ap art history term 3 test 3

AP Art History

Term 3

Test 3

Gare St-Lazare• 1877; Claude Monet• Off moment• Smoke, familiar buildings• One of 7 paintings made of the

famous Paris train station that served the suburbs

• The work was an example of modern iron-frame-and-glass architecture

• It was an enormous vault filled with steam and bustling with movement

• Used rapid, sketchlike brush strokes• Captured light as it poured through

the glass roof and mixed with the whirling clouds of steam

• Impressionist focus on city life

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Rouen Cathedral: The Portal• 1894, Monet• Monet desired to place

Impressionism within the great traditions of French art

• Seen in his series of works devoted to the play of light over the Rouen Cathedral

• Chose the subject for its iconographic associations

• The building symbolizes the continuity of human institutions such as the Church and the presence of the divine

• The work argues that beneath the veneer of shifting appearances is a complex web of durable and expanding connections

• He tried to place Impressionism in a more enduring context

• Pattern of rejection and reform



Le Moulin de la Galette• 1876; Pierre-Auguste Renoir• Liked to paint the upper-middle

classes• Encouraged by Monet to

create pleasant, light-filled landscapes

• Shows dancers dappled in bright afternoon sun

• The place was an old-fashioned dance hall

• He glamorized its working class clientele by replacing them with his friends and their models

• Figures exude innocence and congeniality

• Painting knit together by the mood

• Idyllic image of a carefree age of innocence, a kind of paradise



Young Dancer Fourteen Years Old• 1880, Edgar Degas• He was the only American

invited to exhibit with the Impressionists

• Between realism and impressionism

• Bronze, but not for such a grand subject

• Many criticized his work for that• Light flickers on the subject• Works with Mary CassattQuickTime™ and a

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Maternal Caress• 1891; Mary Cassatt• After 1800 she moved toward a

firmer handling of form and more classic subjects

• Shift in focus on mother and child

• One of the many colored prints she produced

• Shows her sensitive response to the tradition of the Madonna and Child

• The infant shares a tender moment with its adoring mother

• Their intimacy is underscored y the subtle harmony of apricots and browns

• The patterns, simple contours, and sharply sloping floor derive from Japanese prints

• Aiming for timeless and universal



Paris Street, Rainy Day• 1877, Gustave Caillebotte• This work shows the city’s

rebuilding• Caillebotte selected a complex

intersection near the St. Lazare train station

• He distorted the size of the buildings and the distance between them to create a wide-angle view

• Reflects the sweeping modernity of the city

• His family owned property in the busy neighborhood shown here

• Highly crafted surface, monumental size, geometric order, elaborate perspective

• Gaslight used to separate foreground from middle and distant

• Meant to capture the momentary quality of everyday life



Barmaid at the Folies-Bergere• 1881; Edouard Manet• Contradicts the happy aura of

works such as Moulin de la Galette

• The elegant crowd is reflected in the background

• He painted a glorious still life of the many pleasures for which the Folies Bergere was famous

• The liquor bottles also associate with the barmaid herself, with her wide hips, strong neck, and hair

• Her demeanor, however, refutes these associations

• She appears to be self-absorbed and depressed

• Her reflection tells a different story

• There appears now to be no pyschological or physical distance between them

• Wanted 2 contrast longing 4 happiness with reality of existence?



Nocturne in Black and Gold• 1875; James Abbott McNeill

Whistler• He emphatically rejected the

precise depiction of objects in earlier drawings

• Sued a critic on behalf of this piece and won

• Depicts a fireworks show over the Battersea Bridge in London

• He was more interested in atmospheric effects than providing details of the actual scene

• Spatial ambiguity set against structure of line and form

• Qualities of energy and stillness



Harmony in Blue and Gold• 1876-77; Whistler• The Peacock Room from a house

owned by Frederick Leyland• Inspired by the Japanese theme of

his own painting (The Princess from the Land of Porcelain) painted the shutters with peacocks

• He eventually painted the entire room, covering the walls with gilded peacock feathers



At the Moulin Rouge• 1892-95; Henri de Toulouse-

Lautrec• Darker version of Galette• Edgy nightclubs• Comes from a wealthy family• Self portrait included• Makes $ print making• No longer leisure world• Darkness - end of century• He included many famous

people of his day• The eerie green light of the

interior evokes an unhealthy atmosphere

• He added to the visual drama by utilizing different lines



Japonaiserie: Flowering Plum Tree• 1887; Vincent Van Gogh• Oil copy of Hiroshige’s• Learns flattened color world• Wants to start an art colony• Wanted to go to Japan but

actually goes to Arle, France• Here, his color comes alive• Direct Japanese influence• One of 3 that he painted• Steep transitions from red to

yellow to green create a banding effect that vertically balances out the painting

• Bolder in color



Plum Orchard Kameido • 1857; Hiroshige; from 100 Views

of Edo• Foreground dominated by a

branch of plum blossom• Depicts scene from everyday life



Starry Night• 1889; Van Gogh• He adopted Seurat’s

divisionism but he didn’t apply paint in dots

• He used thick applications of pigment

• Gave his works a greater sense of physical energy and a palpable surface texture

• Great example of expressionism

• Painted from his window in the asylum at Saint-Remy

• Above the quiet town, the sky pulsates with celestial rhythms and blazes with exploding stars

• Theory that after death, people journey to a star where they continue their lives

• Cypress tree = symbol of death and eternal life

• Brightest star = Venus



Mahana No Atua (Day of the God)• 1894; Paul Gauguin• Inspired by nonacademic sources like

medieval stained glass, folk art• Rejected Impressionism because it

neglected subjective feelings • Called his style synthetism• = it synthesized observation of the

subject in nature with the artist’s feelings about that subject

• It was expressed through abstracted line, shpae, space, and color

• Tahitian subject, but painted in France during Gauguin’s return after 2 years in the South Pacific

• Wanted to find paradise in Tahiti but found a colonized country whose native culture was disappearing under the pressures of Westernization

• Ignored this reality & showed the Edenic ideal in his imagination

• 3 horizontal zones in increasing abstraction

• Upper centers around a statue of a god• 3rd zone = pool evokes “the mysterious

centers of thought”



The Cry (Scream)• 1893; Edvard Munch• Image of modern alienation • merges Symbolist

suggestiveness with expressionist intensity

• The scream fills the landscape with clouds of “actual blood.”

• Chiefly a dread of death• Fear of open spaces• Reflects influence of Gauguin



A Sunday Afternoon on La Grand Jatte• 1884-86; Georges Seurat• Exhibited at the 8th and final

Impressionist exhibition • Theme of weekend leisure• Rigorous divisionist technique• Stiff formality of figures• Highly calculated geometry• All produce a solemn , abstract effect

quite at odds with the causal naturalism of earlier Impressionism

• Depicts a contemporary subject in a highly formal style

• Recalls much older art, such as that of ancient Egyptians

• Meant to criticize the Parisian middle class?



Mont Sainte-Victoire• 1885-87; Paul Cezanne• Sought to create art with a greater

degree of formal order and structure• Had little professional success• Studied art in Aix then in Paris• Participated in the circle of realist artists

around Manet• Sought to create a sense of order in

nature through a methodical application of color

• Shows a prominent mountain near his home in Aix

• The tree echoes the mountain’s contours• Creates visual harmony between the two

principal elements of the composition• Sense of timeless endurance• Handles painting more deliberately and

constructively• Breaks contours• Forms interpenetrate• Over multiple vantage points• Concept of time



Still Life with Basket of Apples• 1890; Cezanne• Spatial ambiguities• Many objects seem incorrectly

drawn• Right side is higher than the

left• Shows his willful disregard to

the rules of traditional scientific perspective

• He studied different objects from different positions

• Composition is complex and dynamic and seems on the verge of collapse

• “a construction after nature”



Burghers of Calais• 1884-1889; Auguste Rodin• Trained as decorative craftsperson• Failed 3x to gain entrance to the Ecole

des Beaux-Arts• Created vigorously modeled figures in

unconventional poses, which were scorned by academic critics and admired by the public

• He won the competition to create this work

• Commissioned to commemorate an event from the 100 Years War

• Edward III had offered to spare the city of Calais

• Shows the 6 volunteers preparing to give themselves up

• The commissioners weren’t pleased with his conception of the event

• He showed ordinary-looking men in various attitudes of resignation and despair

• Stylized the human body for expressive purposes



The Waltz• 1892-1905; Camille Claudel• Assistant to Rodin• Became his mistress• Suffered from psychosocial problems

and went to an asylum• Depicts a dancing couple• She had to add drapery to the female

nude when the Ministry of the Beaux-Arts found it indecent

• The commission was never carried out• Conveyed an illusion of fluent motion• Encourages viewer to see the piece

from all sides• Little actual physical contact between

figures• Physical closeness reveals no passion• Sought to portray love as a union more

spiritual than physical



Stairway to Tassel House• 1892-93; Victor Horta• Largely responsible for introducing the

Art Nouveau style in architecture• Worked in the office of a Neoclassical

architect in Brussels• Private commission by Professor

Tassel• Intricate series of long, graceful curves• Impressed with the stylized linear

graphic of the English Arts and Crafts movement

• Concern for integrating the various arts into a more unified whole



Casa Mila• 1906-10; Antonio Gaudi• Alive, bending, curving• Hand cut stone• Emphasizes craftsmanship• Roof filled with clay pots



Jane Avril• 1893; Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec• Lithograph• Dedicated himself to depicting the

social life of the Parisian cafes, theaters, dance halls, and brothels

• Designed advertisements for popular night spots and entertainers

• Demonstrates remarkable oringianlity • Juxtaposes the dynamica figure of

Avril dancing onstage at the upper left with the cropped image of a bass player

• Influence of Degas• But he departs from Degas naturalism• Radical simplification of form• Flattening of space• Integration of blank paper into the

composition• All suggest influence of Japanese

woodblock prints



The Kiss• 1907-08; Gustav Klimt• Characteristically Art Nouveau in their

intricate ornamental quality• Tension in the couple’s physical

relationship• They kneel close to the edge of a

precipice• Unsettles the initial impression of a

beautiful surface• Flat, looks like glass• Made $ as portrait painter



World’s Columbian Exposition• 1893• Landscape design by Frederick Law

Olmstead• Head architect: Richard Hunt• Abandoned metal and glass

architecture in favor of “permanent buildings”

• Single style associated with birth of democracy in ancient Greece and the imperial power of ancient Rome

• Reflects US pride in its democratic institutions

• Provided a model for the American city of the future





Wainwright Building• 1890; Louis Sullivan• Studied at MIT• His first major skyscraper• Has a U-shaped plan• Provides an interior light well for

illumination• Seven floors• Attic wrapped in a foliate frieze of high-

relief terra-cotta• Philosophy of functionalism• Corner piers not needed for support• They emphasize upward thrust



ap art history term 3 test 3

Documents

monet monet

play of light

light flickers

subject works

eerie green light

claude monet

japanese prints

city life