In 1819, he painted his over-life-sized Raft of the Medusa, which provoked a furor at the Salon, although it won him another medal. Using strongly contrasting effects of light, vivid realism and an exceptionally dramatic composition, he depicted the survivors of a recent disaster that had occurred partly because of government incompetence. Tragically, Géricault died at the age of 32, as a result of his reckless lifestyle and a series of riding accidents.
Key Works
An Officer of the Imperial Horse Guards Charging, also Chasseur Charging 1814, MUSÉE DU LOUVRE, PARIS, FRANCE
The Blacksmith’s Signboard 1814, KUNSTHAUS, ZURICH, SWITZERLAND
Horse Races in Rome 1817, MUSÉE DES BEAUX-ARTS, LILLE, FRANCE
COROT
1796–1875 • NATURALISM, BARBIZON SCHOOL, REALISM
Orpheus Lamenting Eurydice
c.1861–5 OIL ON CANVAS
41.9 × 61 CM (16½ × 24 IN)
KIMBELL ART MUSEUM, FORT WORTH, TX, US
Committed to painting in the open air directly from nature, Corot often created dreamlike fantasy landscapes out of the views he studied. Here, from the opera Orpheus and Eurydice, Eurydice has just died from the bite of a serpent and a heartbroken Orpheus plays his lyre.
A critical figure in French landscape painting, Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot was the leading painter of the Barbizon School in the mid-19th century and influenced the Impressionists.
Landscape painting had appeared as a subject in its own right in 17th-century Holland, and in England during the 18th and 19th centuries, but apart from the works of Poussin and Claude, in France, landscape was not a conventional artistic theme. Camille Corot was a shy boy, born in Paris to a bourgeois family. At the age of 19, he attended evening classes run by one of David’s former pupils. A couple of years later, he had a studio built in his parents’ new house near Versailles. He became apprenticed to a draper, but hated commercial life and at the age of 26, with financial aid from his parents, he began his career as an artist. He trained with Achille-Etna Michallon (1796–1892) and then Jean-Victor Bertin (c.1767–1842) both landscape painters.
Corot traveled widely around France, and visited Italy from 1825 to 1828, and again in 1834 and 1843 (although he declared he learned more from the harmony of nature and brilliant Mediterranean light than he did from the old masters). He also painted landscapes in Switzerland, the Netherlands and England, but he remained particularly attached to the countryside around Paris. He painted outdoors, as Constable had done, and from the 1850s he turned toward a more evocative and lyrical style of painting, using a vibrant, light touch and a muted palette. By adding white to many of his colors, he gave his pictures an ethereal, silvery appearance. He won his first medal at the Salon of 1833 and 14 years later, he was awarded the Légion d’Honneur. His growing popularity helped draw attention to naturalism, and his landscapes had an inspiring influence on the Impressionists.
Key Works
View of Riva in the Italian Tyrol 1834, NEUE PINAKOTHEK, MUNICH, GERMANY
Morning, Dance of the Nymphs 1850–1, MUSÉE D’ORSAY, PARIS, FRANCE
Souvenir of Mortefontaine 1864, MUSÉE DU LOUVRE, PARIS, FRANCE
Lady in Blue 1874, MUSÉE DU LOUVRE, PARIS, FRANCE
The Mill of Saint-Nicolas-les-Arraz 1874, MUSÉE D’ORSAY, PARIS, FRANCE
HIROSHIGE
1797–1858 • UKIYO-E
Sudden Rainstorm at Shōno
1833–4 COLOR WOODCUT PRINT
25 × 35 CM (10 × 13¾ IN)
THE MINNEAPOLIS INSTITUTE OF ARTS, MINNEAPOLIS, MN, US
In this masterpiece Hiroshige has captured the effects of a sudden storm. The figures rush on, bent against the wind and rain. The diagonal composition adds to the feeling of energy and the different tones are portrayed in a simplified, stylish manner.
One of the most influential artists of Japan’s Ukiyo-ē period, Andō Hiroshige’s brightly colored and original work had a lasting effect on the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists.
Ukiyo-ē, or “pictures of the floating world,” began during the second half of the 17th century in Japan and focused on beautiful courtesans, actors and scenes of everyday life. Ukiyo-ē was a sophisticated style that emphasized harmonious color and graceful compositions. Artists usually produced woodcuts for middle-class buyers and occasionally paintings for wealthier individuals. Allegedly inspired by Hokusai, as a child Hiroshige learned drawing in the Kanō School style and then studied with Ooka Unpo (1765–1848), an artist who favored the Chinese style. As a teenager, he entered the workshop of Utagawa Toyohiro (1773–1828) as an apprentice for a year, and then began working. He firstly followed Ukiyo-ē traditions, and then gradually began to produce more landscape scenes. His first publications, which were refreshingly original, appeared when he was 21. These were Eight Views of Ōmi. They were fairly successful, but did not attract much attention. However, his next work—Ten Famous Places in the Eastern Capital—with its blend of the Kanō and Shijo painting styles, drew attention to his name.
In 1832, Hiroshige produced a series of prints, The Fifty-Three Stations of the Tokaido, which depicted various aspects of the highway between Kyoto and Edo. They were instantly successful and were followed by Sixty-Nine Stations of the Kisokaido and One-Hundred Famous Views of Edo. With their vibrant colors, dynamic compositions and spatial harmonies, these prints evoked the atmosphere of the countryside and provincial towns at a time when travel was restricted for most Japanese people. As one of the last great figures of the Ukiyo-ē period, Hiroshige boldly used elements of Western-style perspective, creating simplified, yet natural-looking, evocations of mood and atmosphere that portrayed elements of the East through universally appealing themes.
Key Works
Kanaya FROM FAMOUS VIEWS OF THE FIFTY-THREE STATIONS, c.1855, PRINCETON UNIVERSITY ART MUSEUM, PRINCETON, NJ, US
Nihon Bridge and Edo Bridge FROM THE SERIES ONE-HUNDRED FAMOUS VIEWS OF EDO, 1857, CHAZEN MUSEUM OF ART AT THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN, MADISON, WI, US
Dyers’ Quarter, Kanda 1857, THE BROOKLYN MUSEUM, NEW YORK, US
DELACROIX
1798–1863 • ROMANTICISM