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Claude Monet (1840–1926)
Artists had new and often brighter colors to work with. In 1874, Monet displayed a painting titled Impression: Sunrise in an exhibition with a fellow group of artists. Critics were outraged at this new style that looked unfinished and quickly termed it “Impressionism,” after the title of Monet’s painting. Born in Paris, Monet grew up […]
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Visual Art
The invention of the camera and the process of photography made artists reexamine the purpose of their art. The camera could capture the world exactly as it appeared. Photography forced artists to search for new ways of showing images. With Realism’s goals (capturing the common man) and the invention of the camera, the next generation […]
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Maurice Ravel (1875–1937)
Ravel was a French composer who lived at the same time as Debussy. He used many of the same techniques as his countryman. His music reflects an interest in the exotic, jazz style of Wagner and Russian music. Ravel wrote music that portrayed ideas more than images. His composition “La Valse” (“The Waltz”) represented Ravel’s […]
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Claude Debussy (1862–1918)
The music of Debussy mirrors the visual art of France during his lifetime. Just as French painters were trying to capture the effects of light on subjects, Debussy tried to create music that represented visual images and emotions. Once again, opera, solo vocal, orchestra, and piano pieces were changed by new ideas and compositional techniques. […]
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Impressionism and Post-Impressionism
Impressionism and Post-Impressionism (1850–1920) Impressionism was primarily a visual art movement begun by a group of artists in France who started exhibiting their work in the 1860s. The Impressionist style shows the effects of light and atmospheric conditions in artworks that spontaneously capture a moment of time. Music was the only other art form that most […]
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Visual Art
Realism evolved in the midst of the Industrial Revolution. Life wasn’t always pretty or happy. It could be downright dull, if not depressing. Artists looked to the working class and people performing everyday, often boring, tasks as subjects for their artwork. Paintings broke the accepted compositional rules, cutting people off at the edges of the […]
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Tennessee Williams
In class, there were two aspects of Williams’ work that required further discussion. The first was his ability to combine realism and expressionism. The second was his use of Freudian psychoanalysis to create his characters.
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Music
Realism in the arts applied more to visual arts and theatre than to any musical style. It is the depiction of subjects as they appear in everyday life, without embellishment or interpretation. In the spirit of nationalism, many composers used the melodies from common folk tunes and dances in their formal compositions. Some operas were […]
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Folk and Social Dance
In the early 1800s, America was still a very young nation, largely being explored and settled by pioneers. Dance as artistic expression was not practical under these conditions. People did not have leisure time or money to spend on cultivating dance as an artistic form. Therefore, dance as a means of social interaction became extremely […]
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Drama/Theatre
In the mid-nineteenth century, there was a revolt against the romanticism and melodrama in play productions. Writers emerged creating plays with more natural speech and realistic situations, mirroring real life. These playwrights also raised questions about social and economic problems of the lower and middles classes that existed at the time. One big change in […]
