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Changing the Course of Western ArtDuring the nineteenth century, the world was in a period of great transition. Traditional ideas and the institutions which supported those ideas were changing at a rapid pace. Art reflected these changes, not as a distant bystander observing and making comments, but as an active participant. The same changes that were rattling western civilization, reverberated through the soul of western art, shaking it at its foundation.
THE EFFECT OF NEW IDEAS ON ART
In the 17th and 18th centuries a fundamental change took place in the way people saw the world. Although The Enlightenment was an intellectual movement, its impact on the daily life of the common man was deep and lasting. By promoting human reason, science, and religious tolerance and by chastising tyranny in government, it recognized that man and his endeavors were important. Making man more important, though, meant making the structures which governed him less so. In effect, he no longer existed to serve the systems; the systems were there to serve him.
This rise in the importance of the individual meant that artists would no longer be just craftsmen. Instead of simply pleasing a small group of patrons with objects made to order, artists were now better able to develop and promote their own ideas. Through their art, they could comment on the world with the hope of changing it for the better.
THE EFFECT OF NEW MATERIALS ON ART
Prior to the nineteenth century, art was often a product of the workshop system. Aspiring young artists would typically join the studio of an acknowledged master as an apprentice. As they gained experience they would be elevated to the status of journeymen. Later, when they reached a high level of competency, they would become masters in their own right. One of the ways that apprentices gained experience was by preparing paint for the master. First they would pulverize the coarse pigments with a mortar and pestle. Then they would grind the fine dust into an oil medium. The resulting paint was fluid and lent itself well to the techniques of the day which emphasized smooth, well-blended surfaces.
By the 19th century, the workshop system had begun to break down, in large part due to The Enlightenment. Artists were striking out on their own in ways which suited their own purposes. Given that the painter typically no longer had an assistant to prepare his materials and did not care to do it himself, it was only a short time before the market for commercially prepared supplies was recognized. Once manufacturers began to compete for their share of this new market, many artist supplies underwent a transformation. Two of the resulting innovations had a major impact on the stylistic development of oil painting: tubed colors and flat brushes.
Commercially prepared artist colors were much thicker than those apprentices had earlier made. This pastier paint led to pastier effects: it could be applied more thickly, with fewer of the artist's brush strokes flattening out on the canvas. The artist was now able to create new and exciting textures that had earlier been difficult to achieve.
Another benefit of the thicker paint was that it was now stored and distributed in tubes rather than in glass jars. Once artist supplies became lighter and more portable, it made it easier for painters to move out of their studios and paint on location. This contributed greatly to the development of numerous artistic movements and styles (such as Impressionism) which promoted spontaneity and immediacy in the creative process.
Thicker paint also required a new type of brush. Prior to 1800, brushes were invariably round. Brush makers bunched the bristles together and tied them to the handle with string or wire. In order to improve the efficiency in production, manufacturers abandoned the older practice and began to use metal ferrules instead. The first of these new brushes (where the bristles were clamped in place with a tin collar) were round. It didn't take long, however, before flat brushes were being made. Artists soon realized that not only could these flats push the thicker paint around on the canvas much better, but the resulting brushmarks were much more energetic than those produced by the older rounds.
THE EFFECT OF PHOTOGRAPHY ON ART
Of all of the inventions of the 19th century, photography probably caused the most amazement. Today, anyone can pick up a disposable camera in the grocery store, and within a few hours, have a pictorial record of an event. Prior to the 1800's, the artist was the sole recorder of visual information. Once it became apparent that photographic imaging could record greater detail than any painter had ever been able to achieve (and in a fraction of the time), it empowered the artist to interpret the world rather than simply mimic it. Thus liberated, he was able to explore more abstract and creative means of expression. This would prove to be very important in the future development of art.
Photography soon found itself at the center of a controversy which continues to this day. Instead of making numerous sketches in preparation for their final piece of work, some artists began to rely on the camera as their only means of preparation. Using photography in this way was good in that it allowed the artist to accurately record fleeting moments. It also provided him with more time to spend actually creating the final art object. But as is often the case, there were drawbacks. By eliminating part of the process, artists who used the camera extensively ran the risk of eliminating a part of the final result. While it is true that photography is capable of capturing fine detail, it is difficult for it to evoke the intangibles which often surround a subject. Emotion, warmth and charisma have no physical presence that can be directly recorded on film. When painters work from photographs rather than from their direct observations, they have to interpret either the technical impressions of a piece of equipment or the esthetic impressions of the person who took the picture. Without a great deal of care, the finished piece of work can easily be detached from the reality it is trying to represent.
The camera affected how artists visualized their work. When a photographer takes a picture, unless he has carefully arranged objects within the scene, he composes an image using the lines, shapes and forms as they naturally occur. Candid shots usually include parts of objects that are extraneous to the theme of the composition. Monet's painting "La Grenouillere" could easily have been taken from a snap shot. The bows of the boats are not an integral part of the image; they intrude into the picture, and are included both as compositional devices and as a means of implying that the scene expands well outside of the picture frame.
Finally, photography changed man's understanding of action. The cave painters of Lascaux created wonderful images of galloping horses (look in the Painted Gallery). These primitive artists interpreted the motion of running by extending the front legs of their horses forward while stretching their hind legs to the rear. Today we know that this is not how horses run, but the equestrian artists of the 19th century were still painting galloping horses as their ancestors had on the cave walls 15,000 years before. What changed their understanding of this motion was a remarkable set of photographs analyzing the movement of a galloping horse which photographer Eadweard Muybridge took in 1878. By comparing the paintings and sketches of running horses which were produced before Muybridge's study with those produced afterwards, there is little doubt of the impact which the camera had on nineteenth century equestrian painting.
THE EFFECT OF JAPANESE ART ON THE WEST
Spurred on by Japanese prints and artifacts that were displayed at the 1867 World's Fair, Europe went crazy over Japanese culture. Nearly all of the artists who would later become known as the Impressionists were enthusiasts of Japanese art. The elimination of unnecessary detail and the use of simple fields of color were means Japanese artists frequently employed to accomplish the effects they achieved in their artwork. By observing these prints at the World's Fair and participating in discussions in cafes around Paris, artists reinforced the changes in esthetics with which they were already experimenting.
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