19th-Century Art Movements: Realism, Romanticism, and Impressionism

Historical Context of 19th-Century Art

In the middle of the nineteenth century, the bourgeoisie became the ruling class following the triumph of the bourgeois revolutions of 1830 and 1848. Against the bourgeoisie, worker movements began to rise.

Romanticism

The Romantic pictorial movement emphasized the exaltation of color, fantasy, feelings, and the appreciation of the individual.

Romantic Characteristics

• The main objective of this art is not beauty, but the expression of words and feelings that open much wider horizons.
• There is a profound experience of religion.
• It imposes a taste for the exotic, valuing what is different, hence the fixed gaze deep into Eastern worlds.
• Exaltation of the individual and national traditions of freedom.
• Reivindication (assertion) of individual and national freedom.

Realism

Realism's greatest innovation was its focus on new subject matter, specifically the world of work, featuring workers and peasants. The advent of photography in 1839 strongly influenced Realism, challenging art to represent reality differently.

Characteristics of Realism

• From a technical point of view, Realism added little new, utilizing techniques and resources employed by earlier movements.
• Realistic art sought to directly reflect the truth of rural or urban environments, interiors, or portraits.
• Attention was directed toward the landscape, the particular, and the perishable.
• Strong influence from the appearance of photography.

Impressionism

Impressionist Objectives and Features

The aim of the Impressionists was to achieve a spontaneous and direct representation of the world.

• Coloring of shadows (using color instead of black).
• Spontaneous compositions.
• Depiction of light and its fleeting effects.

Post-Impressionism

Post-Impressionism is crucial in art history because its innovative proposals renewed painting, paving the way for subsequent avant-garde artistic movements.

Key Characteristics of Post-Impressionism

• Strong interest in drawing and the expressiveness of objects and human figures.
• Reconciliation between emotional effect and purely aesthetic taste.
• Conception of the painting based on strictly geometrical bodies.
• Use of contrasting colors.
• Highly charged, pure colors.