The Age of Petipa

Part 2: The 19th Century World

Art in context

• All art is an expressive form of communication.

• The artist is inevitably influenced by his/her surroundings and life experiences.

• Having context for a work or style of works can provide greater understanding of and appreciation for that work.

A changing world…

• From 1800- 1900 (Petipa lived 1818- 1910)• Political, economic and social structures were

changing dramatically:– Around the world revolutions changed the faces of

government– European imperialism began to lose it’s stronghold– Industrialization led to urbanization and the rise of

a middle class

Western World 1815

Imperialism in Asia (1840)

Imperialism in South Africa (1815)

The end of serfdom

Beginning of industrialization…

Terrible working conditions:OvercrowdedLong hours, including Saturday and SundayChildren worked in factoriesDangerous and unsanitary conditionsLow wages

Industrialization leads to changes in social order• Growth of cities• Rise of a middle class• Unions to protect workers rights• Child labor laws• Middle class turns to arts to :– Escape from day to day routine– Experience lifestyle of the upper class

Europe 1815-1848

Revolutionary conditions

• The French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Era (1789-1815) was ended by an anti-Napoleonic coalition of Dynastic states who authorized the restoration of "legitimate" rulers who had been displaced from their thrones and also authorized a suppression of liberalism, constitutionalism, and nationalism in order to ensure the continued political authority of dynastic government.

Habsburg Empire

Conditions aggravated by:

• Poor economic conditions• Bad grain harvests• Blight, particularly in potatoes• Rise in food prices • Rise in unemployment• Moving to cities or other countries in search of

opportunities

Revolutions of 1848

• French Revolution• “Italian” Revolution• Völkerfrühling (Springtime of

Peoples)Revolution in the German lands

Rue Saint-Maur-Popincourt 25 June, 1848

19th Century United States:Industrialization and Innovation

• 1808- Congress prohibits the African slave trade.• 1814- Francis Cabot Lowell opens the first U.S.

factory able to convert raw cotton into cloth using power machinery.

• 1814- Lawyer Francis Scott Key, detained on a British warship, writes "The Star-Spangled Banner”

• 1821- Emma Hart Willard opens the Troy Female Seminary, the first institution in the United States to offer a high school education for girls.

1807- Robert Fulton sails his steamship the Clermont on the Hudson River, inaugurating a new era of steam-powered transportation.

• 1823- Monroe Doctrine: President James Monroe declares the Western Hemisphere is closed to further European colonization and threatens to use force to stop European interventions in the Americas.

• 1827-Samuel E. Cornish and John B. Russwurm publish the first African American newspapers, Freedom’s Journal.

• 1834- The first coeducational college in the United States, Oberlin, opens, with a class of 29 men and 15 women. In 1835, Oberlin became the first college to admit African Americans.

• 1844-Samuel F.B. Morse sends the first message by telegraph

1848- Alexander T. Stewart opens the first department store on Broadway in New York.

1857- Elisha Otis installs the first passenger elevator in a New York department store.

• 1848- New York State grants married women the right to own property apart from their husbands.

• 1861-1865 Civil War• 1863- President Lincoln declares last Thursday of

November Thanksgiving Day.• 1865- The 13th Amendment to the US

Constitution abolishes slavery. • 1867- "Seward's Icebox." Russia sells Alaska to

the United States for $7.2 million, or less than 2 cents an acre.

• 1869- Transcontinental railroad is completed.

1876- 29-year-old Alexander Graham Bell patents the telephone.

1877- 30-year-old Thomas Edison invents the phonograph.

1879- Thomas Edison invents the light bulb.

• 1886- President Grover Cleveland unveils the Statue of Liberty.

• 1891-James Naismith, a p.e. instructor at the YMCA Training College in Springfield, Mass., invents basketball.

• 1899- The Literary Digest writes: "The ordinary horseless carriage is at present a luxury for the wealthy; and although its price will fall in the future, it will never, of course, come into as common use as the bicycle."

US Presidents during Petipa’s lifetime

• 6. John Quincy Adams 18. Ulysses S. Grant• 7. Andrew Jackson 19. Rutherford B. Hayes• 8. Martin Van Buren 20. James Garfield• 9. William Henry Harrison 21. Chester A. Arthur• 10. John Tyler 22. Grover Cleveland• 11. James K. Polk 23. Benjamin Harrison• 12. Zachary Taylor 24. Grover Cleveland• 13. Millard Fillmore 25. William McKinley• 14. Franklin Pierce 26. Theodore Roosevelt• 15. James Buchanan• 16. Abraham Lincoln • 17. Andrew Johnson

Cool inventions of 19th century• Gas lighting tin can• Raincoat plastic• Toy balloon washing machine• Matches traffic lights• Typewriter moving pictures• Sewing machine perforated toilet paper• Wrench Coca-cola• Bicycle contact lenses• Stapler roller coaster• Anesthesia (for tooth extraction) zipper

• Changes in social and political structures are reflected in arts.

• New inventions impact developments in arts.

Visual artists of 19th century

• Delacroix• Goya• Renoir• Degas• Toulouse-Lautrec• Monet• Seurat• Rousseau• 1870s First Impressionist Art Exhibit

Giselle at Paris Opera

Rodin’s The Kiss

Music and musicians• Romanticism is emphasized in compositions• Turn of century, Beethoven begins trend of

larger scale works for larger audiences• Compositions for larger orchestra, more

opportunities for professional musicians• Famous composers include:– Tchaikovsky --Brahms --Debussy– Berlioz --Delibes

--Grieg– Chopin --Wagner

--Ravel

Authors and literature

• Famous authors include:– Byron, Shelley, Keats, Whitman, Marx, Nietzsche,

Dostoevsky, Zola, Alexander Dumas (pere & fils), Oscar Wilde,

– 1813 Jane Austen Pride and Prejudice– 1852 Harriet Beecher Stowe publishes Uncle Tom's Cabin.

(When Stowe met President Lincoln, he reportedly asked her: "Is this the little woman whose book made such a great war?”)

– 1864- Lewis Carroll Alice in Wonderland– 1894- Kipling The Jungle Book

Theaters and playwrights

• Covent Garden Opera House (rebuilt twice)• Paris Opera House • Mariinsky theatre renovated

• Goethe’s Faust (premieres 1828)• Ibsen

Mariinsky Theatre (1800’s)

Paris Opera

Paris Opera (1860)

Covent Garden Royal Opera House

Home Insurance Building First steel frame skyscraperChicago, 1885

Eiffel Tower1889

Mariinsky Theatre (present)

La Bayadere (Paris Opera)

Swan Lake (Mariinsky Theatre)

• How did the social and political changes and technological developments of the 19th century affect ballet?– Audiences– Theatres– Dramatic and structural forms– Music