Introduction to Modern Art Slide List Carousel 1
Slide 1: Manet Olympia
Slide 2: Eiffel Tower
Date of birth: March 31, 1889 (hoisting the flag to the top), built for the Universal Exhibition in celebration of the French Revolution.
Age: 114 years
Contractor: Gustave Eiffel & Cie
Engineers: Maurice Koechlin & Emile Nouguier
Architect: Stephen Sauvestre
Studies: Begun in 1884
Construction: 1887 to 1889 (2 years, 2 m onths
and 5 days)
Composition: 18,038 pieces, 2,500,000 rivets
Weight of the metal structure: 7,300 tons
Total weight: 10,100 tons
Height: 324m (height with flagpole)
Numbers of visitors up to December 31, 2002 204,381,152
Distinctive feature: recognizable throughout the entire world
Number of steps: 1665
Owner: City of Paris SNTE, Official Eiffel Tower website, , 29 September 2003
The Eiffel Tower was built for the David Oath of the Horatii
Rome v. Alba 669 BC
Combat between 3 Horatii and 3 Century uriatii (a sister of each is married / bethrothed to the other)
Also see Corneille and Poussin
Slide 4: Gericault Raft of the Medusa
http://www.geocities.com/rr17bb/geri1.html
Slide 5: Courbet Funeral at Ornans
In this huge painting, Courbet depicts the funeral scene of an ordinary citizen of the village. The open
grave at the center front of the painting is surrounded by a great S-curve of pallbearers, priest and altar
boys, gravedigger, family and friends in mourning. The composition is, in many ways, classical, yet the
subject matter — the burial of an unknown villager –is starkly different from the grandiloquent depictions of
famous historical events or wealthy, powerful people so common in contemporary 19 painting.
This deliberate and radical choice of subject is also reflected in the title of the painting, which only
locates the burial by town and not person.
The grouping of mourners and attendants follows the horizon or distant cliffs –no one ‘s head extends into
the sky. Only the crucifix, held by a religious attendant, is outlined by the muted tones of the sky. The
earthbound nature of life is thus emphasized, as the figures are framed by dirt and rock.
Courbet instills the human touch into his painting. An altar boy gazes with a look of innocence up at a
pall bearer. A young girl peers around the skirts of her elders. Several grief – stricken women clutch
handkerchiefs to their faces.
Commentary
Courbet was a member and co- founder of the realism school of painting. His painting, The Stone Cutters, of laborers breaking stone by the side of a road, caused an uproar when it was exhibited….
Slide 6: Claude Monet Old St. Lazare Station(image not found)
Slide 7: Cassatt Woman in Black at the Opera
Born in Pittsburgh, this American artist studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in
Philadelphia before traveling extensively throughout Europe. The daughter of an affluent businessman,
Cassatt ‘ s parents were not enthused with their daughter ‘ s aspirations to became an artist, preferring
instead for her to return home to marry and settle down. But the independent Cassatt made Paris her
permanent home in 1874, the year of the first Impressionist Exhibition and Cassatt ‘ s first Salon
success. She met Degas in 1877 and the relationship had an immediate effect on Cassatt ‘ s work.
While she employed an impressionist style and exhibited at 4 of 8 Impressionist exhibitions, her
paintings express a uniqueness of their own. Most famous for her mother and daughter paintings,
Cassatt also called upon other motifs which depicted the world around her. Access to the cafes and
corridors of her male counterparts were denied to women, yet Cassatt ‘ s paintings are expressions of her
ability to circumvent these limitations and reflect another aspect of Parisian modern life. She produced
genre paintings and portraiture, and Cassatt ‘ s depictions of women are ones of independent and
powerful beings. Cassatt became an important promoter of Impressionism in America. In 1914 she was
awarded the gold Metal of Honor from Pennsylvania Academy.
Opera and theatre were popular subjects for the Impressionists, often treated by Degas and Renoir, but
here Cassatt tries something different. She presents her subject in the role of viewer. A role generally
taken on by the male. Analysis of this painting centers around notions of gazing and the spectator. Like
Cassatt herself, this woman is clear sighted and determined. With the tools of sight in her hands, she
immerses herself in the activity of looking. Veins straining in her arm, she is oblivious to the spectator,
and to the man who gazes at her from the distant balcony. This painting can be compared to Renoirs
Loge (1874).
Slide 8: Seurat Un Baignade Asniers
Bathers at Asni'res
Full title:’Bathers at Asni'res (‘ Une Baignade, Asni'res ‘)’
1884
Georges Seurat, 1859 – 1891
NG 3908.Bought by the Trustees of the Courtauld Fund, 1924.
Signed: Seurat.
Asni'res is an industrial suburb west of Paris on the River Seine. The present work shows a group of
young workmen taking their leisure by the river.
This was the first of Seurat ‘s large – scale compositions. He drew cont' crayon studies for individual
figures using live models, and made small oil sketches on site which he used to help design the
composition and record effects of light and atmosphere. Some fourteen oil sketches and ten drawings
survive. The final composition, painted in the studio, combines information from both.
While the painting was not executed using Seurat ‘s pointillist technique, which he had not yet invented,
the artist later reworked areas of this picture using dots of contrasting colour to create a vibrant,
luminous effect. For example, dots of orange and blue were added to the boy ‘s hat.
The simplicity of the forms and the use of regular shapes clearly defined by light recalls paintings by the
Renaissance artist Piero della Francesca….
Slide 9: Cezanne The Grand Bathers
Slide 10: van Gogh Self-Portrait 1889
He painted five self – portraits in 1889
Slide 11: Millais Ophelia
Slide 12: Moreau L’Apparition
Slide 13: Kandinsky Composition IV
http://www.glyphs.com/art/kandinsky/
Slide 14: Duchamp Fountain
Fountain (1917) by Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968).
Slide 15: Pollock Number 1
http://www.nga.gov/collection/gallery/20centpa/20centpa-55555.0.html