how to read world history in art [part 2]

HOW TOREAD

WORLDHISTORY

IN ART[PART 2]

1850 IndustrializationADOLPH VON MENZEL, The Foundry [1872‑75]

Following a period of increasedagricultural productivity and strongpopulation growth – which createda labour force ideal for factories –the first centres of industrializationbegan developing in about 1760

THREEINNOVATIONS

The Steam Engine

Mechanization of Textile Industry

Steel Production

England [1760]

Continental Europe [1830]

Beyond Europe [1850]

United States [1865]

Japan [1868]

As work continuesfeverishly all around,workmen in the lower

right-hand corner of thecanvas eat the lunch

that a girl has broughtthem in a basket.

The flywheel is a device forstoring rotational energy,

traditionally associated withWatt’s steam engine. Around1875, technologies from theearly Industrial Revolution

were still in widespread use,even though further

groundbreaking innovationsthat would again

revolutionize industry hadalready appeared, such asthe Bessemer method forproducing steel and the

electric motor, patented in1866.

Arduous, exhausting work. Menzel depicts the work process with greatrealism and interest. The workers push the incandescent rough iron onto

the rolling mill with pincers and poles.

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