outdoors in an effort to capture the minute detail of every leaf and blade of grass.\r\n<h3 id=\"and-then-they-were-seven\">And then they were seven<\/h3>\r\nIt was decided that seven was the appropriate number for a rebellious group and four others were added to form the initial Brotherhood. The selection of additional members has long mystified art historians. James Collinson, a painter, seems to have been added due to his short-lived engagement to Rossetti\u2019s sister Christina rather than his sympathy with the cause. Another member, Thomas Woolner, was a sculptor rather than a painter. The final two members, William Michael Rossetti and Frederic George Stephens, both of whom went on to become art critics, were not practicing artists. However, other young artists such as Walter Howell Deverell and Charles Collins embraced the ideals of the PRB even though they were never formally elected as members.\r\n<h3 id=\"the-prb-goes-public\">The PRB goes public<\/h3>\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"2560\"]<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/isabella2-scaled.jpg\"><img src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/isabella2-scaled-1.jpg\" alt=\"John Everett Millais, Isabella, painting depicting a group of people gathered around a table, engaged in conversation and dining. The scene features detailed period clothing, a richly patterned wallpaper background, and a dog sitting near a woman in a gray dress, highlighting social interaction.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1806\" \/><\/a> John Everett Millais, <em>Isabella,<\/em> 1848\u201349, oil on canvas, 103 x 142.8 cm (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk\/artifact\/isabella\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool<\/a>; photo:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/flic.kr\/p\/2o9Cw9C\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Steven Zucker<\/a>, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)[\/caption]\r\n\r\nThe Pre-Raphaelites decided to make their debut by sending a group of paintings, all bearing the initials \u201cPRB\u201d, to the Royal Academy in 1849. However, Rossetti, who was nervous about the reception of his painting\u00a0<em>The Girlhood of Mary Virgin<\/em>, changed his mind and instead sent his painting to the earlier Free Exhibition (meaning there was no jury as there was at the Royal Academy). At the Royal Academy, Hunt exhibited\u00a0<em>Rienzi, the Last of the Tribunes<\/em>, a scene from a historical novel of the same name by Edward Bulwer-Lytton. Millais exhibited\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/millais-isabella\/\"><em>Isabella<\/em><\/a>, another subject from Keats, created with such attention to detail that one can actually see the beheading scene on the plate nearest the edge of the table, which echoes the ultimate fate of the young lover Lorenzo in the story. In both paintings, the accurately designed medieval costumes, bright colors and attention to detail produced criticism that the paintings mimicked a \u201cmediaeval illumination of the chronicle or the romance.\u201d [footnote]<a href=\"https:\/\/hdl.handle.net\/2027\/umn.31951001922948s\"><em>Athenaeum<\/em><\/a>, 2 June 1849, p. 575.[\/footnote] Interestingly, no mention was made of the mysterious \u201cPRB\u201d inscription.\r\n<h3 id=\"critical-reaction\">Critical reaction<\/h3>\r\nIn 1850, however, the reaction to the PRB was very different. By this time, many people knew about the existence of the supposedly secret society, in part because the group had published many of their ideas in a short-lived literary magazine entitled\u00a0<em>The Germ<\/em>. Rossetti\u2019s\u00a0<em><a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/rossetti-ecce-ancilla-domini\/\">Ecce Ancilla Domini<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>appeared at the Free Exhibition along with a painting by his friend Deverell entitled\u00a0<em>Twelfth Night<\/em>. At the Royal Academy, Hunt\u2019s<em>\u00a0A Converted British Family Sheltering a Christian Priest from the Persecution of the Druids<\/em>\u00a0and Millais\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/millais-christ-in-the-house-of-his-parents\/\"><em>Christ in the House of his Parents<\/em><\/a>, famously abused by Charles Dickens, received the brunt of the criticism. [footnote]Charles Dickens, in his magazine\u00a0<em>Household Words<\/em>\u00a0in June 1850 described Christ as a \u201chideous, wry-necked, blubbering, red-haired boy in a nightgown, who appears to have received a poke playing in an adjacent gutter, and to be holding it up for the contemplation of a kneeling woman, so horrible in her ugliness that (supposing it were possible for any human creature to exist for a moment with that dislocated throat) she would stand out from the rest of the company as a monster in the vilest cabaret in France or in the lowest gin-shop in England.\u201d[\/footnote]\u00a0In the aftermath of the humiliating reception of their work, Collinson resigned from the group and Rossetti decided never again to exhibit publicly.\r\n<h3 id=\"ruskin-to-the-rescue\">Ruskin to the rescue<\/h3>\r\nUndeterred, Millais and Hunt again continued to exhibit paintings demonstrating the beautiful colors and detail orientation of the mature style of the PRB. The Royal Academy of 1851 included Hunt\u2019s<em>\u00a0Valentine Rescuing Sylvia<\/em>, and three pictures by Millais,\u00a0<em>Mariana<\/em>,\u00a0<em>The Woodman\u2019s Daughter<\/em>, and\u00a0<em>The Return of the Dove to the Ark\u00a0<\/em>as well as\u00a0<em>Convent Thoughts<\/em>\u00a0by Millais\u2019s friend Charles Collins. Although many were still dubious about the new style, the critic John Ruskin came to the rescue of the group, publishing two letters in\u00a0<em>The Times<\/em>\u00a0newspaper in which he praised the relationship of the PRB to early Italian art. Although Ruskin was suspicious of what he termed the group\u2019s \u201cCatholic tendencies,\u201d he liked the attention to detail and the color of the PRB paintings. Ruskin\u2019s praise helped catapult the young artists to a new level.\r\n<h3 id=\"the-dissolution-of-the-prb\">The dissolution of the PRB<\/h3>\r\nThe Brotherhood, however, was slowly dissolving. Woolner emigrated to Australia in 1852. Hunt decided in January 1854 to visit the\u00a0Holy Land\u00a0in order to better paint religious pictures. And, in an event Rossetti described as the formal end of the PRB, Millais was elected as an Associate of the Royal Academy in 1853, joining the art establishment he had fought hard to change.\r\n<h3 id=\"lasting-impact\">Lasting impact<\/h3>\r\nDespite the fact that the Brotherhood lasted only a few short years, its impact was immense. Millais and Hunt both went on to establish important places for themselves in the Victorian art world. Millais was to go on to become an extremely popular artist, selling his artworks for vast sums of money, and ultimately being elected as the President of the Royal Academy. Hunt, who perhaps stayed most true to the Pre-Raphaelite aesthetic, became a well-known artist and wrote many articles and books on the formation of the Brotherhood.\r\n\r\nRossetti became a mentor to a group of younger artists including Edward Burne-Jones and William Morris, founder of the Arts and Crafts Movement. Rossetti\u2019s paintings of beautiful women also helped inaugurate the new\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/the-aesthetic-movement\/\">Aesthetic Movement<\/a>, or the taste for Art for Art\u2019s Sake, in the later Victorian era.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"1181\"]<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/SC219191-1.jpg\"><img src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/SC219191-1.jpg\" alt=\"Rossetti, Bocca Baciata (Lips That Have Been Kissed), painting depicting a person with long, wavy red hair adorned with a white flower and gold accessories. The subject wears a dark garment with gold details and holds a small flower, set against a floral background with yellow blossoms.\" width=\"1181\" height=\"1429\" \/><\/a> Dante Gabriel Rossetti, <em>Bocca Baciata (Lips That Have Been Kissed)<\/em>, 1859, oil on panel, 32.1 x 27 cm (<a href=\"https:\/\/collections.mfa.org\/objects\/34360\/bocca-baciata-lips-that-have-been-kissed?ctx=9adf746d-f922-4c3f-943e-2ca05d126695&amp;idx=0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Museum of Fine Arts, Boston<\/a>, Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Bocca_Baciata,_by_Dante_Gabriel_Rossetti.jpg\">Wikimedia<\/a>, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a> in the United States)[\/caption]\r\n\r\nTo a contemporary audience, the Pre-Raphaelites may appear less than modern. However, in their own time the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood accomplished something revolutionary. They were one of the first groups to value painting out-of-doors for its \u201ctruth to nature,\u201d and their concept of banding together to take on the art establishment helped to pave the way for later groups. The distinctive elements of their paintings, such as the extreme attention to detail, the brilliant colors and the beautiful rendition of literary subjects set them apart from other Victorian painters.\r\n<h2 id=\"conclusion-8\">Conclusion<\/h2>\r\nIn the early to mid-19<sup>th<\/sup> century, some artistic movements returned to the past. The Gothic Revival style of architecture and the Pre-Raphaelites, both from Victorian England, took inspiration from previous movements apart from the modern world. However, there was no denying the modern world had to come into existence. The styles of Romanticism and Realism began to create for a new \u201cmodern\u201d audience. In a world shaped by industrialization, capitalism, secularism, and technology, artists of the avant-garde began to challenge established conventions of art. Even new artistic technologies, such as the medium of photography, encouraged artists to experiment and explore new mediums and ways of representing a rapidly changing world.\r\n<h3 id=\"citation-and-licensing-8\">Citation and Licensing<\/h3>\r\nThe following sections were written by Chelsea Wright and licensed <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-sa\/4.0\/\">CC BY-NC-SA 4.0<\/a>:\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>Chapter Overview and Introduction<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Focus artwork and term list compiled by Chelsea Wright<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Practicing Visual Analysis<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Conclusion<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\nThe following articles from <em>Smarthistory<\/em> licensed <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-sa\/4.0\/\">CC BY-NC-SA 4.0<\/a> were remixed and adapted for the chapter:\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>Dr. Bryan Zygmont, \"<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/ingres-napoleon-on-his-imperial-throne\/\">Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres,\u00a0<em>Napoleon on His Imperial Throne<\/em><\/a>,\" in\u00a0<em>Smarthistory<\/em>, November 29, 2015.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker, \"<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/early-modern-era-18th-century\/\">The Early Modern era: the 18th century (4 of 4),<\/a>\" in\u00a0<em>Smarthistory<\/em>, January 15, 2025.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Dr. Bryan Zygmont, \"<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/painting-colonial-culture-ingress-la-grande-odalisque\/\">Painting colonial culture: Ingres\u2019s\u00a0<em>La Grande Odalisque<\/em><\/a>,\" in\u00a0<em>Smarthistory<\/em>, August 9, 2015.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Dr. Nancy Demerdash, \"<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/orientalism\/\">Orientalism<\/a>,\" in\u00a0<em>Smarthistory<\/em>, June 2, 2015.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker, \"<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/a-beginners-guide-to-romanticism\/\">Romanticism, an introduction<\/a>,\" in\u00a0<em>Smarthistory<\/em>, August 8, 2015.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Dr. Bryan Zygmont, \"<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/delacroix-liberty-leading-the-people\/\">Eug\u00e8ne Delacroix,\u00a0<em>Liberty Leading the People<\/em><\/a>,\" in\u00a0<em>Smarthistory<\/em>, November 22, 2015.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Dr. Claire Black McCoy, \"<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/theodore-gericault-raft-of-the-medusa\/\">Th\u00e9odore G\u00e9ricault,\u00a0<em>Raft of the Medusa<\/em><\/a>,\" in\u00a0<em>Smarthistory<\/em>, May 27, 2021.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Dr. Sarah C. Schaefer, \"<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/goya-the-sleep-of-reason-produces-monsters\/\">Francisco Goya,\u00a0<em>The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters<\/em><\/a>,\" in\u00a0<em>Smarthistory<\/em>, August 9, 2015.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Christine Zappella, \"<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/goya-third-of-may-1808\/\">Francisco Goya,\u00a0<em>The Third of May, 1808<\/em><\/a>,\" in\u00a0<em>Smarthistory<\/em>, August 9, 2015.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Smarthistory, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/artist\/j-m-w-turner\/\">JMW Turner<\/a>,\u201d in\u00a0<em>Smarthistory<\/em>.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Lori Landay and Dr. Beth Harris, \"<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/j-m-w-turner-slave-ship\/\">J. M. W. Turner,\u00a0<em>Slave Ship<\/em><\/a>,\" in\u00a0<em>Smarthistory<\/em>, December 9, 2015.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Dr. Alissa Adams, \"<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/jmw-turner-snowstorm-hannibal-army-crossing-alps\/\">J.M.W. Turner,\u00a0<em>Snowstorm: Hannibal and his Army Crossing the Alps<\/em><\/a>,\" in\u00a0<em>Smarthistory<\/em>, April 18, 2024.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Dr. Beth Gersh-Nesic, \"<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/a-beginners-guide-to-realism\/\">Realism, an introduction<\/a>,\" in\u00a0<em>Smarthistory<\/em>, August 9, 2015.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Dr. Parme Giuntini, \"<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/becoming-modern-an-introduction\/\">Becoming modern in 19th-century Europe, an introduction<\/a>,\" in\u00a0<em>Smarthistory<\/em>, August 8, 2015.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker, \"<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/courbet-the-stonebreakers\/\">Gustave Courbet,\u00a0<em>The Stonebreakers<\/em><\/a>,\" in\u00a0<em>Smarthistory<\/em>, August 9, 2015.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Smarthistory, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/artist\/edouard-manet\/\">\u00c9douard Manet<\/a>,\u201d in\u00a0<em>Smarthistory<\/em>.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Dr. Thomas Folland, \"<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/edouard-manet-olympia\/\">\u00c9douard Manet,\u00a0<em>Olympia<\/em><\/a>,\" in\u00a0<em>Smarthistory<\/em>, December 9, 2015.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Dr. Rebecca Jeffrey Easby, \"<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/early-photography-niepce-talbot-and-muybridge\/\">Early photography: Ni\u00e9pce, Talbot, and Muybridge<\/a>,\" in\u00a0<em>Smarthistory<\/em>, August 9, 2015.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Smarthistory, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/artist\/thomas-eakins\/\">Thomas Eakins<\/a>,\u201d in\u00a0<em>Smarthistory<\/em>.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Meg Floryan, \"<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/eakins-the-gross-clinic\/\">Thomas Eakins,\u00a0<em>The Gross Clinic<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0<em>The Agnew Clinic<\/em><\/a>,\" in\u00a0<em>Smarthistory<\/em>, August 9, 2015.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Farisa Khalid, \"<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/tanner-banjo\/\">Henry Ossawa Tanner,\u00a0<em>The Banjo Lesson<\/em><\/a>,\" in\u00a0<em>Smarthistory<\/em>, September 9, 2016.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Smarthistory, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/artist\/charles-barry\/\">Charles Barry<\/a>,\u201d in\u00a0<em>Smarthistory<\/em>.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Smarthistory, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/artist\/a-w-n-pugin\/\">A.W.N. Pugin<\/a>,\u201d in\u00a0<em>Smarthistory<\/em>.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker, \"<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/barry-pugin-parliament\/\">Charles Barry and A.W.N. Pugin, Palace of Westminster (Houses of Parliament)<\/a>,\" in\u00a0<em>Smarthistory<\/em>, December 11, 2015.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Dr. Rebecca Jeffrey Easby, \"<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/a-beginners-guide-to-the-pre-raphaelites\/\">The Pre-Raphaelites, an introduction<\/a>,\" in\u00a0<em>Smarthistory<\/em>, August 9, 2015.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>","rendered":"<h2 id=\"chapter-overview-and-introduction-8\">Chapter Overview and Introduction<\/h2>\n<p>In the early 19<sup>th<\/sup> century, the Neoclassical style was still prominent, particularly under Napoleon\u2019s authority and the stylistic dominance of Jacques-Louis David. However, two new styles developed in the early to mid-19<sup>th<\/sup> century in rejection of the cool logic of the Neoclassical: Romanticism and Realism. The styles of Romanticism and Realism correspond to major historical and societal shifts in the 19<sup>th<\/sup> century (1800-1900). The status of the artist began to change and the concept of \u201cmodern\u201d emerged. Romanticism as a movement introduced the theme of social justice into the visual arts along with new ways of representing the natural world. In the mid-19<sup>th<\/sup> century, Realism turned to focus on labor and the working class. With Realism, the avant-garde was born and new forms of subject matter and technique emerged, including American Realism. The 19<sup>th<\/sup> century also introduced the revolutionary medium of photography.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"focus-artworks-8\">Focus Artworks<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres,\u00a0<em>Napoleon on his Imperial Throne<\/em>, 1806, oil on canvas<\/li>\n<li>Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres,\u00a0<em>La Grande Odalisque<\/em>, 1814, oil on canvas<\/li>\n<li>Eug\u00e8ne Delacroix,\u00a0<em>Liberty Leading the People<\/em>\u00a0(July 28, 1830), September\u2013December 1830, oil on canvas<\/li>\n<li>Th\u00e9odore Gericault,\u00a0<em>Raft of the Medusa,\u00a0<\/em>1818-1819, oil on canvas<\/li>\n<li>Francisco Goya, Plate 43,\u00a0<em>The sleep of reason produces monsters<\/em>\u00a0from<em>\u00a0Los Caprichos<\/em>, 1799, etching, aquatint, drypoint, and burin<\/li>\n<li>Francisco Goya,\u00a0<em>The Third of<\/em>\u00a0<em>May\u00a01808<\/em>\u00a0<em>in Madrid or \u201cThe Executions,\u201d<\/em>\u00a01814, oil on canvas<\/li>\n<li>Joseph Mallord William Turner,\u00a0<em>The Slave Ship<\/em>, 1840, oil on canvas<\/li>\n<li>Gustave Courbet,\u00a0<em>The Stone Breakers,\u00a0<\/em>1849, oil on canvas<\/li>\n<li>\u00c9douard Manet,\u00a0<em>Olympia<\/em>, 1863, oil on canvas<\/li>\n<li>Joseph Nic\u00e9phore Ni\u00e9pce,\u00a0<em>View from the Window at Gras<\/em>, 1826, heliograph<\/li>\n<li>Henry Ossawa Tanner,\u00a0<em>The Banjo Lesson<\/em>, 1893, oil on canvas<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3 id=\"term-list-8\">Term List<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Romanticism<\/li>\n<li>Napoleonic Wars<\/li>\n<li>Odalisque<\/li>\n<li>Orientalism<\/li>\n<li>Poussinists<\/li>\n<li>Rubenists<\/li>\n<li>Aquatint<\/li>\n<li>Sublime<\/li>\n<li>Beautiful<\/li>\n<li>Picturesque<\/li>\n<li>Realism<\/li>\n<li>Industrial Revolution<\/li>\n<li><em>The Communist Manifesto<\/em><\/li>\n<li>Modern<\/li>\n<li>Capitalism<\/li>\n<li>Avant-garde<\/li>\n<li>Photography<\/li>\n<li>Daguerreotype<\/li>\n<li>Calotype<\/li>\n<li>Collodion<\/li>\n<li>Pre-Raphaelites<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2 id=\"jean-auguste-dominique-ingres-napoleon-on-his-imperial-throne\">Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres,\u00a0<em>Napoleon on His Imperial Throne<\/em><\/h2>\n<figure id=\"attachment_3462\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3462\" style=\"width: 204px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-3462 size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/50966797762_f48aa3ebba_k-204x300.jpg\" alt=\"Ingres, Napoleon on his Imperial Throne, painting depicting Napoleon seated on an ornate throne, dressed in luxurious robes and holding a scepter and staff. The painting features rich colors, intricate gold detailing, and a majestic pose symbolizing authority and power.\" width=\"204\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/50966797762_f48aa3ebba_k-204x300.jpg 204w, https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/50966797762_f48aa3ebba_k-696x1024.jpg 696w, https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/50966797762_f48aa3ebba_k-768x1130.jpg 768w, https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/50966797762_f48aa3ebba_k-1044x1536.jpg 1044w, https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/50966797762_f48aa3ebba_k-65x96.jpg 65w, https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/50966797762_f48aa3ebba_k-225x331.jpg 225w, https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/50966797762_f48aa3ebba_k-350x515.jpg 350w, https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/50966797762_f48aa3ebba_k.jpg 1392w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 204px) 100vw, 204px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-3462\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, <em>Napoleon on his Imperial Throne<\/em>, 1806, oil on canvas, 260 x 163 cm (Mus\u00e9e de l\u2019Arm\u00e9e, Paris; photo: <a href=\"https:\/\/flic.kr\/p\/2kDLajs\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Steven Zucker<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-sa\/2.0\/deed.en\">CC BY-NC-SA 2.0<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h3 id=\"napoleon-art-and-politics\">Napoleon, art, and politics<\/h3>\n<p>Few world leaders have had a better understanding of the ways in which visual art can do political work on their behalf than did Napoleon Bonaparte. From the time he ascended to power during the French Revolution until his ultimate removal from office in 1815, Napoleon utilized art (and artists) to speak to his political (and sometimes his military) might. One of the best-known images that serves this exact end is Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres\u2019s 1806 painting\u00a0<em>Napoleon on His Imperial Throne<\/em>. In this painting, Ingres shows Napoleon not only as an emperor of the France, but almost as if he were a divine ruler.<\/p>\n<p>One could say that with Napoleon\u2019s conquest of much of Europe, the old power centers of the church and the monarchy were replaced by more modern, more rational administrative systems. Though he ultimately declared himself emperor (1804), Napoleon wrote a code of laws and dissolved many monasteries and religious institutions. This was the culmination of anticlerical sentiment that was apparent during the Revolution, when so much religious art (associated as it was with the monarchy), was defaced and destroyed. The revolutionaries also looted collections and took control of historic and sacred sites and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/museums-politic-louvre\/\">the Louvre<\/a>\u00a0(once the royal palace) was remade as a public museum.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/napoleons-appropriation-of-italian-cultural-treasures\/\">Napoleon also confiscated<\/a>\u00a0(and just outright looted) art from across Europe and brought many of the finest works to Paris. Much, though not all of this, was returned when he was defeated.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"transforming-napoleon\">Transforming Napoleon<\/h3>\n<p>Shortly after the turn of the 19th century, Ingres was one of the rising stars and fresh voices of the French\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/neoclassicism-an-introduction\/\">Neoclassical movement<\/a>, an artistic style that was in part founded by Ingres\u2019s prestigious teacher, Jacques-Louis David. By 1806, David had painted Napoleon many times. Two of the most famous of these works are\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/jacques-louis-david-napoleon-crossing-the-alps\/\"><em>Napoleon Crossing the Alps<\/em><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/David-Napoleon-scaled.jpg\"><em>The Coronation of Napoleon<\/em><\/a>, the latter, a painting that is contemporary with Ingres\u2019s portrait. In both of these images, David went out of his way to glorify his patron. This, too, was one of Ingres\u2019s primary goals, and the portraitist utilized furniture, attire, and setting to transform Napoleon from a mere mortal to a powerful god.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 1197px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/no-frame-david-napoleon-full.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/no-frame-david-napoleon-full.jpg\" alt=\"David, Napoleon Crossing the Alps or Bonaparte at the St Bernard Pass, depicting Napoleon in military uniform riding a rearing white horse on a rocky mountain path. The scene features dramatic movement with flowing cape and detailed attire, highlighting a moment of leadership and determination.\" width=\"1197\" height=\"1406\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jacques-Louis David, <em>Napoleon Crossing the Alps<\/em> or <em>Bonaparte at the St Bernard Pass<\/em>, 1800\u201301, oil on canvas, 261 x 221 cm (Chateau de Malmaison, Rueil-Malmaison, Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:David_-_Napoleon_crossing_the_Alps_-_Malmaison2.jpg\">Wikimedia<\/a>, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h3 id=\"throne-and-armrest\">Throne and armrest<\/h3>\n<p>Napoleon sits on an imposing, round-backed, and gilded throne, one that is similar to those that God sits upon in Jan van Eyck\u2019s Flemish masterwork, the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/van-eyck-the-ghent-altarpiece\/\"><em>Ghent Altarpiece<\/em><\/a>. It\u2019s worth noting that, as a result of the Napoleonic Wars, the central panels of the<em>\u00a0Ghent Altarpiece,<\/em>\u00a0which include the image of God upon a throne, were in the Mus\u00e9e Napol\u00e9on (now the Louvre) when Ingres painted this portrait. The armrests in Ingres\u2019s portrait are made from pilasters that are topped with carved imperial eagles and highly polished ivory spheres.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"rug\">Rug<\/h3>\n<p>A similarly spread-winged imperial eagle appears on the rug in the foreground. Two\u00a0cartouches\u00a0can be seen on the left-hand side of the rug. The uppermost is the scales of justice (some have interpreted this as a symbol for the zodiac sign for Libra), and the second is a representation of Raphael\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Raphael_Madonna_della_seggiola.jpeg\"><em>Madonna della Seggiola<\/em><\/a>, an artist and painting Ingres particularly admired.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"crest\">Crest<\/h3>\n<p>One final ancillary element should be mentioned. On the back wall over Napoleon\u2019s left shoulder is a partially visible heraldic shield. The iconography for this crest, however, is not that of France, but is instead Italy and the Papal States. This visually ties the Emperor of the French to his position\u2014since 1805\u2014as the King of Italy.<\/p>\n<p>It is not only the throne that speaks to rulership. He unblinkingly faces the viewer. In addition, Napoleon is bedazzled in attire and accouterments of his authority. He wears a gilded laurel wreath on his head, a sign of rule (and more broadly, victory) since classical times.<\/p>\n<p>In his left hand, Napoleon supports a rod topped with the hand of justice, while with his right hand he grasps the scepter of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/charlemagne-part-1-of-2\/\">Charlemagne<\/a>. Indeed, Charlemagne was one of the rulers Napoleon most sought to emulate (one may recall that Charlemagne\u2019s name was incised on a rock in David\u2019s earlier\u00a0<em>Napoleon Crossing the Alps<\/em>). An extravagant medal from the\u00a0<em>L\u00e9gion d\u2019honneur<\/em>\u00a0hangs from the Emperor\u2019s shoulders by an intricate gold and jewel-encrusted chain.<\/p>\n<p>Although not immediately visible, a jewel-encrusted coronation sword hangs from his left hip. The reason why the sword\u2014one of the most recognizable symbols of rulership\u2014can hardly be seen is because of the extravagant nature of Napoleon\u2019s coronation robes. An immense ermine collar is under Napoleon\u2019s\u00a0<em>L\u00e9gion d\u2019honneur<\/em>\u00a0medal. Ermine\u2014a kind of short-tailed weasel\u2014have been used for ceremonial attire for centuries and are notable for their white winter coats that are accented with a black tip on their tail. Thus, each black tip on Napoleon\u2019s garments represents a separate animal. Clearly, then, Napoleon\u2019s ermine collar\u2014and the ermine lining under his gold-embroidered purple velvet robes\u2014has been made with dozens of pelts, a certain sign of opulence. The purple color of the garment was a deliberate choice, and has a long tradition as a hue restricted for imperial use. Indeed, Roman emperors had the exclusive right to wear purple, and it was through this tradition that Jesus also came to wear violet robes. All these elements\u2014throne, scepters, sword, wreath, ermine, purple, and velvet\u2014speak to Napoleon\u2019s position as Emperor.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"position\">Position<\/h3>\n<p>But it is not only what Napoleon wears. It is also how the emperor sits. In painting this portrait, Ingres borrowed from other well-known images of powerful male figures. Perhaps the most notable was a long-since-destroyed but still well-known image of Zeus (the ancient Greek God, king of the gods of Mount Olympus) that Phidias, one of the most famous Greek sculptors, made around 435 B.C.E. This \u201ctype\u201d showed Zeus seated, frontal, and with one arm raised while the other was more at rest. Indeed, this is the posture Jupiter takes in a slightly later Ingres painting,\u00a0<em>Jupiter and Thetis.<\/em>\u00a0Thus, Ingres is working in yet another rich visual tradition and, in doing so, seems to remove Napoleon Bonaparte from the ranks of the mortals of the earth and transforms him into a Greek or Roman god of Mount Olympus. Never once accused of modesty, there is no doubt that Napoleon approved of such a comparison.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_3464\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3464\" style=\"width: 240px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-3464 size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/Jupiter_y_Tetis_por_Dominique_Ingres-240x300.jpeg\" alt=\"A classical painting depicting a seated male figure draped in a pink robe holding a staff, with a kneeling female figure embracing him. The scene includes clouds, an eagle on the right, and intricate carvings on the throne, suggesting a mythological or divine context.\" width=\"240\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/Jupiter_y_Tetis_por_Dominique_Ingres-240x300.jpeg 240w, https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/Jupiter_y_Tetis_por_Dominique_Ingres-820x1024.jpeg 820w, https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/Jupiter_y_Tetis_por_Dominique_Ingres-768x959.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/Jupiter_y_Tetis_por_Dominique_Ingres-65x81.jpeg 65w, https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/Jupiter_y_Tetis_por_Dominique_Ingres-225x281.jpeg 225w, https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/Jupiter_y_Tetis_por_Dominique_Ingres-350x437.jpeg 350w, https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/Jupiter_y_Tetis_por_Dominique_Ingres.jpeg 1095w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 240px) 100vw, 240px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-3464\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, <em>Jupiter and Thetis<\/em>, 1811, oil on canvas, 32.7 x 26 cm (Mus\u00e9e Granet, Aix-en-Provence, Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:J%C3%BApiter_y_Tetis,_por_Dominique_Ingres.jpg\">Wikimedia<\/a>, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Looking at Ingres\u2019s\u00a0<em>Napoleon on His Imperial Throne<\/em>\u00a0is a visually overwhelming experience. Its colossal size (it measures 260 x 163 cm) and Neoclassical precision eloquently speak to Napoleon\u2019s political authority and military power. The low eye level\u2014about that of Napoleon\u2019s knees\u2014also indicates that the viewer is looking up at the seated ruler, as if kneeling before him. The sum total of this painting is not just the coronation of Napoleon but almost his divine apotheosis. Ingres shows him not just as a ruler, but as an omnipotent immortal.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"painting-colonial-culture-ingress-la-grande-odalisque\">Painting colonial culture: Ingres\u2019s\u00a0<em>La Grande Odalisque<\/em><\/h2>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" id=\"oembed-2\" title=\"Ingres, La Grande Odalisque\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/PPwz3iaT71M?feature=oembed&#38;rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_3465\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3465\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-3465 size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/IngresOdalisque-300x168.jpg\" alt=\"Ingres, La Grande Odalisque, painting featuring a reclining female nude viewed from the backside. The elongated figure wears fabric wrapped around her head and holds a peacock feather duster while looking out at the viewer.\" width=\"300\" height=\"168\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/IngresOdalisque-300x168.jpg 300w, https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/IngresOdalisque-1024x575.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/IngresOdalisque-768x431.jpg 768w, https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/IngresOdalisque-1536x862.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/IngresOdalisque-65x36.jpg 65w, https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/IngresOdalisque-225x126.jpg 225w, https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/IngresOdalisque-350x196.jpg 350w, https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/IngresOdalisque.jpg 1932w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-3465\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, <em>La Grande Odalisque<\/em>, 1814, oil on canvas, 91 x 162 cm (Louvre, Paris; photo: (Louvre, Paris; photo:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/flic.kr\/p\/2kGBiVF\">Steven Zucker<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-sa\/2.0\/deed.en\">CC BY-NC-SA 2.0<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h3 id=\"a-quick-study\">A quick study<\/h3>\n<p>Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres\u00a0was an artist of immense importance during the first half of the nineteenth century. Ingres was a quick study. In 1797, at the tender age of 16 years, he won the Acad\u00e9mie Royale de Peinture, Sculpture et Architecture in Toulouse first prize in drawing. Clearly destined for great things, Ingres packed his trunks less than six months later and moved to Paris to begin his instruction in the studio of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/jacques-louis-david-oath-of-the-horatii\/\">Jacques-Louis David<\/a>, the most strident representative of the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/neoclassicism-an-introduction\/\">Neoclassical style<\/a>. David stressed to those he instructed the importance of drawing and studying from the nude model. In the years that followed, Ingres not only benefitted from David\u2019s instruction\u2014and the prestige and cach\u00e9 that such an honor bestowed\u2014but also learned from many of David\u2019s past students who frequented their former teacher\u2019s studio.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"the-rome-prizea-bright-future\">The Rome Prize\u2014a bright future<\/h3>\n<p>The Prix de Rome\u2014the Rome Prize\u2014was the most prestigious fellowship that the French government awarded to a student at the Paris \u00c9cole des Beaux-Arts (School of Fine Arts), the leading art school in France from its founding in 1663 until it was finally dissolved in 1968. The recipient of the\u00a0Prix de Rome was provided with a living stipend, studio space at the French Academy in Rome, and the opportunity to immerse themselves in Rome\u2019s classical ruins and the works of\u00a0Renaissance and Baroque masters. It promised to be a great five years for any aspiring artist. Joseph-Marie Vien, David\u2019s own teacher, had won the award in 1743. David won the award in 1774\u2014after four unsuccessful attempts. Ingres was formally admitted to the painting department of the \u00c9cole des Beaux-Arts in October 1799. The following year\u2014in only his first attempt\u2014Ingres\u00a0tied for second place. In 1801, his painting of\u00a0<em>The Ambassadors of Agamemnon in the Tent of Achilles<\/em>\u00a0won him the Prix de Rome. He turned 21 years old that August. Ingres had a bright future indeed.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"hierarchy-of-subjects\">Hierarchy of subjects<\/h3>\n<p>The Prix de Rome\u2014to say nothing of the instruction Ingres received within David\u2019s studio and at the \u00c9cole des Beaux-Arts\u2014reinforced the hierarchy of the subjects of painting that had been a foundational element of French art instruction for more than a century. Artists with the greatest skill aspired to complete grand manner history paintings. These were\u00a0immense compositions often depicting narratives from the classical past or from the Jewish and Christian Bibles. In addition to being large\u2014and expensive\u2014these works allowed the most accomplished and intellectually engaged artists to provide the art-viewing public with an important moral message\u2014an\u00a0<em>exemplum virtutis<\/em>\u00a0(an example of virtue). David\u2019s 1784 masterwork\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/jacques-louis-david-oath-of-the-horatii\/\"><em>Oath of the Horatii<\/em><\/a>\u00a0is\u00a0one such example.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"the-nude-and-not-the-classical-past\">The nude (and not the classical past)<\/h3>\n<p>By 1808, Ingres was beginning to walk on both sides of the neoclassical\/romantic divide.\u00a0In few works is a Neoclassical style fused with a romantic subject matter more clearly than in Ingres\u2019s 1814 painting\u00a0<em>La Grande Odalisque<\/em>. Ingres completed his time at the French Academy in Rome in 1810. Rather than immediately return to Paris however, he remained in the Eternal City and completed several large-scale history paintings. In 1814 he traveled to Naples and was employed by Caroline Murat, the Queen of Naples (who also happened to be Napoleon Bonaparte\u2019s sister). She commissioned\u00a0<em>La Grande Odalisque<\/em>, a composition that was intended to be a pendant to his earlier composition,\u00a0<em>Sleeper of Naples<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>At first glance, Ingres\u2019s subject matter is of the most traditional sort. Certainly, the reclining female nude had been a common subject matter for centuries.\u00a0Ingres was working within a visual tradition that included artists such as Giorgione (<em>Sleeping Venus<\/em>, 1510), Titian (<a href=\"http:\/\/smarthistory.org\/titian-venus-of-urbino\/\"><em>Venus of Urbino<\/em><\/a>, 1538) and Velazquez (<em>Rokeby Venus<\/em>, 1647-51). But the titles for all three of those paintings have one word in common: Venus. Indeed, it was common to cloak paintings of the female nude in the disguise of classical mythology.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 2560px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Giorgione_-_Sleeping_Venus_-_Google_Art_Project_2.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/Giorgione_-_Sleeping_Venus_-_Google_Art_Project_2.jpeg\" alt=\"Giorgione, Sleeping Venus, painting of a reclining female nude sleeping in the foreground with a village scene and mountain scene in the background.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1577\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Giorgione, <em>Sleeping Venus<\/em>, c. 1510, oil on canvas, 108.5 x 175 cm (Gem\u00e4ldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden, Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/File:Giorgione_-_Sleeping_Venus_-_Google_Art_Project_2.jpg\">Wikimedia<\/a>, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Ingres (and Goya, who was working within a similar vein with his\u00a0<em>La Maja Desnuda<\/em>)\u00a0refused to disguise who and what his female figure was. She was not the Roman goddess of love and beauty. Instead, she was an odalisque, a concubine who lived in a harem and existed for the sexual pleasure of the sultan.<\/p>\n<p>In his painting\u00a0<em>La Grande Odalisque\u00a0<\/em>(below), Ingres transports the viewer to the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/orientalism-2\/\">Orient<\/a>, a far-away land for a Parisian audience in the second decade of the nineteenth century (in this context, \u201cOrient\u201d\u00a0means Near East more so than the Far East). The woman\u2014who wears nothing other than jewelry and a turban\u2014lies on a divan, her back to the viewer. She seemingly peeks over her shoulder, as if to look at someone who has just entered her room, a space that is luxuriously appointed with fine damask and satin fabrics. She wears what appears to be a ruby and pearl encrusted broach in her hair and a gold bracelet on her right wrist. In her right hand she holds a peacock fan, another symbol of affluence, and another piece of metalwork\u2014a facedown bejeweled mirror, perhaps?\u2014can be seen along the lower left edge of the painting.<\/p>\n<p>Along the right side of the composition we see a hookah, a kind of pipe that was used for smoking tobacco, hashish and opium. All of these Oriental elements\u2014fabric, turban, fan, hookah\u2014did the same thing for Ingres\u2019s odalisque as\u00a0Titian\u2019s Venetian courtesan being labeled \u201cVenus\u201d\u2014that is,\u00a0it provided a distance that allowed the (male) viewer to safely gaze at the female nude who primarily existed for his enjoyment.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_3466\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3466\" style=\"width: 236px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-3466 size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/IngresOdalHookah-236x300.jpg\" alt=\"Hookah (detail), Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, La Grande Odalisque, showing the figure's foot overlapped in front of a hookah. The detail scene is set in front of a patterned blue cloth.\" width=\"236\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/IngresOdalHookah-236x300.jpg 236w, https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/IngresOdalHookah-65x82.jpg 65w, https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/IngresOdalHookah-225x285.jpg 225w, https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/IngresOdalHookah-350x444.jpg 350w, https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/IngresOdalHookah.jpg 517w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 236px) 100vw, 236px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-3466\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Hookah (detail), Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, <em>La Grande Odalisque<\/em>, 1814, oil on canvas, 91 x 162 cm (Louvre, Paris; photo: <a href=\"https:\/\/flic.kr\/p\/2kGBjhN\">Steven Zucker<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-sa\/2.0\/deed.en\">CC BY-NC-SA 2.0<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h3 id=\"orientalism\">Orientalism<\/h3>\n<p>Snake charmers, carpet vendors, and veiled women\u00a0may conjure up ideas of the Middle East, North Africa, and West Asia, but they are also partially indebted to Orientalist fantasies. To understand these images, we have to understand the concept of Orientalism, beginning with the word \u201cOrient\u201d itself. In its original medieval usage, the \u201cOrient\u201d referred to the \u201cEast,\u201d but whose \u201cEast\u201d did this Orient represent? East of where?<\/p>\n<p>We understand now that this designation reflects a Western European view of the \u201cEast,\u201d and not necessarily the views of the inhabitants of these areas. We also realize today that the label of the \u201cOrient\u201d hardly captures the wide swath of territory to which it originally referred: the Middle East, North Africa, and Asia. These\u00a0are at once distinct, contrasting, and yet interconnected regions. Scholars often link visual examples of\u00a0Orientalism alongside the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/a-beginners-guide-to-romanticism\/\">Romantic<\/a>\u00a0literature and\u00a0music of the early nineteenth century, a period of rising imperialism and tourism when Western artists traveled widely to the Middle East, North Africa, and Asia. We now understand that the world has been interconnected for much longer than we initially acknowledged and we can see elements of Orientalist representation much earlier\u2014for example, in religious objects of the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/what-were-the-crusades-1-of-4\/\">Crusades<\/a>, or Gentile Bellini\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/gentile-bellini-portrait-of-sultan-mehmed-ii\/\">painting\u00a0of the Ottoman sultan\u00a0(ruler) Mehmed II<\/a>, or in the arabesques (flowing\u00a0s-shaped\u00a0ornamental forms)\u00a0of early modern textiles.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"the-politics-of-orientalism\">The politics of Orientalism<\/h3>\n<p>In his groundbreaking 1978 text\u00a0<em>Orientalism<\/em>, the late cultural critic and theorist Edward Sa\u00efd argued\u00a0that a dominant\u00a0European political ideology created the notion of the Orient in order to subjugate and control it. Sa\u00efd explained\u00a0that the concept embodied distinctions between \u201cEast\u201d (the Orient) and \u201cWest\u201d (the Occident) precisely so the\u00a0\u201cWest\u201d\u00a0could control and authorize views of the \u201cEast.\u201d\u00a0For Sa\u00efd, this nexus of power and knowledge enabled the \u201cWest\u201d to generalize and misrepresent North Africa, the Middle East and Asia. Though his text has itself received considerable criticism, the book nevertheless remains a pioneering intervention. Sa\u00efd continues to influence many disciplines of cultural study, including the history of art.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"representing-the-orient\">Representing the \u201cOrient\u201d<\/h3>\n<p>As art historian Linda Nochlin argued in her widely read essay, \u201cThe Imaginary Orient,\u201d from 1983, the task of critical art history is to assess the power structures behind any work of art or artist. <a class=\"footnote\" title=\"Linda Nochlin, \u201cThe Imaginary Orient,\u201d\u00a0Art in\u00a0America, volume IXXI, number 5 (1983), pp. 118\u201331.\" id=\"return-footnote-3124-1\" href=\"#footnote-3124-1\" aria-label=\"Footnote 1\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[1]<\/sup><\/a> Following Nochlin\u2019s lead, art historians have questioned underlying power dynamics at play in the artistic representations of the \u201cOrient,\u201d many of them from the nineteenth century. In doing so, these scholars challenged not only the ways that the \u201cWest\u201d represented the \u201cEast,\u201d but they also complicate the long-held misconception of a unidirectional westward influence. Similarly, these scholars questioned how artists have represented people of the Orient as passive or licentious subjects.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"representing-the-nude\">Representing the Nude<\/h3>\n<p>When glancing at the painting, one can immediately see the linearity that was so important to David in particular, and the French neoclassical style more broadly. But when looking at the odalisque\u2019s body, the same viewer can also immediately notice how far Ingres has strayed from David\u2019s particular style of rendering the human form\u2014look for instance at her elongated back\u00a0and right arm. David was largely interested in idealizing the human body, rendering it not as it existed, but as he wished it did, in an anatomically perfect state.<\/p>\n<p>Students often stray from their teacher\u2019s instruction, however. In\u00a0<em>La Grande Odalisque<\/em>, Ingres rendered the female body in an exaggerated, almost unbelievable way. Much like the Mannerists centuries earlier\u2014Parmigianino\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/smarthistory.org\/parmigianino-madonna-of-the-long-neck\/\"><em>Madonna of the Long Neck<\/em><\/a>\u00a0(c. 1535) immediately comes to mind\u2014Ingres distorted the female form in order to make her body more sinuous and elegant. Her back seems to have two or three more vertebrae than are necessary, and it is anatomically unlikely that her lower left leg could meet with the knee in the middle of the painting, or that her left thigh attached to this knee could reach her hip. Clearly, this is not the female body as it really exists. It is the female body, perhaps, as Ingres wished it to be, at least for the composition of this painting. And in this regard, David and his student Ingres have attempted to achieve the same end\u2014idealization of the human form\u2014though each strove to do so in markedly different ways.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_3467\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3467\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-3467 size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/IngresOdalTorso-300x176.jpg\" alt=\"Torso (detail), Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, La Grande Odalisque, featuring the figure's elongated back and close up details of the yellow, white, and blue textured fabric.\" width=\"300\" height=\"176\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/IngresOdalTorso-300x176.jpg 300w, https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/IngresOdalTorso-1024x602.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/IngresOdalTorso-768x452.jpg 768w, https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/IngresOdalTorso-1536x903.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/IngresOdalTorso-65x38.jpg 65w, https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/IngresOdalTorso-225x132.jpg 225w, https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/IngresOdalTorso-350x206.jpg 350w, https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/IngresOdalTorso.jpg 1959w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-3467\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Torso (detail), Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, <em>La Grande Odalisque<\/em>, 1814, oil on canvas, 91 x 162 cm (Louvre, Paris; photo: <a href=\"https:\/\/flic.kr\/p\/2kGAGHa\">Steven Zucker<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-sa\/2.0\/deed.en\">CC BY-NC-SA 2.0<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>A brief comparison between teacher and student makes clear how far Ingres had strayed from the neoclassical path David had laid. In some ways,\u00a0<em>La Grande Odalisque<\/em>\u00a0is based upon David\u2019s 1800 portrait of\u00a0<em>Madame R\u00e9camier<\/em>.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 800px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/800px-David._Madame_Re%CC%81camier.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/800px-David._Madame_Recamier.jpg\" alt=\"Painting depicts a woman reclining on an ornate chaise lounge, dressed in a flowing white gown with a floral headpiece. Dark, minimalist background contrasts with detailed furniture and soft fabric textures, emphasizing calm and contemplative mood.\" width=\"800\" height=\"568\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jacques Louis David, <em>Portrait of Madame R\u00e9camier<\/em>, 1800, oil on canvas, 174 x 224 cm (Louvre, Paris, Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Madame_R%C3%A9camier_-_Jacques-Louis_David.jpg\">Wikimedia<\/a>, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Both images show a recumbent woman who peers over her shoulder to look at the viewer. David and Ingres utilize line in a similar way. However, David depicts R\u00e9camier at the height of neoclassical fashion, wearing an Empire waistline dress and an<em>\u00a0\u00e0 la grecque<\/em>\u00a0hairstyle. One gets the sense that there is real a body underneath that dress. In contrast, Ingres\u2019s odalisque is a naked \u201cother\u201d from the Orient, and no clothing could disguise the elongations and anatomical inaccuracies of her body. David remained a committed neoclassicist, while his former student retained his neoclassical line to embrace, in this case, a geographically distant and romantic subject. This tension between Neoclassicism and Romanticism will continue throughout the first half of the nineteenth century as painters will tend to side with either Ingres and his precise linearity or the painterly style of the younger painter\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/eugene-delacroix\/\">Eug\u00e8ne Delacroix<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"romanticism-an-introduction\">Romanticism, an introduction<\/h2>\n<figure style=\"width: 2560px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/RomanticismCover.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/RomanticismCover-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A dark, atmospheric painting depicting a desolate graveyard with leafless trees surrounding a ruined gothic structure. The scene features muted colors with a faint light source creating an eerie, somber mood.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1534\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Caspar David Friedrich, <em>Abbey in the Oak Forest<\/em>, 1809 or 1810, oil on canvas, 110.4 x 171 cm (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.smb-digital.de\/eMuseumPlus?service=ExternalInterface&amp;module=collection&amp;objectId=968249&amp;viewType=detailView\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlin<\/a>, Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Caspar_David_Friedrich_-_Abtei_im_Eichwald_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg\">Wikimedia<\/a>, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h3 id=\"th-century-stylistic-developments\">19th-century stylistic developments<\/h3>\n<p>As is fairly common with stylistic rubrics, the word \u201cRomanticism\u201d was not developed to describe the visual arts but was first used in relation to new literary and musical schools in the beginning of the 19th century. Art came under this heading only later. Think of the Romantic literature and musical compositions of the early 19th century: the poetry of Lord Byron, Percy Shelley, and William Wordsworth and the scores of Ludwig van Beethoven, Richard Strauss, and Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Chopin\u2014these Romantic poets and musicians associated with visual artists. A good example of this is the friendship between composer and pianist Chopin and painter\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/delacroix-liberty-leading-the-people\/\">Eug\u00e8ne Delacroix<\/a>. Romantic artists were concerned with the spectrum and intensity of human emotion.<\/p>\n<p>Even if you do not regularly listen to classical music, you\u2019ve heard plenty of music by these composers. In his epic film,\u00a0<em>2001: A Space Odyssey<\/em>, the late director Stanley Kubrick used Strauss\u2019 \u201cThus Spake Zarathustra\u201d (written in 1896, Strauss based his composition on Friedrich Nietzsche\u2019s book of the same name). Kubrick\u2019s\u00a0<em>A Clockwork Orange<\/em>\u00a0similarly uses the sweeping ecstasy and drama of Beethoven\u2019s Ninth Symphony, in this case to intensify the cinematic violence of the film.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 2560px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/ThirdofMay.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/ThirdofMay.jpeg\" alt=\"Goya's, The Third of May shows a group of unarmed people being prepared for execution by an anonymous group of gunmen. Loose brushwork and a dark atmosphere create a sense of a dread.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1953\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Francisco Goya, <em>The Third of May, 1808<\/em>, 1814\u201315, oil on canvas, 8\u2032 9\u2033 x 13\u2032 4\u2033 (Museo del Prado, Madrid, photo:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:El_tres_de_mayo_de_1808_en_Madrid.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Botaurus<\/a>, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Romantic music expressed the powerful drama of human emotion: anger and passion, but also quiet passages of pleasure and joy. So too, the French painter Eug\u00e8ne Delacroix and the Spanish artist\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/goya-third-of-may-1808\/\">Francisco Goya<\/a>\u00a0broke with the cool, cerebral idealism of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/jacques-louis-david-oath-of-the-horatii\/\">Jacques-Louis David<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/ingres-napoleon-on-his-imperial-throne\/\">Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres<\/a>\u2018\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/neoclassicism-an-introduction\/\">neoclassicism<\/a>. They sought instead to respond to the cataclysmic upheavals that characterized their era with line, color, and brushwork that was more physically direct and emotionally expressive.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"eug\u00e8ne-delacroix-liberty-leading-the-people\">Eug\u00e8ne Delacroix,\u00a0<em>Liberty Leading the People<\/em><\/h2>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" id=\"oembed-3\" title=\"Delacroix, Liberty Leading the People\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/6skizQlC-uU?feature=oembed&#38;rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3 id=\"poussinists-vs.-rubenists\">Poussinists vs. Rubenists<\/h3>\n<p>If Jacques-Louis David is the most perfect example of French Neoclassicism, and his most accomplished pupil Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, represents a transitional figure between Neoclassicism and Romanticism, then Eug\u00e8ne Delacroix stands (with, perhaps, Theodore Gericault) as the most representative painter of French romanticism.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 975px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/af7265e470f5e8c6a9f754933d44e50febcbffcc.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/af7265e470f5e8c6a9f754933d44e50febcbffcc.jpeg\" alt=\"Two side-by-side classical portrait paintings depict young men with serious expressions. The left portrait shows a man in a brown coat holding a paintbrush, while the right portrait features a man with curly hair and a mustache wearing a dark coat and green scarf.\" width=\"975\" height=\"600\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left: Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, <em>Self Portrait at the age of 24<\/em>, 1804 (Mus\u00e9e Cond\u00e9, Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Ingres,_Self-portrait.jpg\">Wikimedia<\/a>, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a>); right: Eug\u00e8ne Delacroix,\u00a0<em>Self-Portrait<\/em>, c. 1837 (Mus\u00e9e du Louvre, Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Eugene_delacroix.jpg\">Wikimedia<\/a>, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>French artists in early nineteenth century could be broadly placed into one of two different camps. The Neoclassically trained Ingres led the first group, a collection of artists called the Poussinists (named after the French baroque painter Nicolas Poussin). These artists relied on drawing and line for their compositions. The second group, the Rubenists (named in honor of the Flemish master Peter Paul Rubens), instead elevated color over line. By the time Delacroix was in his mid-20s\u2014that is, by 1823\u2014he was one of the leaders of the ascending French romantic movement.<\/p>\n<p>From an early age, Delacroix had received an exceptional education. He attended the Lyc\u00e9e Imperial in Paris, an institution noted for instruction in the Classics. While a student there, Delacroix was recognized for excellence in both drawing and Classics. In 1815\u2014at the age of only 17\u2014he began his formal art education in the studio of Pierre Gu\u00e9rin, a former winner of the prestigious\u00a0<em>Prix de Rome<\/em>\u00a0(Rome Prize) whose Parisian studio was considered a particular hotbed for romantic aesthetics. In fact, Theodore Gericault, who would soon become a romantic superstar with his\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/theodore-gericault-raft-of-the-medusa\/\"><em>Raft of the Medusa<\/em><\/a>\u00a0(1818\u201319), was still in Gu\u00e9rin\u2019s studio when Delacroix arrived in 1815. The young artist\u2019s innate skill and his teacher\u2019s able instruction were an excellent match and prepared Delacroix for his formal admission to the Ecole des Beaux-Arts (the School of Fine Arts) in 1816.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"liberty-leading-the-people\">Liberty Leading the People<\/h3>\n<figure style=\"width: 2560px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/dellibwholesm.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/dellibwholesm-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Delacroix, Liberty Leading the People (July 28, 1830) painting depicting a dramatic revolutionary scene with a central female figure holding a French flag, leading a diverse group of fighters over fallen bodies. The composition features dynamic poses, dark and muted colors contrasted with the bright flag, and a smoky, chaotic background symbolizing struggle and uprising.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"2014\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Eug\u00e8ne Delacroix, <em>Liberty Leading the People (July 28, 1830)<\/em>, September\u2013December 1830, oil on canvas, 260 x 325 cm (Mus\u00e9e du Louvre, Paris, Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:La_Libert%C3%A9_guidant_le_peuple_-_Eug%C3%A8ne_Delacroix_-_Mus%C3%A9e_du_Louvre_Peintures_RF_129_-_apr%C3%A8s_restauration_2024.jpg\">Wikimedia<\/a>, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Although Delacroix completed this painting during same year in which the event occurred, it is, at its core, a history painting. Indeed, Delacroix depicts an event from the July Revolution of 1830, an event that replaced the abdicated King Charles X (r. 1824\u201330)\u2014a member of the Bourbon family and the younger brother of the guillotined King Louis XVI (r. 1774\u20131792)\u2014with Louis Philippe I (r. 1830\u201348), the so-called Citizen King. This uprising of 1830 was the historical prelude to the June Rebellion of 1832, an event featured in Victor Hugo\u2019s famous novel,\u00a0<em>Les Mis\u00e9rables<\/em>\u00a0(1862), and the musical (1980) and films that followed. Anyone familiar with Claude-Michel Sch\u00f6nberg and Alain Boublil\u2019s musical can look at Delacroix\u2019s\u00a0<em>Liberty Leading the People<\/em>\u00a0and hear the lyrics of the song that serves as a call to revolution:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDo you hear the people sing? Singing a song of angry men? It is the music of a people. Who will not be slaves again.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 2560px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/libertyprofilesm.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/libertyprofilesm-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Liberty (detail), Eug\u00e8ne Delacroix, Liberty Leading the People (July 28, 1830), depicting a woman leading a group of revolutionaries, holding a flag in one hand and a pistol in the other, symbolizing liberty and resistance. The artwork features dramatic lighting, dynamic poses, and a background of smoke and battle, emphasizing themes of struggle and freedom.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1440\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Liberty (detail), Eug\u00e8ne Delacroix, <em>Liberty Leading the People (July 28, 1830)<\/em>, September\u2013December 1830, oil on canvas, 260 x 325 cm (Mus\u00e9e du Louvre, Paris, Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:La_Libert%C3%A9_guidant_le_peuple_-_Eug%C3%A8ne_Delacroix_-_Mus%C3%A9e_du_Louvre_Peintures_RF_129_-_apr%C3%A8s_restauration_2024.jpg\">Wikimedia<\/a>, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h3 id=\"liberty\">Liberty<\/h3>\n<p>Delacroix\u2019s painting,\u00a0<em>Liberty Leading the People,<\/em>\u00a0at first seems to be overpowered by chaos, but on closer inspection, it is a composition filled with subtle order. The first thing a viewer may notice is the monumental\u2014and nude to the waist\u2014female figure. Her yellow dress has fallen from her shoulders, as she holds a bayonetted musket in her left hand and raises the tricolor\u2014the French national flag\u2014with her right. This red, white, and blue arrangement of the flag is mimicked by the attire worn by the man looking up at her. She powerfully strides forward and looks back over her right shoulder as if to ensure those who she leads are following. Her head is shown in profile\u2014like a ruler on a classical coin\u2014and she wears atop her head a Phrygian cap, a classical signifier of freedom. This is an important bit of costuming\u2014in ancient Rome, freed slaves were given one to wear to indicate their newly liberated status, and this headwear became a symbol of freedom and liberty on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.<\/p>\n<p>Clearly, this figure is not meant to be a portrait of a specific individual, and Delacroix did not mean to suggest that there was a half-naked woman running around carrying a loaded firearm and a flag during the\u00a0<em>Trois Glorieuses<\/em>\u2014the Three Glorious Days as it came to be known\u2014of the July Revolution. Instead, she serves as an allegory\u2014in this instance, a pictorial device intended to reveal a moral or political idea\u2014of Liberty. In this, she is similar to an example familiar to those in the United States, Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Auguste Bartholdi\u2019s\u00a0<em>Statue of Liberty<\/em>\u00a0(1886). Clearly, this monumental statue is not a portrait of a woman named Liberty who wears a Roman toga, carries a torch, and an inscribed tablet. Instead, she represents an idea. The same is true of Delacroix\u2019s painted Liberty.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"a-revolution-for-everyone\">A revolution for everyone<\/h3>\n<figure style=\"width: 2560px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/dellibleftsm.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/dellibleftsm-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A photograph of a Figures at left (detail), Eug\u00e8ne Delacroix, Liberty Leading the People (July 28, 1830), depicting a chaotic battle scene with armed men in 19th-century attire. The painting features dark, dramatic colors, detailed expressions, and dynamic poses, emphasizing tension and movement during conflict.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1745\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Figures at left (detail), Eug\u00e8ne Delacroix, <em>Liberty Leading the People (July 28, 1830)<\/em>, September\u2013December 1830, oil on canvas, 260 x 325 cm (Mus\u00e9e du Louvre, Paris, Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:La_Libert%C3%A9_guidant_le_peuple_-_Eug%C3%A8ne_Delacroix_-_Mus%C3%A9e_du_Louvre_Peintures_RF_129_-_apr%C3%A8s_restauration_2024.jpg\">Wikimedia<\/a>, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>But if the female figure represents an allegory, those who surround her represent different types of people. The man on the far left holds a briquet (an infantry saber commonly used during the Napoleonic Wars). His clothing\u2014apron, working shirt, and sailor\u2019s trousers\u2014identify him as a factory worker, a person in the lower end of the economic ladder. His other attire identifies his revolutionary leanings. The handkerchief around his waist, that secures a pistol, has a pattern similar to that of the Cholet handkerchief, a symbol used by Fran\u00e7ois Athannase de Charette de la Contrie, a Royalist solider who led an ill-fated uprising against the First Republic, the government established as a result of the French Revolution. The white cockade and red ribbon secured to his beret also identify his revolutionary sensibilities.<\/p>\n<p>This factory worker provides a counterpoint to the younger man beside him who is clearly of a different economic status. He wears a black top hat, an open-collared white shirt and cravat, and an elegantly tailored black coat. Rather than hold a military weapon like his older brother-in-arms, he instead grasps a hunting shotgun. These two figures make clear that this revolution is not just for the economically downtrodden, but for those of affluence, too.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 788px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/fece4dcbb430f72eea77a66811691d4d9cefe806.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/fece4dcbb430f72eea77a66811691d4d9cefe806.jpeg\" alt=\"Side by side details from Eug\u00e8ne Delacroix, Liberty Leading the People. On the left a figure in blue and red looks upward while on the right, a young boy holds a gun in his hand above his head.\" width=\"788\" height=\"587\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left: fallen adolescent, and right, Boy wielding two pistols (detail), Eug\u00e8ne Delacroix, <em>Liberty Leading the People<\/em>, oil on canvas, September\u2013December, 1830 (exhibited and purchased by the state from the Salon of 1831) 2.6 x 3.25m (Louvre, Paris, Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:La_Libert%C3%A9_guidant_le_peuple_-_Eug%C3%A8ne_Delacroix_-_Mus%C3%A9e_du_Louvre_Peintures_RF_129_-_apr%C3%A8s_restauration_2024.jpg\">Wikimedia<\/a>, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>This revolution is not only for the adults\u2014two young boys can be identified among the insurgents. On the left, a fallen adolescent who wears a light infantry\u00a0<em>bicorne<\/em>\u00a0and holds a short saber, struggles to regain his footing amongst the piled cobblestones that make up a barricade. The more famous of the pair, however, is on the right side of the painting (image, right). Often thought to be the visual inspiration for Hugo\u2019s character of Gavroche in\u00a0<em>Les Mis\u00e9rables<\/em>, this boy wildly wields two pistols. He wears a\u00a0<em>faluche<\/em>\u2014a black velvet beret common to students\u2014and carries what appears to be a school or cartridge satchel (with a crest that may be embroidered) across his body.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"a-modern-subject\">A modern subject<\/h3>\n<p>With no less than five guns and three blades among these six primary figures, it is not surprising that the ground is littered with the dead. Some are members of the military, note the uniform decorated with shoulder epaulettes on the figure in the lower right, while others are likely revolutionaries. In total, the painting accurately renders the fervor and chaos of urban conflict. And it is, of course, an urban conflict. Notre Dame, perhaps the defining architectural monument of Paris (at least until the Eiffel Tower arrived at the end of the nineteenth century) can be clearly seen on the right side of the painting. Importantly, Delacroix signed and dated his painting immediately underneath this monument.<\/p>\n<p>Although not everyone can pick up a weapon and stand a post in a war, Delacroix would have us believe that everyone can be a revolutionary. When corresponding with his brother on 28 October 1830\u2014less than three months after the July Revolution, Delacroix wrote, \u201cI have undertaken a modern subject, a barricade, and although I may not have fought for my country, at least I shall have painted for her. It has restored my good spirits.\u201d In doing so, Delacroix completed what has become both a defining image of French romanticism and one of the most enduring modern images of revolution. It has even been appropriated\u2014although slightly altered\u2014by the British rock band Coldplay as an album cover for their 2006 release\u00a0<em>Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends.<\/em><\/p>\n<h2 id=\"th\u00e9odore-g\u00e9ricault-raft-of-the-medusa\">Th\u00e9odore G\u00e9ricault,\u00a0<em>Raft of the Medusa<\/em><\/h2>\n<h3 id=\"a-radical-work-of-art\">A radical work of art<\/h3>\n<p>In 1819, a young man bolted through the streets of Paris. Years later, he said he must have looked crazy as he ran all the way home. He was the painter, Eug\u00e8ne Delacroix, and he had just seen Th\u00e9odore G\u00e9ricault\u2019s astonishing painting,<em>\u00a0Raft of the Medusa<\/em>, in the painter\u2019s studio. Today, visitors to the Louvre museum stop in front of the painting as they make their way through the galleries, but in 1819 it was a truly radical work of art that astonished everyone.<\/p>\n<p>There had never been a painting like\u00a0<em>Raft of the Medusa<\/em>. It was on the grand scale of French history painting (think, for example, of Jacques Louis David\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/jacques-louis-david-oath-of-the-horatii\/\"><em>Oath of the Horatii<\/em><\/a>) but instead of ideal forms and a moralizing story from history, G\u00e9ricault offered the Salon audience a thoroughly modern,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/romanticism-in-france\/\">Romantic<\/a>\u00a0depiction of death and suffering based on a contemporary event that was in the news. To create his painting, G\u00e9ricault investigated everything about the story of the raft and talked with many of the survivors. He then brought all of the research together to create a radical painting that responded to the\u00a0conservative tradition of history paintings.<\/p>\n<p>No one who wrote about the painting in 1819 was unmoved. Conservative critics and writers were appalled and accused G\u00e9ricault of creating a disgusting, repulsive mistake. More progressive writers who supported the modern, Romantic approach marveled at the artist\u2019s shocking painting that caused them to tremble and admire the scene of the horrific events on the raft. When he ran through Paris after seeing\u00a0<em>Raft of the Medusa<\/em>, completed in G\u00e9ricault\u2019s studio, young Delacroix experienced that same shock. He had seen something completely new that challenged every expectation for history painting and experienced an entirely kind of painting on a grand scale.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" id=\"oembed-4\" title=\"Gericault, Raft of the Medusa\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/jlVBaqyGKMs?feature=oembed&#38;rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h2 id=\"romanticism-in-spain-francisco-goya-the-sleep-of-reason-produces-monsters\">Romanticism in Spain: Francisco Goya,\u00a0<em>The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters<\/em><\/h2>\n<figure style=\"width: 297px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/image215.jpeg\" alt=\"A monochromatic etching depicting a person asleep at a table surrounded by various nightmarish creatures, including bats, owls, and cats, symbolizing irrational fears. Text on the table reads &quot;El sue\u00f1o de la raz\u00f3n produce monstruos,&quot; highlighting the theme that the sleep of reason produces monsters.\" width=\"297\" height=\"450\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Francisco Goya, Plate 43, <em>The sleep of reason produces monsters<\/em> from <em>Los Caprichos<\/em>, 1799, etching, aquatint, drypoint, and burin, plate: 21.2 x 15.1 cm (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.metmuseum.org\/art\/collection\/search\/338473\">The Metropolitan Museum of Art<\/a>, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h3 id=\"a-dark-vision\">A dark vision<\/h3>\n<p>In this ominous image, we see the dark vision of humanity that characterizes Goya\u2019s work for the rest of his life.<\/p>\n<p>A man sleeps, apparently peacefully, even as bats and owls threaten from all sides and a lynx lays quiet, but wide-eyed and alert. Another\u00a0creature sits at the center of the composition, staring not at the sleeping figure, but at us. Goya forces the viewer to become an active participant in the image\u2013\u2013the monsters of his dreams even threaten us.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"los-caprichos\"><em>Los Caprichos<\/em><\/h3>\n<p>On 6 February 1799, Francisco Goya put an advertisement in the<em>\u00a0Diario de Madrid<\/em>. \u201cA Collection of Prints of Capricious Subjects,\u201d he tells the reader, \u201cInvented and Etched by Don Francisco Goya,\u201d is available through subscription. We know this series of eighty prints as\u00a0<em>Los Caprichos<\/em>\u00a0(caprices, or follies).<\/p>\n<p><em>Los Caprichos<\/em>\u00a0was a significant departure from the subjects that had occupied Goya up to that point\u2013\u2013tapestry cartoons for the Spanish royal residences, portraits of monarchs and aristocrats, and a few commissions for church ceilings and altars.<\/p>\n<p>Many of the prints in the\u00a0<em>Caprichos<\/em>\u00a0series express disdain for the pre-Enlightenment practices still popular in Spain at the end of the Eighteenth century (a powerful clergy, arranged marriages, superstition, etc.). Goya uses the series to critique contemporary Spanish society. As he explained in the advertisement, he chose subjects \u201cfrom the multitude of follies and blunders common in every civil society, as well as from the vulgar prejudices and lies authorized by custom, ignorance or interest, those that he has thought most suitable matter for ridicule.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0<em>Caprichos<\/em>\u00a0was Goya\u2019s most biting critique to date, and would eventually be censored. Of the eighty aquatints, number 43, \u201cThe Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters,\u201d can essentially be seen as Goya\u2019s manifesto and it should be noted that many observers believe he intended it as a self-portrait.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"imagination-united-with-reason\">Imagination united with reason<\/h3>\n<p>In the image, an artist, asleep at his drawing table, is besieged by creatures associated in Spanish folk tradition with mystery and evil. The title of the print, emblazoned on the front of the desk, is often read as a proclamation of Goya\u2019s adherence to the values of the Enlightenment\u2014without Reason, evil and corruption prevail.<\/p>\n<p>However, Goya wrote a caption for the print that complicates its message, \u201cImagination abandoned by reason produces impossible monsters; united with her, she is the mother of the arts and source of their wonders.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In other words, Goya believed that imagination should never be completely renounced in favor of the strictly rational. For Goya, art is the child of reason in combination with imagination.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"the-beginnings-of-romanticism\">The beginnings of Romanticism<\/h3>\n<p>With this print, Goya is revealed as a transitional figure between the end of the Enlightenment and the emergence of Romanticism. The artist had spent the early part of his career working in the court of King Carlos III who adhered to many of the principles of the Enlightenment that were then spreading across Europe\u2013\u2013social reform, the advancement of knowledge and science, and the creation of secular states. In Spain, Carlos reduced the power of the clergy and established strong support for the arts and sciences.<\/p>\n<p>However, by the time Goya published the\u00a0<em>Caprichos<\/em>, the promise of the Enlightenment had dimmed. Carlos III was dead and his less respected brother assumed the throne. Even in France, the political revolution inspired by the Enlightenment had devolved into violence during an episode known as the Reign of Terror. Soon after, Napoleon became Emperor of France.<\/p>\n<p>Goya\u2019s caption for \u201cThe Sleep of Reason,\u201d warns that we should not be governed by reason alone\u2014an idea central to Romanticism\u2019s reaction against Enlightenment doctrine. Romantic artists and writers valued nature which was closely associated with emotion and imagination in opposition to the rationalism of Enlightenment philosophy. But \u201cThe Sleep of Reason\u201d also anticipates the dark and haunting art Goya later created in reaction to the atrocities he witnessed\u2014and carried out by the standard-bearers of the Enlightenment\u2014the Napoleonic Guard.<\/p>\n<p>Goya brilliantly exploited the atmospheric quality of aquatint to create this\u00a0fantastical image. This printing process creates the grainy, dream-like tonality visible in the background of \u201cThe Sleep of Reason.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"aquatint\">Aquatint<\/h3>\n<figure style=\"width: 481px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/image216.jpeg\" alt=\"A detailed of etching depicting several bats in flight against a textured background. The drawing features intricate line work emphasizing wing structure and movement, with bats varying in size and orientation to create a dynamic scene.\" width=\"481\" height=\"450\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Birds (detail), Francisco Goya, Plate 43, <em>The sleep of reason produces monsters<\/em> from<em> Los Caprichos<\/em>, 1799, etching, aquatint, drypoint, and burin, plate: 21.2 x 15.1 cm (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.metmuseum.org\/art\/collection\/search\/338473\">The Metropolitan Museum of Art<\/a>, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Although the aquatint process was invented in 17th century by the Dutch printmaker, Jan van de Velde, many consider the\u00a0<em>Caprichos<\/em>\u00a0to be the first prints to fully exploit this process.<\/p>\n<p>Aquatint is a variation of etching. Like etching, it uses a metal plate (often copper or zinc) that is covered with a waxy, acid-resistant resin. The artist draws an image directly into the resin with a needle so that the wax is removed exposing the metal plate below. When the scratch drawing is complete, the plate is submerged in an acid bath. The acid eats into the metal where lines have been etched. When the acid has bitten deeply enough, the plate is removed, rinsed and heated so that the remaining resin can be wiped away.<\/p>\n<p>Aquatint requires an additional process, the artist sprinkles layers of powdery resin on the surface of the plate, heats it to harden the powder and dips it in an acid bath.<\/p>\n<p>The acid eats around the resin powder creating a rich and varied surface. Ink is then pressed into the pits and linear recesses created by the acid and the flat surface of the plate is once again wiped clean. Finally, a piece of paper is pressed firmly against the inked plate and then pulled away, resulting in the finished image.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"romanticism-in-spain-francisco-goya-the-third-of-may-1808\">Romanticism in Spain: Francisco Goya,\u00a0<em>The Third of May, 1808<\/em><\/h2>\n<h3 id=\"the-2nd-and-3rd-of-may-1808\">The 2nd and 3rd of May, 1808<\/h3>\n<p>In 1807,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/jacques-louis-david-napoleon-crossing-the-alps\/\">Napoleon<\/a>, bent on conquering the world, brought Spain\u2019s king,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/francisco-goya-the-family-of-charles-iv\/\">Charles IV<\/a>, into alliance with him in order to conquer Portugal. Napoleon\u2019s troops poured into Spain, supposedly just passing through. But Napoleon\u2019s real intentions soon became clear: the alliance was a trick. The French were taking over. Joseph Bonaparte, Napoleon\u2019s brother, was the new king of Spain.<\/p>\n<p>On May 2, 1808, hundreds of Spaniards rebelled. On May 3, these Spanish freedom fighters were rounded up and massacred by the French. Their blood literally ran through the streets of Madrid. Even though Goya had shown French sympathies in the past, the slaughter of his countrymen and the horrors of war made a profound impression on the artist. He commemorated both days of this gruesome uprising in paintings. Although Goya\u2019s\u00a0<em>Second of May<\/em>\u00a0is a tour de force of twisting bodies and charging horses reminiscent of Leonardo\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/leonardo-and-his-drawings\/\"><em>Battle of Anghiari<\/em><\/a>, his\u00a0<em>The\u00a0Third of May, 1808 in Madrid<\/em>\u00a0is acclaimed as one of the great paintings of all time, and has even been called the world\u2019s first modern painting.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" id=\"oembed-5\" title=\"Art historical analysis (painting), a basic introduction using Goya&#39;s Third of May, 1808\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/_QM-DfhrNv8?start=526&#38;feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h2 id=\"romanticism-in-england-j.-m.-w.-turner-slave-ship\">Romanticism in England: J. M. W. Turner,\u00a0<em>Slave Ship<\/em><\/h2>\n<h3 id=\"turners-sublime-romanticism\">Turner\u2019s sublime Romanticism<\/h3>\n<p>An influential painter in oils and watercolor who was famous in his time, J.M.W. Turner worked to have landscape recognized as a serious art form. Turner\u2019s\u00a0<em>Slave Ship<\/em>\u00a0aligns with the \u201csublime\u201d aesthetic in art. The sublime was one of three major ways of depicting landscapes in the early 19th century. The \u201cbeautiful\u201d was pleasurable, soft, and calm. The \u201cpicturesque\u201d presented objects of interest in a tranquil scene that had some degree of rustic roughness. The \u201csublime,\u201d however, inspired terror through immense scale, darkness, and other effects meant to make the viewer feel threatened. In the early 19th century, all these modes were popular, but the sublime was favored by one of the most influential movements of the period:\u00a0Romanticism.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" id=\"oembed-6\" title=\"Turner, Slave Ship\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/NoCW80MEGXY?feature=oembed&#38;rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h2 id=\"realism-an-introduction\">Realism, an introduction<\/h2>\n<h3 id=\"realism-and-the-painting-of-modern-life\">Realism and the painting of modern life<\/h3>\n<p>The\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/royal-academy-france\/\">Royal Academy<\/a>\u00a0supported the age-old belief that art should be instructive, morally uplifting, refined, inspired by the classical tradition, a good reflection of the national culture, and, above all, about beauty.<\/p>\n<p>But trying to keep young 19th-century artists\u2019 eyes on the past became an issue!<\/p>\n<p>The world was changing rapidly and some artists wanted their work to be about their contemporary environment\u2014about themselves and their own perceptions of life. In short, they believed that the modern era deserved to have a modern art.<\/p>\n<p>The modern era\u00a0begins with the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/what-was-the-industrial-revolution\/\">Industrial Revolution<\/a>\u00a0in the late 19th century. Clothing, food, heat, light and sanitation are a few of the basic areas that \u201cmodernized\u201d the 19th century. Transportation was faster, getting things done got easier, shopping in the new department stores became an adventure, and people developed a sense of \u201cleisure time\u201d\u2014thus the entertainment businesses grew.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"paris-transformed\">Paris transformed<\/h3>\n<p>In Paris, the city was transformed from a medieval warren of streets to a grand urban center with wide boulevards, parks, shopping districts, and multi-class dwellings (so that the division of class might be from floor to floor\u2014the rich on the lower floors and the poor on the upper floors in one building\u2014instead by neighborhood).<\/p>\n<p>Therefore, modern life was about social mixing, social mobility, frequent journeys from the city to the country and back, and a generally faster pace which has accelerated ever since.<\/p>\n<p>How could paintings and sculptures about classical gods and biblical stories relate to a population enchanted with this progress?<\/p>\n<p>In the middle of the 19th century, the young artists decided that it couldn\u2019t and shouldn\u2019t. In 1863 the poet and art critic Charles Baudelaire published an essay entitled \u201cThe Painter of Modern Life,\u201d which declared that the artist must be of his\/her own time.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"becoming-modern-in-19th-century-europe-an-introduction\">Becoming modern in 19th-century Europe, an introduction<\/h2>\n<p>People use the term \u201cmodern\u201d in a variety of ways, often very loosely, with a lot of implied associations relating to the new, contemporary, up-to-date, and technological. In 19th-century Europe, however, modernity and its connection with art had certain specific associations that people began recognizing and using as barometers to distinguish themselves and their culture from earlier moments in history.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 2047px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/36586288994_2f6ead3c3c_k.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/36586288994_2f6ead3c3c_k.jpg\" alt=\"\u00c9douard Manet, A Bar at the Folies-Berg\u00e8re, painting depicting a barmaid standing behind a marble counter with various bottles, a bowl of oranges, and a glass with a flower. Background shows a crowded caf\u00e9 with patrons and a large mirror reflecting the scene, highlighting social interaction and urban nightlife.\" width=\"2047\" height=\"1542\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">\u00c9douard Manet, <em>A Bar at the Folies-Berg\u00e8re<\/em>, 1882, oil on canvas, 96 x 130 cm (Courtauld Gallery, London; photo: <a href=\"https:\/\/flic.kr\/p\/XK1i57\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Steven Zucker<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-sa\/2.0\/deed.en\">CC BY-NC-SA 2.0<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Chronologically, the modern era is often defined as the period from roughly 1848 to 1960. In Europe and North America, it can be said to begin with the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/a-beginners-guide-to-realism\/\">Realist movement<\/a>\u00a0and end with\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/abstract-expressionism-an-introduction\/\">Abstract Expressionism<\/a>\u00a0(though some scholars date the modern era back to the late 18th century). That\u2019s just a little over 100 years. During that period, Europe experienced significant changes that transformed it from an agriculturally-based society into a modern one with cities and factories and mass transportation.<\/p>\n<p>Here are some important features that characterize 19th-century Europe.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"capitalism\">Capitalism<\/h3>\n<p>In the 19th century, wealth produced by mass-manufacturing and the exchange of goods (capitalism) competed with aristocratic wealth based on large land holdings. Capitalism became the economic system of the modern era in which people exchanged their labor for a fixed wage. This economic change dramatically affected class relations because it offered opportunities for the accumulation of great wealth through individual initiative, industrialization, and technology (somewhat like the technological and dot.com explosion of the late 20th and early 21st centuries). The\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/what-was-the-industrial-revolution\/\">Industrial Revolution<\/a>, which began in England in the late 18th century and rapidly swept across Europe, radically transformed economic and social relationships, putting many artisans out of work, and offered an ever-increasing number of cheap consumer goods. These consumer goods were largely produced by factory workers (including children) at a time when there were few protections for workers. The Industrial Revolution also fostered a sense of competition and a sense of progress (some real, some illusory) that continues to influence us today.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"urban-culture\">Urban culture<\/h3>\n<p>Urban culture replaced agrarian culture as industrialization and cities grew. Cities were the sites of new wealth and opportunity with their factories and manufacturing potential. People moving from small farm towns to large cities helped to breakdown traditional culture and values. There were also new complications such as growing urban crime, sex work, alienation, and depersonalization.<\/p>\n<p>In a small town you probably knew the cobbler who made your shoes, and such a personal relationship often expanded into everyday economics\u2014you might be able to barter food or labor for a new pair of shoes or delay payments. These kinds of accommodations that formed a substructure to agrarian life were swept away with urbanization. City dwellers bought shoes that were manufactured to standardized sizes, transported by railroads, displayed in shop windows, and purchased for cash. Assembly lines, anonymous labor, and advertising created more consumer items but also a growing sense of depersonalization. The gap between the \u201chaves\u201d and the \u201chave nots\u201d was more visible in the city, in England, an often used phrase referred to these groups as \u201cthe two nations.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 1450px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/N05779_10.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/N05779_10.jpeg\" alt=\"A painting depicting a crowded interior of a horse-drawn carriage with men, women, and children dressed in 19th-century attire, including top hats and bonnets. The scene highlights social interaction and period fashion, with detailed expressions and a warm, enclosed space framed by a decorative border.\" width=\"1450\" height=\"1536\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">\u201cThe omnibus\u2014a horse-drawn carriage that picked up and deposited people along an established route\u2014was introduced into London on 4 July 1829 and quickly became a popular mode of transport\u201d (Tate, London). William Maw Egley, <em>Omnibus Life in London<\/em>, 1859, oil on canvas, 44.8 x 41.9 cm (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.tate.org.uk\/art\/artworks\/egley-omnibus-life-in-london-n05779\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Tate<\/a>, London, Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:OmnibusLife_William_Maw_Egley1.jpg\">Wikimedia<\/a>, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h3 id=\"technology\">Technology<\/h3>\n<p>Technological advances such as steam-powered factories, railroads, gas lighting, streetcars as well as the availability of indoor plumbing, kitchen appliances, and scientific advances dramatically affected the way people lived and thought about themselves. One consequence was that some people in industrialized areas thought of themselves as advanced and modern and considered others as comparatively primitive and backward.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"secularism-and-politics\">Secularism and politics<\/h3>\n<p>Modernity is characterized by increasing secularism and diminished religious authority. People did not abandon religion but they paid less attention to it. Organized religions were increasingly less able to dictate standards, values, and subject matter. Art moved from representing human experience and its relationship to God\u2019s creation, to a focus on personal emotions and individual spiritual experiences that were not based in any organized and institutionalized religion. In the same way, political power once held by a hereditary aristocratic elite, slowly broadened to enfranchise the wider populace. In both these ways, the concentration of authority was lessened as the Church and royal families ceded power to the people.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"optimism\">Optimism<\/h3>\n<p>Many people saw these changes as positive, and many did not. Some welcomed innovation and championed progress. Change became a signifier of modernity. Anything that was traditional and static signaled outmoded, old-fashioned, conservative and was to be avoided by the new modern public. Much of Europe internalized these positions and used modernity as a way of determining and validating feelings of superiority. The 19th century was also a period of tremendous, often violent, colonial growth and expansion. Many people recognized and sought to ameliorate the impact on the working class by supporting legislation that limited the hours of the working day, the age of workers, and extension of the franchise, among other things. It\u2019s important to remember that universal suffrage in most countries in Europe was not achieved until the early 20th century.<\/p>\n<p>Many artists closely identified with modernity and embraced the new techniques and innovations, the spirit of progress, invention, discovery, creativity, and change. They wanted to participate in creating the modern world and they were anxious to try out new ideas rather than following the more conservative guidelines of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/royal-academy-france\/\">Academic art<\/a>. This is not to say that these mid-19th-century artists were the first to challenge an older generation or set of ideas. Many academic artists had argued over formal issues, styles, and subject matter, but this was much like a good-natured agreement within a club; everyone in the group agreed to disagree.<\/p>\n<p>Many artists were also sympathetic to the plight of the working classes, who seemed to those in power to be increasingly dangerous. Revolutions in 1789, 1830, and 1848 in France, and the\u00a0Chartist movement\u00a0in England are just two examples of the form that resistance to the changes of modernity took. It was in 1848 that Karl Marx wrote in\u00a0<em>The Communist Manifesto<\/em>, \u201cOur epoch, the epoch of the bourgeoisie, possesses, however, this distinct feature: it has simplified class antagonisms. Society as a whole is more and more splitting up into two great hostile camps, into two great classes directly facing each other \u2014 Bourgeoisie and Proletariat.\u201d <a class=\"footnote\" title=\"Karl Marx,\u00a0Manifesto of the Communist Party, 1848.\" id=\"return-footnote-3124-2\" href=\"#footnote-3124-2\" aria-label=\"Footnote 2\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[2]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n<h3 id=\"a-middle-class-audience\">A middle-class audience<\/h3>\n<p>By the mid-1850s, polite academic disagreements moved from the Academy and onto the street. Artists were looking increasingly to the private sector for patronage, tapping into that growing group of bourgeois or middle-class collectors with money to spend and houses to fill with paintings. This new middle-class audience that made its money through industrialization and manufacturing had significant disposable income, and they wanted pictures that they could understand, that were easy to look at, fit into their homes, and addressed subjects they liked. The historical cycles of gods, saints, and heroes\u2014with their complex intellectual associations and references\u2014was not for them; instead, they wanted landscapes, genre scenes, and still lifes. They were not less educated than earlier buyers, but educated with a different focus and set of priorities. Reality was here and now, progress was inevitable, and the new hero of modern life was the modern man.<\/p>\n<p>Modernity is then a composite of contexts: a time, a space, and an attitude. What makes a place or an object \u201cmodern\u201d depends on these conditions.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"the-avant-garde\">The avant-garde<\/h3>\n<p>Throughout the 19th century there were artists who produced pictures that we do not label \u201cmodern art\u201d generally because the techniques or subjects were associated with the conservative academic styles, techniques, and approaches (that often look back to ancient Greece and Rome). On the other hand, modern artists were often called the \u201cavant-garde.\u201d This was originally a military term that described the point man (the first soldier out)\u2014the one to take the most risk. The French socialist Henri de Saint-Simon first used the term in the early 1820s to describe an artist whose work would serve the needs of the people, of a socialist society rather than the ruling classes.<\/p>\n<p>The avant-garde is also used to identify artists whose painting subjects and techniques were radical, marking them off from the more traditional or academic styles, but not with any particular political ideology in mind. Avant-garde became a kind of generic term for a number of art movements centered on the idea of artistic autonomy and independence. In some cases the avant-garde was closely associated with political activism, especially socialist or communist movements; in other cases, the avant-garde was pointedly removed from politics and focused primarily on aesthetics. The avant-garde was never a cohesive group of artists and what was avant-garde in one nation was not necessarily the same in others.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"gustave-courbet-the-stonebreakers\">Gustave Courbet,\u00a0<em>The Stonebreakers<\/em><\/h2>\n<figure style=\"width: 800px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/800px-Courbet_-_Kamieniarze.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/800px-Courbet_-_Kamieniarze.jpeg\" alt=\"Courbet, The Stonebreakers, painting depicting two men breaking rocks in a rural outdoor setting, illustrating manual labor during a historical period. One man kneels using a hammer on rocks while the other stands carrying a pile of stones, with earthy tones and detailed textures emphasizing physical effort and environment.\" width=\"800\" height=\"485\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gustave Courbet, <em>The Stonebreakers<\/em>, 1849, oil on canvas, 165 x 257 cm (Gem\u00e4ldegalerie, Dresden [destroyed], Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Gustave_Courbet_-_The_Stonebreakers_-_WGA05457.jpg\">Wikimedia<\/a>, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/gustave-courbet-a-burial-at-ornans\/\">Gustave Courbet<\/a>, a young fellow from the Franche-Comt\u00e9, a province outside of Paris, came to the \u201cbig city\u201d with a large ego and a sense of mission. He met Charles Baudelaire and other progressive thinkers within the first years of making Paris his home. Then, he set himself up as the leader for a new art: Realism\u2014\u201chistory painting\u201d about real life. He believed that if he could not see something, he should not paint it. He also decided that his art should have a social consciousness that would awaken the self-involved Parisian to contemporary concerns: the good, the bad, and the ugly.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"realism-and-reality\">Realism and reality<\/h3>\n<p>If we look closely at Courbet\u2019s painting The\u00a0<em>Stonebreakers<\/em>\u00a0of 1849 (painted only one year after Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels wrote their influential pamphlet,\u00a0<em>The Communist Manifesto<\/em>) the artist\u2019s concern for the plight of the poor is evident. Here, two figures labor to break and remove stone from a road that is being built. In our age of powerful jackhammers and bulldozers, such work is reserved as punishment for chain-gangs.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 800px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Millet_Gleaners.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/Millet_Gleaners.jpeg\" alt=\"Millet, The Gleaners, painting depicts three peasant women gleaning a field, bending over to collect leftover crops after harvest. Warm earth tones and soft lighting emphasize rural labor, with haystacks and workers visible in background, highlighting agricultural life.\" width=\"800\" height=\"640\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jean-Fran\u00e7ois Millet,<em> The Gleaners<\/em>, 1857, oil on canvas, 83.5 x 110 cm (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.musee-orsay.fr\/en\/artworks\/des-glaneuses-342\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Mus\u00e9e d\u2019Orsay<\/a>, Paris, Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Jean-Fran%C3%A7ois_Millet_-_Gleaners_-_Google_Art_Project_2.jpg\">Wikimedia<\/a>, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Unlike Millet, who, in paintings like\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/millet-the-gleaners\/\"><em>The Gleaners<\/em><\/a>,\u00a0was known for depicting hard-working, but idealized peasants, Courbet depicts figures who wear ripped and tattered clothing. And unlike the aerial perspective Millet used in\u00a0<em>The Gleaners<\/em>\u00a0to bring our eye deep into the French countryside during the harvest,\u00a0the two stone breakers in Courbet\u2019s painting are set against a low hill of the sort common in the rural French town of Ornans, where the artist had been raised and continued to spend a much of his time. The hill reaches to the top of the canvas everywhere but the upper right corner, where a tiny patch of bright blue sky appears. The effect is to isolate these laborers, and to suggest that they are physically and economically trapped. In Millet\u2019s painting,\u00a0the gleaners\u2019 rounded backs echo one another, creating a composition that feels unified, where\u00a0Courbet\u2019s figures seem disjointed. Millet\u2019s painting, for all its sympathy for these poor figures, could still be\u00a0read\u00a0as \u201cart\u201d by\u00a0viewers at an exhibition\u00a0in Paris.<\/p>\n<p>Courbet wants to show what is \u201creal,\u201d and so he has depicted a man that seems\u00a0too old and a boy that seems still too young for such back-breaking labor. This is not meant to be heroic: it is meant to be an accurate account of the abuse and deprivation that was a common feature of mid-century French rural life. And as with so many great works of art, there is a close affiliation between the narrative\u00a0and the formal choices made by the painter, meaning elements such as brushwork, composition, line, and color.<\/p>\n<p>Like the stones themselves, Courbet\u2019s brushwork is rough\u2014more so than might be expected during the mid-19th century. This suggests that the way the artist painted his canvas was in part a conscious rejection of the highly polished, refined\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/neoclassicism-an-introduction\/\">Neoclassicist style<\/a>\u00a0that still dominated French art in 1848.<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps most characteristic of Courbet\u2019s style is his refusal to focus on the parts of the image that would usually receive the most attention. Traditionally, an artist would spend\u00a0the most time on the hands, faces, and foregrounds. Not Courbet. If you look carefully, you will notice that he attempts to be even-handed, attending to faces and rock equally. In these ways,\u00a0<em>The Stonebreakers<\/em>\u00a0seems to lack the basics of art (things like a composition that selects and organizes,\u00a0aerial perspective and finish)\u00a0and as a result,\u00a0it\u00a0feels more \u201creal.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"textbox textbox--key-takeaways\">\n<header class=\"textbox__header\">\n<h2 class=\"textbox__title\">Practicing Visual Analysis<\/h2>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"textbox__content\">\n<p>The <strong>composition<\/strong> of Courbet\u2019s <em>The Stonebreakers<\/em> is unusual. Two <strong>figurative forms<\/strong> turn away from us with only hints at their age: a younger man on the left and an older man on the right. Courbet used a relatively limited <strong>color<\/strong> palette relying mostly on earth tones. Although there is the suggestion of depth with some <strong>atmospheric perspective<\/strong> and <strong>chiaroscuro<\/strong> modeling, the piece appears relatively flat. The figures are set close in the <strong>foreground<\/strong>. The dullness of the <strong>color<\/strong> and <strong>light<\/strong> enhance the monotony of the backbreaking labor. We think about all the intentional choices the artist made to construct the piece. Imagine if Michelangelo painted this scene! The figures would be heroically nude and muscular in their <strong>form<\/strong>. Their faces would be turned toward the viewer allowing us to see their perfectly youthful, symmetrical structure. Michelangelo would use bright <strong>colors<\/strong> and a strong <strong>design<\/strong> to create <strong>pictorial space<\/strong> through techniques like <strong>linear perspective<\/strong>. Courbet? No. The intentional choices Courbet made regarding <strong>composition, space, light<\/strong>, and <strong>color<\/strong> reveal to us a piece that acknowledges the invisible labor of the many. It also asks a poignant question emerging in the 19<sup>th<\/sup> century: can one ever escape their class?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<h2 id=\"\u00e9douard-manet-olympia\">\u00c9douard Manet,\u00a0<em>Olympia<\/em><\/h2>\n<p>Most strongly associated with Realism, \u00c9douard Manet experimented with multiple styles in his pursuit of subject matter that reflected modern urban life. In this portrait of Olympia and Laure, Manet invented what beauty could be for the modern world.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" id=\"oembed-1\" title=\"\u00c9douard Manet, Olympia (and now, with Laure)\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/nFhgy9mkNRo?feature=oembed&#38;rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h2 id=\"early-photography-a-modern-invention-with-ni\u00e9pce-talbot-and-muybridge\">Early Photography: A Modern Invention with Ni\u00e9pce, Talbot, and Muybridge<\/h2>\n<p>By modern standards, nineteenth-century photography can appear rather primitive. While the stark black and white landscapes and unsmiling people have their own austere beauty, these images also challenge our notions of what defines a work of art.<\/p>\n<p>Photography is a controversial fine art medium, simply because it is difficult to classify\u2014is it an art or a science? Nineteenth century photographers struggled with this distinction, trying to reconcile aesthetics with improvements in technology.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"the-birth-of-photography\">The birth of photography<\/h3>\n<p>Although the principle of the camera was known in antiquity, the actual chemistry needed to register an image was not available until the nineteenth century.<\/p>\n<p>Artists from the Renaissance onwards used a camera obscura (Latin for dark chamber), or a small hole in the wall of a darkened box that would pass light through the hole and project an upside down image of whatever was outside the box. However, it was not until the invention of a light sensitive surface by Frenchman Joseph Nic\u00e9phore Ni\u00e9pce that the basic principle of photography was born.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 325px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/image221.jpeg\" alt=\"A black and white photograph depicting a high-contrast, grainy view of a narrow pathway or bridge between two buildings with a distant horizon. The composition emphasizes strong shadows and geometric shapes, creating a moody, abstract atmosphere.\" width=\"325\" height=\"242\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Joseph Nic\u00e9phore Ni\u00e9pce, <em>View from the Window at Gras<\/em> (1826) (Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:View_from_the_Window_at_Le_Gras,_Joseph_Nic%C3%A9phore_Ni%C3%A9pce,_uncompressed_UMN_source.png\">Wikimedia<\/a>, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>From this point the development of photography largely related to technological improvements in three areas, speed, resolution and permanence. The first photographs, such as Ni\u00e9pce\u2019s famous\u00a0<em>View from the Window at Gras<\/em>\u00a0(1826) required a very slow speed (a long exposure period), in this case about 8 hours, obviously making many subjects difficult, if not impossible, to photograph. Taken using a camera obscura to expose a copper plate coated in silver and pewter,\u00a0Ni\u00e9pce\u2019s image looks out of an upstairs window, and part of the blurry quality is due to changing conditions during the long exposure time, causing the resolution, or clarity of the image, to be grainy and hard to read. An additional challenge was the issue of permanence, or how to successfully stop any further reaction of the light sensitive surface once the desired exposure had been achieved. Many of Ni\u00e9pce\u2019s early images simply turned black over time due to continued exposure to light. This problem was largely solved in 1839 by the invention of hypo, a chemical that reversed the light sensitivity of paper.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"technological-improvements\">Technological improvements<\/h3>\n<p>Photographers after Ni\u00e9pce experimented with a variety of techniques. Louis Daguerre invented a new process he dubbed a daguerreotype in 1839, which significantly reduced exposure time and created a lasting result, but only produced a single image.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 560px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/image222.jpeg\" alt=\"Black and white photograph of a tabletop displaying various sculpted masks and decorative objects, including a framed picture hanging on the wall. The scene highlights artistic craftsmanship with detailed facial features on masks and textured surfaces, suggesting a workshop or studio setting.\" width=\"560\" height=\"405\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Louis Daguerre, <em>The Artist\u2019s Studio<\/em>, 1837, daguerreotype (Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Daguerreotype_Daguerre_Atelier_1837.jpg\">Wikimedia<\/a>, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>At the same time, Englishman William Henry Fox Talbot was experimenting with his what would eventually become his calotype method, patented in February 1841. Talbot\u2019s innovations included the creation of a paper negative, and new technology that involved the transformation of the negative to a positive image, allowing for more that one copy of the picture. The remarkable detail of Talbot\u2019s method can be seen in his famous photograph,\u00a0<em>The Open Door<\/em>\u00a0(1844) which captures the view through a medieval-looking entrance. The texture of the rough stones surrounding the door, the vines growing up the walls and the rustic broom that leans in the doorway demonstrate the minute details captured by Talbot\u2019s photographic improvements.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 442px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/image223.jpeg\" alt=\"Sepia-toned photograph depicting an open doorway with a broom leaning against the doorframe, surrounded by textured stone walls and climbing vines. The composition highlights rustic architectural details and evokes a quiet, abandoned atmosphere.\" width=\"442\" height=\"355\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">William Henry Fox Talbot, <em>The Open Door<\/em>, 1844, salted paper print from paper negative (Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:The_Open_Door_MET_DP148629.jpg\">Wikimedia<\/a>, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/zero\/1.0\/deed.en\">CC0 1.0<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The collodion method was introduced in 1851. This process involved fixing a substance known as gun cotton onto a glass plate, allowing for an even shorter exposure time (3-5 minutes), as well as a clearer image.<\/p>\n<p>The big disadvantage of the collodion process was that it needed to be exposed and developed while the chemical coating was still wet, meaning that photographers had to carry portable darkrooms to develop images immediately after exposure. Both the difficulties of the method and uncertain but growing status of photography were lampooned by Honor\u00e9 Daumier in his\u00a0<em>Nadar Elevating Photography to the Height of Art<\/em>\u00a0(1862). Nadar, one of the most prominent photographers in Paris at the time, was known for capturing the first aerial photographs from the basket of a hot air balloon. Obviously, the difficulties in developing a glass negative under these circumstances must have been considerable.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 357px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/image224.jpeg\" alt=\"A black and white illustration depicts a man operating an early camera mounted on a hot air balloon basket labeled &quot;Photographie Nadar.&quot; The scene shows multiple rooftops below with signs reading &quot;Photographie,&quot; emphasizing the rise of photography and aerial perspectives in the 19th century.\" width=\"357\" height=\"450\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Honor\u00e9 Daumier, <em>Nadar \u00e9levant la Photographie \u00e0 la hauteur de l\u2019Art (Nadar elevating Photography to Art)<\/em>, lithograph from Le Boulevard, May 25, 1863 (Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Brooklyn_Museum_-_Nadar_%C3%89levant_la_Photographie_%C3%A0_la_Hauteur_de_l%27Art_-_Honor%C3%A9_Daumier.jpg\">Wikimedia<\/a>, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Further advances in technology continued to make photography less labor intensive. By 1867 a dry glass plate was invented, reducing the inconvenience of the wet collodion method.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 320px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/image225.jpeg\" alt=\"A black-and-white photographic sequence showing a horse and rider in various stages of galloping, arranged in a grid of twelve frames. This historical study captures motion progression, highlighting the horse's leg positions and rider's posture at different moments during the gallop.\" width=\"320\" height=\"198\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Eadweard Muybridge, <em>The Horse in Motion (\u201cSallie Gardner,\u201d owned by Leland Stanford; running at a 1:40 gait over the Palo Alto track, 19th June 1878),<\/em> 1878 (Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:The_Horse_in_Motion_high_res.jpg\">Wikimedia<\/a>, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Prepared glass plates could be purchased, eliminating the need to fool with chemicals. In 1878, new advances decreased the exposure time to 1\/25th of a second, allowing moving objects to be photographed and lessening the need for a tripod. This new development is celebrated in Eadweard Muybridge\u2019s sequence of photographs called\u00a0<em>Galloping Horse<\/em>\u00a0(1878). Designed to settle the question of whether or not a horse ever takes all four legs completely off the ground during a gallop, the series of photographs also demonstrated the new photographic methods that were capable of nearly instantaneous exposure.<\/p>\n<p>Finally in 1888 George Eastman developed the dry gelatin roll film, making it easier for film to be carried. Eastman also produced the first small inexpensive cameras, allowing more people access to the technology.<\/p>\n<p>Photographers in the 19th century were pioneers in a new artistic endeavor, blurring the lines between art and technology. Frequently using traditional methods of composition and marrying these with innovative techniques, photographers created a new vision of the material world. Despite the struggles early photographers must have had with the limitations of their technology, their artistry is also obvious.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"american-realism-thomas-eakins-the-gross-clinic-and-the-agnew-clinic\">American Realism: Thomas Eakins,\u00a0<em>The Gross Clinic<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0<em>The Agnew Clinic<\/em><\/h2>\n<p>An American painter, sculptor, and photographer, Thomas Eakins\u2019 realist style was influenced by Diego Vel\u00e1zquez as well as photographic aesthetics. Eakins\u2019s deep connection to his birthplace remained a theme throughout his career. Perhaps his most well-known and ambitious work for the city of Philadelphia is\u00a0<em>The Gross Clinic,<\/em>\u00a0a painting completed in 1875\u00a0that spotlights the local physician Samuel David Gross.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" id=\"oembed-7\" title=\"Heroes of modern surgery: Eakins&#39; Dr. Gross and Dr. Agnew\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/xerjJiBUKxw?feature=oembed&#38;rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h2 id=\"american-realism-henry-ossawa-tanner-the-banjo-lesson\">American Realism: Henry Ossawa Tanner,\u00a0<em>The Banjo Lesson<\/em><\/h2>\n<figure id=\"attachment_3468\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3468\" style=\"width: 212px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-3468 size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/tanner-212x300.jpg\" alt=\"Tanner, The Banjo Lesson painting depicting an elderly man seated with a child on his lap, both playing a banjo in a dimly lit rustic room. Warm tones highlight a table with a white cloth and kitchenware in the background, while various household items and shadows create a cozy, intimate atmosphere.\" width=\"212\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/tanner-212x300.jpg 212w, https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/tanner-65x92.jpg 65w, https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/tanner-225x318.jpg 225w, https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/tanner-350x495.jpg 350w, https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/tanner.jpg 566w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 212px) 100vw, 212px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-3468\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Henry Ossawa Tanner,<em> The Banjo Lesson,<\/em> 1893, oil on canvas, 124.5 \u00d7 90.2 cm (Hampton University Museum, Hampton, VA, Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Henry_Ossawa_Tanner_-_The_Banjo_Lesson.jpg\">Wikimedia<\/a>, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a> in the United States)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Henry Ossawa Tanner was the United States\u2019 first African American celebrity artist. His training at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (under the guidance of\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/smarthistory.org\/eakins-the-gross-clinic\/\">Thomas Eakins<\/a>) and at the Acad\u00e9mie Julian in Paris (with Jean-L\u00e9on G\u00e9r\u00f4me) put him in the unique position of having experienced two vastly different approaches to painting\u2014 American Realism and French academic painting. He was also one of the few artists to have had such training at a time when there were many barriers to education for African Americans. Though Tanner lived most of his life in France and became well known for his lush biblical paintings,\u00a0<em>The Banjo Lesson<\/em>\u00a0is his most famous work and the painting that has become emblematic with his oeuvre.<\/p>\n<p>Henry Tanner painted\u00a0<em>The Banjo Lesson<\/em>\u00a0in 1893 after a series of sketches he made while visiting the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina four years before. Tanner had been studying and working in Paris until he developed a bout of typhoid fever and was advised to return to the United States to recover his health and dwindling finances. While taking up a teaching post at Clark University in Atlanta, Tanner\u2019s doctor told him to take in some mountain air. His trip to North Carolina opened his eyes to the poverty of African Americans living in Appalachia.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"the-legacy-of-slavery\">The legacy of slavery<\/h3>\n<p>The United States had abolished slavery only twenty-four years before, in 1865, and the physical and psychological wounds of that brutal institution would continue to be a palpable presence in African American communities\u2014especially so in the South. Though Tanner was born in Pittsburgh within the tight-knit world of highly-educated members of America\u2019s burgeoning African American intelligentsia, Tanner\u2019s mother Sarah had been born a slave and had escaped north to Pennsylvania through the Underground Railroad. His middle name, Ossawa, was chosen by his father, Benjamin Tucker Tanner, a Methodist minister and abolitionist, after Osawatomie, Kansas\u2014the site of the abolitionist John Brown\u2019s bloody confrontation with pro-slavery partisans on August 30, 1856.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_3469\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3469\" style=\"width: 239px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-3469 size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/Henry_Ossawa_Tanners_image_for_Harpers_Young_People_Dec_5_1893_page_84-239x300.jpg\" alt=\"Black and white drawing depicting an older man teaching a young boy to play a banjo, both seated closely on wooden chairs. Shadows cast on a textured wall behind them emphasize their focused expressions and the intimate, instructional moment.\" width=\"239\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/Henry_Ossawa_Tanners_image_for_Harpers_Young_People_Dec_5_1893_page_84-239x300.jpg 239w, https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/Henry_Ossawa_Tanners_image_for_Harpers_Young_People_Dec_5_1893_page_84-817x1024.jpg 817w, https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/Henry_Ossawa_Tanners_image_for_Harpers_Young_People_Dec_5_1893_page_84-768x963.jpg 768w, https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/Henry_Ossawa_Tanners_image_for_Harpers_Young_People_Dec_5_1893_page_84-1225x1536.jpg 1225w, https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/Henry_Ossawa_Tanners_image_for_Harpers_Young_People_Dec_5_1893_page_84-65x81.jpg 65w, https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/Henry_Ossawa_Tanners_image_for_Harpers_Young_People_Dec_5_1893_page_84-225x282.jpg 225w, https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/Henry_Ossawa_Tanners_image_for_Harpers_Young_People_Dec_5_1893_page_84-350x439.jpg 350w, https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/Henry_Ossawa_Tanners_image_for_Harpers_Young_People_Dec_5_1893_page_84.jpg 1237w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 239px) 100vw, 239px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-3469\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Illustration by Henry Ossawa Tanner for <em>Harper\u2019s Young People<\/em> 16, no 736 (December 1893), p. 81. (Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Henry_Ossawa_Tanner%27s_image_for_Harper%27s_Young_People,_Dec_5,_1893_page_84.jpg\">Wikimedia<\/a>, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a> in the United States)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Throughout his education and advancement in the art world in both the United States and Europe, the legacy of slavery haunted Tanner as he tried to establish a niche for himself as painter to be regarded on his own terms.\u00a0<em>The Banjo Lesson<\/em>\u00a0grew out of a set of photographs and illustrations (above) that Tanner made for the periodical\u00a0<em>Harper\u2019s Young People<\/em>\u00a0in 1893.\u00a0The illustration is of an elderly man teaching a young boy how to play the banjo, accompanied a short story by Ruth McEnery Stuart called \u201cUncle Tim\u2019s Compromise on Christmas,\u201d in which the titular character imparts his most prized possession, a banjo, to his grandson on Christmas morning.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 955px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/image228.jpeg\" alt=\"Two paintings side by side depict young Black men playing stringed instruments. The left painting shows a smiling boy in colorful clothing and a striped hat playing a banjo, while the right painting features a more subdued figure seated on a green chair, strumming a guitar in a dimly lit setting.\" width=\"955\" height=\"593\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left: William Sidney Mount, <em>The Banjo Player<\/em>, 1856, oil on canvas, 38 x 29 inches (The Museums at Stoney Brook, Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:William-sidney-mount-the-banjo-player-1856.jpg\">Wikimedia<\/a>, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a>); right: Thomas Eakins,\u00a0<em>Study for \u201cNegro Boy Dancing,\u201d The Banjo Player<\/em>, probably 1877, oil on canvas on cardboard, 49.5 x 27.9 cm (The National Gallery of Art, Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Study_for_Negro_Boy_Dancing.jpg\">Wikimedia<\/a>, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h3 id=\"american-realism-the-european-tradition\">American realism + the European tradition<\/h3>\n<p>Tanner had spent years refining a style of his own that combined elements of American Realism and the European Old Master tradition.\u00a0<em>The Banjo Lesson<\/em>\u00a0has its roots in the genre paintings of African Americans by William Sidney Mount and Thomas Eakins (above) and in Renaissance and Flemish paintings, notably Domenico Ghirlandaio\u2019s\u00a0<em>An Old Man<\/em>\u00a0<em>and His Grandson<\/em>\u00a0and Johannes Vermeer\u2019s\u00a0<em>Woman with a Lute<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>While studying in Paris, Tanner was also inspired by the works of the French Realists, namely\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/smarthistory.org\/courbet-the-stonebreakers\/\">Gustave Courbet<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/smarthistory.org\/millet-the-gleaners\/\">Jean-Fran\u00e7ois Millet<\/a>, in their depictions of the rural poor. Millet\u2019s\u00a0<em>The Angelus<\/em>, with its quiet, intensely spiritual portrayal of a farmer and his wife praying amid the fields at dusk, is a palpable influence on Tanner\u2019s\u00a0<em>The Banjo Lesson.<\/em><\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 721px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/image229.jpeg\" alt=\"Jean-Fran\u00e7ois Millet, The Angelus, painting depicting two peasants standing in a field during sunset, heads bowed in prayer. Dark earthy tones dominate, with a pitchfork and wheelbarrow visible, emphasizing themes of labor and humility.\" width=\"721\" height=\"600\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jean-Fran\u00e7ois Millet, <em>The Angelus<\/em>, 1857-59, oil on canvas, 55.5 \u00d7 66 cm (Mus\u00e9e d\u2019Orsay, Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Jean-Fran%C3%A7ois_Millet_(II)_001.jpg\">Wikimedia<\/a>, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h3 id=\"a-radically-different-image\">A radically different image<\/h3>\n<p>This theme of spiritual solace that Tanner encountered in the paintings of French Realists like Millet resonated with his own upbringing as the son of a Methodist minister. He hoped to find a way of highlighting the dignity and grace of poor African Americans in the manner that he had seen in France\u2014an approach that would be radically different from stereotypical images of the overly servile \u201cUncle Tom\u201d figure (named after the main character in Harriet Beecher Stowe\u2019s iconic 1852 novel) that was familiar to Americans in countless advertisements (like\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/smarthistory.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/ayers.jpg\">this one<\/a>, for Ayer\u2019s Cathartic Pills [The Country Doctor], c. 1883) and popular magazines.<\/p>\n<p>In\u00a0<em>The Banjo Lesson<\/em>, Tanner\u2019s desire to show us his vision of the resilience, spiritual grace, and creative and intellectual promise of post-Civil War African Americans is fully realized. The scene is staged within the small confines of a log cabin with the cool glow of a hearth fire casting the scene\u2019s only light source from right corner, enveloping the man and the boy in a rectangular pool of light across the floor. The boy holds the banjo in both hands, his downward gaze a reflection of his focused concentration on his grandfather\u2019s instructions. The older man holds the banjo up gently with his left hand so that the boy is not encumbered by its weight, yet the staging shows us that the man wants the boy to come into the realization of the music and its rewards through his own intuition and hard work.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 1188px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Tanner-Banjo-Lesson-1893-thumb.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/Tanner-Banjo-Lesson-1893-thumb.jpg\" alt=\"Detail, Tanner, The Banjo Lesson, painting depicting an elderly man teaching a young child to play a banjo, capturing a moment of shared musical learning and bonding. The scene is set indoors with muted, earthy tones, highlighting the figures against a softly lit background featuring a table with a pitcher and bread.\" width=\"1188\" height=\"714\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Detail, Henry Ossawa Tanner, <em>The Banjo Lesson<\/em>, 1893, oil on canvas, 124.5 \u00d7 90.2 cm (Hampton University Museum, Hampton, VA, Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Henry_Ossawa_Tanner_-_The_Banjo_Lesson.jpg\">Wikimedia<\/a>, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a> in the United States)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The contrast between the man\u2019s age and the boy\u2019s adds to the narrative tension within in the painting as in the Ghirlandaio, a counterpoint between age and experience, and youth and the promise of achievement. The boy is bathed in the glow of the fire\u2019s warmth with a glimmer of white light shining across his forehead, the center of knowledge and understanding. The older man is submerged in the cool shadows of the room. This carefully orchestrated play of warm and cool, of shadow and light, conveys that the success of future generations is built upon the legacy of previous ones. Bathed in muted cool tones of grays and blues, the grandfather is the past, the old America of slavery and The Civil War, of oppression, racism, and poverty, while the boy, caught in the warm glow of the fire\u2019s light, is the new America, of renewed opportunities, advancement, education, and new beginnings.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"banjos-minstrel-shows-and-stereotypes-of-african-americans\">Banjos, minstrel shows, and stereotypes of African Americans<\/h3>\n<p>Certainly Tanner would have seen a great deal of his own life played out in this tender scene. As the educated son of a former slave and a minister and abolitionist, Tanner was always striving to live up to his potential as an artist in the post-Civil War, post-Reconstruction era America. It is also important that the instrument that leads the boy towards enlightenment is the banjo, an instrument highly significant to African American slave culture and the music of the American South. The banjo evolved from the gourd instruments of Africa and the West Indies and became integral to the music of enslaved people throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.<\/p>\n<p>By Tanner\u2019s time, it was a mainstay of minstrel shows, popular variety entertainment that featured white actors in blackface performing songs and skits. In minstrel shows, it was the custom to portray African Americans as boisterous, jaunty, buffoonish, and dim-witted. This portrayal fed into the preconceived notions of white racial superiority\u2014that African Americans, even if they were no longer slaves, would still be infantile and incapable of self-determined action or remarkable achievements. The entire visual and popular culture of Uncle Tom imagery and minstrel shows were part of the pernicious psychological chains of slavery that persisted in America throughout much of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The shows also depicted African Americans as having an innate musicality, which acknowledged their talent but undermined their intelligence.<\/p>\n<p>For Tanner, painting this image of generational torch-passing, was a way of debunking the entrenched derogatory stereotypes of African Americans propagated by minstrel shows. In Tanner\u2019s painting we see the grandfather and the boy as intelligent, noble, graceful people engaged in an intimate act of sharing creative knowledge. Their lesson becomes emblematic of the larger African American journey of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, from Emancipation,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/seeing-america-2\/antebellum-america-civil-war-and-reconstruction\/\">Reconstruction<\/a>, the terrors and injustices of the Jim Crow laws, the exodus of the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/smarthistory.org\/jacob-lawrence-the-migration-series\/\">Great Migration<\/a>, and the foment and dynamism of the Harlem Renaissance.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 1056px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/AB_2020_16-Tanner_Web.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/AB_2020_16-Tanner_Web.jpg\" alt=\"Painting depicting an elderly man and a young boy sitting at a table with a tablecloth, cups, plates, and a pitcher, engaged in a quiet moment. Soft lighting highlights their contemplative expressions and the simple, modest setting, emphasizing themes of reflection and connection.\" width=\"1056\" height=\"828\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Henry Ossawa Tanner, <em>The Thankful Poor<\/em>, 1894, oil on canvas, 90.3 x 112.5 cm (Art Bridges, Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:The_Thankful_Poor,_1894._Henry_Ossawa_Tanner.jpg\">Wikimedia<\/a>, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a> in the United States)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h3 id=\"an-american-artist\">An American artist<\/h3>\n<p>After painting\u00a0<em>The Banjo Lesson<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0<em>The Thankful Poor\u00a0<\/em>(above), Tanner moved back to Paris where he would remain for most of his life. Tanner felt that France was less encumbered with the baggage of racial prejudice towards people of color than the United States. \u201cIn America, I\u2019m Henry Tanner, Negro artist, but in France, I\u2019m \u2018<em>Monsieur Tanner, l\u2019artiste am\u00e9ricaine.<\/em>\u2018\u201d<a class=\"footnote\" title=\"Marcia M. Matthews,\u00a0Henry Ossawa Tanner: American Artist\u00a0(University of Chicago Press, 1995) p. 90.\" id=\"return-footnote-3124-3\" href=\"#footnote-3124-3\" aria-label=\"Footnote 3\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[3]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n<p>His desire to be recognized by the quality of his talent would inspire him to paint prolifically throughout his life, traveling through the Middle East and North Africa in search of authentic imagery for biblical paintings that would become the hallmark of his later career.\u00a0When World War I was declared in Europe, Tanner enlisted in the Red Cross, serving as a medical volunteer as well as making numerous sketches and various paintings of the soldiers in France and Belgium. In 1923, he was awarded the Legion of Honour by the French government for his service during the war.<\/p>\n<p>But it is\u00a0<em>The Banjo Lesson<\/em>\u00a0that has become the iconic painting of his entire career. Its economy of scale, its emotional delicacy, its nuanced orchestration of light and shadow and symbolism situates it in a resonant space in American art history. Both\u00a0<em>The Banjo Lesson<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0<em>The Thankful Poor<\/em>\u00a0were remarkable achievements for Tanner\u2014works that according to the art historian Judith Wilson, \u201cinvest their ordinary, underprivileged, Black subjects with a degree of dignity and self-possession that seems extraordinary for the times in which they were painted.\u201d<a class=\"footnote\" title=\"Judith Wilson, \u201cLifting \u201cThe Veil\u201d: Henry O. Tanner\u2019s The Banjo Lesson and The Thankful Poor,\u201d Contributions in Black Studies, vol. 9, article 4 (1992)\" id=\"return-footnote-3124-4\" href=\"#footnote-3124-4\" aria-label=\"Footnote 4\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[4]<\/sup><\/a> It is a testament to Tanner\u2019s vision as an artist, and his personal convictions as an African American, amid the possibilities offered by twentieth century, that these two paintings continue to speak so profoundly to us now.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"th-century-victorian-england-charles-barry-and-a.w.n.-pugin-palace-of-westminster-houses-of-parliament\">19<sup>th<\/sup> century Victorian England: Charles Barry and A.W.N. Pugin, Palace of Westminster (Houses of Parliament)<\/h2>\n<p>Unsettled by industrialization and the ugliness of the modern world, Victorians looked back to the Gothic style. Barry and Pugin\u2019s design for the Houses of Parliament, while Gothic in style, was classically organized. Barry was also known for his renovations of elite homes. A master of the Gothic Revival, Catholic convert Pugin designed decorative crafts as well as buildings, publishing books advocating for Gothic style.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" id=\"oembed-8\" title=\"Charles Barry and A.W.N. Pugin, Palace of Westminster (Houses of Parliament)\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/7oBUIo5R5qg?feature=oembed&#38;rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h2 id=\"th-century-victorian-england-an-introduction-to-the-pre-raphaelites\">19<sup>th<\/sup> century Victorian England: An Introduction to The Pre-Raphaelites<\/h2>\n<figure style=\"width: 870px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/dezoomify-result-scaled.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/image233.jpeg\" alt=\"Hunt, The flight of Madeline and Porphyro during the drunkenness attending the revelry (The Eve of St. Agnes), painting depicting a dramatic indoor scene with multiple figures, including a woman in a purple dress embracing a man dressed in Renaissance-style clothing with a feathered hat and sword. The background features a group of people visible through arched windows, several dogs lying on the floor, and a fallen man in armor, highlighting themes of conflict and tension.\" width=\"870\" height=\"617\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">William Holman Hunt, <em>The flight of Madeline and Porphyro during the drunkenness attending the revelry (The Eve of St. Agnes)<\/em>, smaller version of the painting exhibited at the Royal Academy, begun as a sketch, 1847\u201357, oil on panel, 355 x 252 cm (<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20090507004507\/http:\/www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk\/walker\/collections\/19c\/eve_of_stagnes.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool<\/a>, Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:William_Holman_Hunt_-_The_flight_of_Madeline_and_Porphyro_during_the_drunkenness_attending_the_revelry_(The_Eve_of_St._Agnes)_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg\">Wikimedia<\/a>, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h3 id=\"at-first-they-were-three\">At first they were three<\/h3>\n<p>During a visit to the\u00a0Royal Academy\u00a0exhibition of 1848, the young artist and poet Dante Gabriel Rossetti was drawn to a painting entitled\u00a0<em>The Eve of Saint Agnes<\/em>\u00a0by William Holman Hunt. As a subject taken from the poetry of John Keats was a rarity at the time, Rossetti sought out Hunt, and the two quickly became friends. Hunt then introduced Rossetti to his friend John Everett Millais, and the rest, as they say, is history. The trio went on to form the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, a group determined to reform the artistic establishment of Victorian England (1837\u20131901).<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"looking-back-to-look-forward\">Looking back to look forward<\/h3>\n<p>The name \u201cPre-Raphaelite Brotherhood\u201d (PRB) hints at the vaguely medieval subject matter for which the group is known. The young artists appreciated the simplicity of line and large flat areas of brilliant color found in the early Italian painters before\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/raphael-introduction\/\">Raphael<\/a>, as well as in\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/flanders\/\">15th century Flemish art<\/a>. These were not qualities favored by the more academic approach taught at the Royal Academy during the mid-19th century, which stressed the strong light and dark shading of the\u00a0Old Masters. Another source of inspiration for the young artists was the writing of art critic\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/millais-portrait-of-john-ruskin\/\">John Ruskin<\/a>, particularly the famous passage from\u00a0<em>Modern Painters<\/em>\u00a0telling artists<\/p>\n<p>\u201cto go to nature in all singleness of heart . . . rejecting nothing, selecting nothing and scorning nothing.<a class=\"footnote\" title=\"John Ruskin,\u00a0Modern Painters, 1843.\" id=\"return-footnote-3124-5\" href=\"#footnote-3124-5\" aria-label=\"Footnote 5\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[5]<\/sup><\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This combination of influences contributed to the group\u2019s extreme attention to detail, and the development of the\u00a0wet white ground technique\u00a0that produced the brilliant color for which they are known. The artists even became some of the first to complete sections of their canvases outdoors in an effort to capture the minute detail of every leaf and blade of grass.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"and-then-they-were-seven\">And then they were seven<\/h3>\n<p>It was decided that seven was the appropriate number for a rebellious group and four others were added to form the initial Brotherhood. The selection of additional members has long mystified art historians. James Collinson, a painter, seems to have been added due to his short-lived engagement to Rossetti\u2019s sister Christina rather than his sympathy with the cause. Another member, Thomas Woolner, was a sculptor rather than a painter. The final two members, William Michael Rossetti and Frederic George Stephens, both of whom went on to become art critics, were not practicing artists. However, other young artists such as Walter Howell Deverell and Charles Collins embraced the ideals of the PRB even though they were never formally elected as members.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"the-prb-goes-public\">The PRB goes public<\/h3>\n<figure style=\"width: 2560px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/isabella2-scaled.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/isabella2-scaled-1.jpg\" alt=\"John Everett Millais, Isabella, painting depicting a group of people gathered around a table, engaged in conversation and dining. The scene features detailed period clothing, a richly patterned wallpaper background, and a dog sitting near a woman in a gray dress, highlighting social interaction.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1806\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">John Everett Millais, <em>Isabella,<\/em> 1848\u201349, oil on canvas, 103 x 142.8 cm (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk\/artifact\/isabella\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool<\/a>; photo:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/flic.kr\/p\/2o9Cw9C\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Steven Zucker<\/a>, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The Pre-Raphaelites decided to make their debut by sending a group of paintings, all bearing the initials \u201cPRB\u201d, to the Royal Academy in 1849. However, Rossetti, who was nervous about the reception of his painting\u00a0<em>The Girlhood of Mary Virgin<\/em>, changed his mind and instead sent his painting to the earlier Free Exhibition (meaning there was no jury as there was at the Royal Academy). At the Royal Academy, Hunt exhibited\u00a0<em>Rienzi, the Last of the Tribunes<\/em>, a scene from a historical novel of the same name by Edward Bulwer-Lytton. Millais exhibited\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/millais-isabella\/\"><em>Isabella<\/em><\/a>, another subject from Keats, created with such attention to detail that one can actually see the beheading scene on the plate nearest the edge of the table, which echoes the ultimate fate of the young lover Lorenzo in the story. In both paintings, the accurately designed medieval costumes, bright colors and attention to detail produced criticism that the paintings mimicked a \u201cmediaeval illumination of the chronicle or the romance.\u201d <a class=\"footnote\" title=\"Athenaeum, 2 June 1849, p. 575.\" id=\"return-footnote-3124-6\" href=\"#footnote-3124-6\" aria-label=\"Footnote 6\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[6]<\/sup><\/a> Interestingly, no mention was made of the mysterious \u201cPRB\u201d inscription.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"critical-reaction\">Critical reaction<\/h3>\n<p>In 1850, however, the reaction to the PRB was very different. By this time, many people knew about the existence of the supposedly secret society, in part because the group had published many of their ideas in a short-lived literary magazine entitled\u00a0<em>The Germ<\/em>. Rossetti\u2019s\u00a0<em><a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/rossetti-ecce-ancilla-domini\/\">Ecce Ancilla Domini<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>appeared at the Free Exhibition along with a painting by his friend Deverell entitled\u00a0<em>Twelfth Night<\/em>. At the Royal Academy, Hunt\u2019s<em>\u00a0A Converted British Family Sheltering a Christian Priest from the Persecution of the Druids<\/em>\u00a0and Millais\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/millais-christ-in-the-house-of-his-parents\/\"><em>Christ in the House of his Parents<\/em><\/a>, famously abused by Charles Dickens, received the brunt of the criticism. <a class=\"footnote\" title=\"Charles Dickens, in his magazine\u00a0Household Words\u00a0in June 1850 described Christ as a \u201chideous, wry-necked, blubbering, red-haired boy in a nightgown, who appears to have received a poke playing in an adjacent gutter, and to be holding it up for the contemplation of a kneeling woman, so horrible in her ugliness that (supposing it were possible for any human creature to exist for a moment with that dislocated throat) she would stand out from the rest of the company as a monster in the vilest cabaret in France or in the lowest gin-shop in England.\u201d\" id=\"return-footnote-3124-7\" href=\"#footnote-3124-7\" aria-label=\"Footnote 7\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[7]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0In the aftermath of the humiliating reception of their work, Collinson resigned from the group and Rossetti decided never again to exhibit publicly.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"ruskin-to-the-rescue\">Ruskin to the rescue<\/h3>\n<p>Undeterred, Millais and Hunt again continued to exhibit paintings demonstrating the beautiful colors and detail orientation of the mature style of the PRB. The Royal Academy of 1851 included Hunt\u2019s<em>\u00a0Valentine Rescuing Sylvia<\/em>, and three pictures by Millais,\u00a0<em>Mariana<\/em>,\u00a0<em>The Woodman\u2019s Daughter<\/em>, and\u00a0<em>The Return of the Dove to the Ark\u00a0<\/em>as well as\u00a0<em>Convent Thoughts<\/em>\u00a0by Millais\u2019s friend Charles Collins. Although many were still dubious about the new style, the critic John Ruskin came to the rescue of the group, publishing two letters in\u00a0<em>The Times<\/em>\u00a0newspaper in which he praised the relationship of the PRB to early Italian art. Although Ruskin was suspicious of what he termed the group\u2019s \u201cCatholic tendencies,\u201d he liked the attention to detail and the color of the PRB paintings. Ruskin\u2019s praise helped catapult the young artists to a new level.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"the-dissolution-of-the-prb\">The dissolution of the PRB<\/h3>\n<p>The Brotherhood, however, was slowly dissolving. Woolner emigrated to Australia in 1852. Hunt decided in January 1854 to visit the\u00a0Holy Land\u00a0in order to better paint religious pictures. And, in an event Rossetti described as the formal end of the PRB, Millais was elected as an Associate of the Royal Academy in 1853, joining the art establishment he had fought hard to change.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"lasting-impact\">Lasting impact<\/h3>\n<p>Despite the fact that the Brotherhood lasted only a few short years, its impact was immense. Millais and Hunt both went on to establish important places for themselves in the Victorian art world. Millais was to go on to become an extremely popular artist, selling his artworks for vast sums of money, and ultimately being elected as the President of the Royal Academy. Hunt, who perhaps stayed most true to the Pre-Raphaelite aesthetic, became a well-known artist and wrote many articles and books on the formation of the Brotherhood.<\/p>\n<p>Rossetti became a mentor to a group of younger artists including Edward Burne-Jones and William Morris, founder of the Arts and Crafts Movement. Rossetti\u2019s paintings of beautiful women also helped inaugurate the new\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/the-aesthetic-movement\/\">Aesthetic Movement<\/a>, or the taste for Art for Art\u2019s Sake, in the later Victorian era.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 1181px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/SC219191-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/SC219191-1.jpg\" alt=\"Rossetti, Bocca Baciata (Lips That Have Been Kissed), painting depicting a person with long, wavy red hair adorned with a white flower and gold accessories. The subject wears a dark garment with gold details and holds a small flower, set against a floral background with yellow blossoms.\" width=\"1181\" height=\"1429\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dante Gabriel Rossetti, <em>Bocca Baciata (Lips That Have Been Kissed)<\/em>, 1859, oil on panel, 32.1 x 27 cm (<a href=\"https:\/\/collections.mfa.org\/objects\/34360\/bocca-baciata-lips-that-have-been-kissed?ctx=9adf746d-f922-4c3f-943e-2ca05d126695&amp;idx=0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Museum of Fine Arts, Boston<\/a>, Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Bocca_Baciata,_by_Dante_Gabriel_Rossetti.jpg\">Wikimedia<\/a>, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a> in the United States)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>To a contemporary audience, the Pre-Raphaelites may appear less than modern. However, in their own time the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood accomplished something revolutionary. They were one of the first groups to value painting out-of-doors for its \u201ctruth to nature,\u201d and their concept of banding together to take on the art establishment helped to pave the way for later groups. The distinctive elements of their paintings, such as the extreme attention to detail, the brilliant colors and the beautiful rendition of literary subjects set them apart from other Victorian painters.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"conclusion-8\">Conclusion<\/h2>\n<p>In the early to mid-19<sup>th<\/sup> century, some artistic movements returned to the past. The Gothic Revival style of architecture and the Pre-Raphaelites, both from Victorian England, took inspiration from previous movements apart from the modern world. However, there was no denying the modern world had to come into existence. The styles of Romanticism and Realism began to create for a new \u201cmodern\u201d audience. In a world shaped by industrialization, capitalism, secularism, and technology, artists of the avant-garde began to challenge established conventions of art. Even new artistic technologies, such as the medium of photography, encouraged artists to experiment and explore new mediums and ways of representing a rapidly changing world.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"citation-and-licensing-8\">Citation and Licensing<\/h3>\n<p>The following sections were written by Chelsea Wright and licensed <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-sa\/4.0\/\">CC BY-NC-SA 4.0<\/a>:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Chapter Overview and Introduction<\/li>\n<li>Focus artwork and term list compiled by Chelsea Wright<\/li>\n<li>Practicing Visual Analysis<\/li>\n<li>Conclusion<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The following articles from <em>Smarthistory<\/em> licensed <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-sa\/4.0\/\">CC BY-NC-SA 4.0<\/a> were remixed and adapted for the chapter:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Dr. Bryan Zygmont, &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/ingres-napoleon-on-his-imperial-throne\/\">Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres,\u00a0<em>Napoleon on His Imperial Throne<\/em><\/a>,&#8221; in\u00a0<em>Smarthistory<\/em>, November 29, 2015.<\/li>\n<li>Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker, &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/early-modern-era-18th-century\/\">The Early Modern era: the 18th century (4 of 4),<\/a>&#8221; in\u00a0<em>Smarthistory<\/em>, January 15, 2025.<\/li>\n<li>Dr. Bryan Zygmont, &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/painting-colonial-culture-ingress-la-grande-odalisque\/\">Painting colonial culture: Ingres\u2019s\u00a0<em>La Grande Odalisque<\/em><\/a>,&#8221; in\u00a0<em>Smarthistory<\/em>, August 9, 2015.<\/li>\n<li>Dr. Nancy Demerdash, &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/orientalism\/\">Orientalism<\/a>,&#8221; in\u00a0<em>Smarthistory<\/em>, June 2, 2015.<\/li>\n<li>Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker, &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/a-beginners-guide-to-romanticism\/\">Romanticism, an introduction<\/a>,&#8221; in\u00a0<em>Smarthistory<\/em>, August 8, 2015.<\/li>\n<li>Dr. Bryan Zygmont, &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/delacroix-liberty-leading-the-people\/\">Eug\u00e8ne Delacroix,\u00a0<em>Liberty Leading the People<\/em><\/a>,&#8221; in\u00a0<em>Smarthistory<\/em>, November 22, 2015.<\/li>\n<li>Dr. Claire Black McCoy, &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/theodore-gericault-raft-of-the-medusa\/\">Th\u00e9odore G\u00e9ricault,\u00a0<em>Raft of the Medusa<\/em><\/a>,&#8221; in\u00a0<em>Smarthistory<\/em>, May 27, 2021.<\/li>\n<li>Dr. Sarah C. Schaefer, &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/goya-the-sleep-of-reason-produces-monsters\/\">Francisco Goya,\u00a0<em>The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters<\/em><\/a>,&#8221; in\u00a0<em>Smarthistory<\/em>, August 9, 2015.<\/li>\n<li>Christine Zappella, &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/goya-third-of-may-1808\/\">Francisco Goya,\u00a0<em>The Third of May, 1808<\/em><\/a>,&#8221; in\u00a0<em>Smarthistory<\/em>, August 9, 2015.<\/li>\n<li>Smarthistory, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/artist\/j-m-w-turner\/\">JMW Turner<\/a>,\u201d in\u00a0<em>Smarthistory<\/em>.<\/li>\n<li>Lori Landay and Dr. Beth Harris, &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/j-m-w-turner-slave-ship\/\">J. M. W. Turner,\u00a0<em>Slave Ship<\/em><\/a>,&#8221; in\u00a0<em>Smarthistory<\/em>, December 9, 2015.<\/li>\n<li>Dr. Alissa Adams, &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/jmw-turner-snowstorm-hannibal-army-crossing-alps\/\">J.M.W. Turner,\u00a0<em>Snowstorm: Hannibal and his Army Crossing the Alps<\/em><\/a>,&#8221; in\u00a0<em>Smarthistory<\/em>, April 18, 2024.<\/li>\n<li>Dr. Beth Gersh-Nesic, &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/a-beginners-guide-to-realism\/\">Realism, an introduction<\/a>,&#8221; in\u00a0<em>Smarthistory<\/em>, August 9, 2015.<\/li>\n<li>Dr. Parme Giuntini, &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/becoming-modern-an-introduction\/\">Becoming modern in 19th-century Europe, an introduction<\/a>,&#8221; in\u00a0<em>Smarthistory<\/em>, August 8, 2015.<\/li>\n<li>Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker, &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/courbet-the-stonebreakers\/\">Gustave Courbet,\u00a0<em>The Stonebreakers<\/em><\/a>,&#8221; in\u00a0<em>Smarthistory<\/em>, August 9, 2015.<\/li>\n<li>Smarthistory, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/artist\/edouard-manet\/\">\u00c9douard Manet<\/a>,\u201d in\u00a0<em>Smarthistory<\/em>.<\/li>\n<li>Dr. Thomas Folland, &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/edouard-manet-olympia\/\">\u00c9douard Manet,\u00a0<em>Olympia<\/em><\/a>,&#8221; in\u00a0<em>Smarthistory<\/em>, December 9, 2015.<\/li>\n<li>Dr. Rebecca Jeffrey Easby, &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/early-photography-niepce-talbot-and-muybridge\/\">Early photography: Ni\u00e9pce, Talbot, and Muybridge<\/a>,&#8221; in\u00a0<em>Smarthistory<\/em>, August 9, 2015.<\/li>\n<li>Smarthistory, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/artist\/thomas-eakins\/\">Thomas Eakins<\/a>,\u201d in\u00a0<em>Smarthistory<\/em>.<\/li>\n<li>Meg Floryan, &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/eakins-the-gross-clinic\/\">Thomas Eakins,\u00a0<em>The Gross Clinic<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0<em>The Agnew Clinic<\/em><\/a>,&#8221; in\u00a0<em>Smarthistory<\/em>, August 9, 2015.<\/li>\n<li>Farisa Khalid, &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/tanner-banjo\/\">Henry Ossawa Tanner,\u00a0<em>The Banjo Lesson<\/em><\/a>,&#8221; in\u00a0<em>Smarthistory<\/em>, September 9, 2016.<\/li>\n<li>Smarthistory, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/artist\/charles-barry\/\">Charles Barry<\/a>,\u201d in\u00a0<em>Smarthistory<\/em>.<\/li>\n<li>Smarthistory, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/artist\/a-w-n-pugin\/\">A.W.N. Pugin<\/a>,\u201d in\u00a0<em>Smarthistory<\/em>.<\/li>\n<li>Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker, &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/barry-pugin-parliament\/\">Charles Barry and A.W.N. Pugin, Palace of Westminster (Houses of Parliament)<\/a>,&#8221; in\u00a0<em>Smarthistory<\/em>, December 11, 2015.<\/li>\n<li>Dr. Rebecca Jeffrey Easby, &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/a-beginners-guide-to-the-pre-raphaelites\/\">The Pre-Raphaelites, an introduction<\/a>,&#8221; in\u00a0<em>Smarthistory<\/em>, August 9, 2015.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr class=\"before-footnotes clear\" \/><div class=\"footnotes\"><ol><li id=\"footnote-3124-1\">Linda Nochlin, \u201cThe Imaginary Orient,\u201d\u00a0<em>Art in\u00a0America<\/em>, volume IXXI, number 5 (1983), pp. 118\u201331. <a href=\"#return-footnote-3124-1\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 1\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"footnote-3124-2\">Karl Marx,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.marxists.org\/archive\/marx\/works\/1848\/communist-manifesto\/index.htm\"><em>Manifesto of the Communist Party<\/em><\/a>, 1848. <a href=\"#return-footnote-3124-2\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 2\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"footnote-3124-3\">Marcia M. Matthews,\u00a0<em>Henry Ossawa Tanner: American Artist<\/em>\u00a0(University of Chicago Press, 1995) p. 90. <a href=\"#return-footnote-3124-3\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 3\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"footnote-3124-4\"><a href=\"http:\/\/scholarworks.umass.edu\/cibs\/vol9\/iss1\/4\">Judith Wilson, \u201cLifting \u201cThe Veil\u201d: Henry O. Tanner\u2019s The Banjo Lesson and The Thankful Poor,\u201d Contributions in Black Studies, vol. 9, article 4 (1992)<\/a> <a href=\"#return-footnote-3124-4\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 4\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"footnote-3124-5\">John Ruskin,\u00a0<em>Modern Painters<\/em>, 1843. <a href=\"#return-footnote-3124-5\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 5\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"footnote-3124-6\"><a href=\"https:\/\/hdl.handle.net\/2027\/umn.31951001922948s\"><em>Athenaeum<\/em><\/a>, 2 June 1849, p. 575. <a href=\"#return-footnote-3124-6\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 6\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"footnote-3124-7\">Charles Dickens, in his magazine\u00a0<em>Household Words<\/em>\u00a0in June 1850 described Christ as a \u201chideous, wry-necked, blubbering, red-haired boy in a nightgown, who appears to have received a poke playing in an adjacent gutter, and to be holding it up for the contemplation of a kneeling woman, so horrible in her ugliness that (supposing it were possible for any human creature to exist for a moment with that dislocated throat) she would stand out from the rest of the company as a monster in the vilest cabaret in France or in the lowest gin-shop in England.\u201d <a href=\"#return-footnote-3124-7\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 7\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><\/ol><\/div>","protected":false},"author":2,"menu_order":10,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-3124","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry"],"part":3,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/3124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/3124\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3529,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/3124\/revisions\/3529"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/3"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/3124\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=3124"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=3124"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=3124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}