From the 17th century to the 19th century, with the large-scale development of industrialization, urbanization and modernization, Europe and the United States ushered in the most important moment in history, the change of civilization, the change of lifestyle and the ruling order. The main shifts are:
Industrial civilization replaces agricultural civilization, modern industrial society replaces traditional small-scale peasant society, industrial economy replaces agricultural economy, urban lifestyle replaces pastoral rural lifestyle, and new value systems replace old ideas. Of course, the most important thing is the change of the ruling class: the replacement of the old feudal aristocracy by the new rich bourgeoisie, the disintegration of the old aristocratic ruling order, the establishment of the new rich bourgeois ruling order.
These political, economic and social changes in Europe and the United States are also deeply reflected in the field of culture and art, especially in the field of literature and painting. As I said before, art is the most sensitive perception of the times, and artists are born sensitive.
From the 17th century to the 19th century, this period ushered in a colorful era in the field of painting art. There are not only Baroque painting art and Rococo painting art that are aesthetically interesting to the old aristocracy, but also the Realist School, the Barbizon School, the Dutch School of painting that criticize the old aristocracy, and the Impressionism school, which represents the aesthetic taste of the new wealthy bourgeoisie.
As before, I would like to draw the first conclusion: the evolution from the Dutch school to the Impressionists is essentially the disintegration of the old aristocratic ruling order and the establishment of the new rich bourgeois ruling order.
I explained it before in the article "The Evolution of Byzantine Art to Baroque and Rococo Art, the Essence is the Decline of the Old Feudal Aristocracy": From Byzantine art, to Baroque art, to Rococo art, the essence is the decline and decline of the old feudal nobility.
Byzantine art represented the glorious era of the old nobility, the emergence of Baroque art meant that the old aristocracy began to decline, and Rococo art was the last afterglow of the old nobility. Byzantine art is full of grandeur, asceticism, sacredness, and even in Baroque art, it is still majestic and majestic, and of course it begins to become full of tension, emphasizing strong exuberance, grandeur, luxury and court pleasure, to rococo art is completely ostentatious, deliberate, luxurious, hedonistic.
From the aesthetic interest, it can be seen that the decline of the old aristocracy has become unstoppable, and finally only the ostentatious aristocratic life remains, only the extravagance of life, the enjoyment of desire, and the temptation of eroticism.
With the collapse of Rococo painting and the old feudal aristocracy, a new era came, during which the field of art and painting included the Dutch School, William Hogas in Britain, Chardin in France, and the Barbizon School and Impressionism.
The Dutch school of painting, abandoning the aristocratic aesthetic, they mainly based on portraits, landscape paintings, still life paintings and genre paintings, the themes of painting are figures, landscapes, cityscapes, still life, etc., are real life, social customs, mediocre daily depictions, began to cater to the aesthetic tastes of the new wealthy bourgeoisie and the civic class.
Critical realist painting and the Barbizon school, at this time the painter has changed from the previous implicit expression of his ideas, but directly criticizes the old aristocracy and the aesthetic tastes of the old aristocracy.
By the time of the Impressionists, the old feudal aristocracy and the new rich bourgeoisie had completed the transfer of power, the new rich bourgeoisie had established a ruling order, and aesthetic taste had shifted from the old aristocracy to the new rich bourgeoisie. Aesthetic taste represents the interests of the new wealthy bourgeoisie.
Therefore, the main elements in the works of Impressionists, the elements of industrialization and urbanization, the lifestyle and leisure mode of the middle class, the main expression of connotation is modernity, class, class mobility, sex, men, women, money, desire.
Industrialization: Elements of industrialization such as factories, chimneys, and trains often appear in Monet's paintings.
Urbanization: prostitutes and the bedrooms of prostitutes, parisian street singers, beggars, scavengers, men and women who lean out of the window, people with telescopes, hot air balloons, dense crowds, the arcades of Paris, modern ports, bridges.
Lifestyle: proms, bars, bars, music cafes, balconies, fairs, yachts, middle-class communities, harbors, racetracks. Women's hats, skirts, parasols, gloves, fans.
Leisure: boulevard strolls, picnics on the grass, a day on the beach, reading on the railing, gardens, reflections in the water.
Ports, bridges, trains, meadows, prostitutes, are all products of modernity, industrialization, urbanization, and are synonymous with the new rich bourgeoisie.
The Dutch School
Representatives of the Dutch school include Rembrandt, Vermeer, Hals, jan Sten. Let's take Rembrandt as an example.
Rembrandt and the Night Watch
Rembrandt was an outstanding representative of the Dutch school. Representative works include "Night Watch".
The Night Watch is widely regarded as one of the most important paintings in the world. The painting depicts a group of members of the Civic Army preparing to march toward a certain target. It embodies the lofty ideals of people fighting for and defending freedom. However, this painting became a turning point in his life, and his life fell into a trough, but his artistic achievements reached its peak and led to the golden age of the Netherlands.
More on this I say in the article "The Netherlands of the 17th Century under the Dutch School: The Decline of the Old Aristocracy, the Rise of the New Wealthy Bourgeoisie."
William Hogarth
I introduced William Hogarth in Hogarth's Britain: The Fallen Upper Class, the Hypocritical Middle Class, the Struggling Underclass.
William Hogarth was the most important British oil painter and printmaker of the 18th century. From a critical point of view, he sharply attacked the decay and degeneration of the British aristocratic class at that time. "Prostitute Career", "Prodigal Career", "Fashionable Marriage". He was very good at using plot to express his thoughts, using satire to expose the corruption, degeneration, and extravagance of 18th-century British high society.
Chardin
Chardin was the most famous French realist painter of the 18th century. In the 18th century, when it was still the world of Rococo art, most of the painters were still pandering to the old aristocracy, but Chardin paid attention to ordinary people. His works depict ordinary scenes of family life, and the still lifes and figures under his brush are warm and simple and real. He is a transition from Rococo to realism.
"Prayer Before Lunch"
The mother asked the two children to recite the prayer before the meal, but one of the children forgot the contents, and the mother got up to give the prompt. The warm colors set off a happy and harmonious living atmosphere of a family, and expressed the pursuit of family morality and faith education in the emerging civic class.
The Maid Who Returned from a Purchase
The maid, who had just entered the kitchen, was carrying a cloth pocket containing vegetables and meat in one hand, and two large loaves of bread on the stove in the other. At this time, there seemed to be some movement in the outside world that attracted her attention, and she was turning her head to look back outside the door, dynamic and natural. Depicting the ordinary life of a kitchen lady is a common theme in Sherdan's genre paintings.
These works by Chardin foreshadow the doom of the aristocratic class and the future world should belong to the thriving new wealthy bourgeoisie. Chardin had a great influence on Renoir, Cézanne, and Matisse in Late Impressionism.
The Barbizon School
Representatives of the Barbizon school include Corot, Miller, Courbet, and Dumière. Coro and Miller focused on the countryside, the praises of the peasants, and the love of nature to achieve the purpose of criticism, while Courbet and Doumière were direct criticisms. Let's take Dumière's "Third Class Carriage" as an example.
"Third Class Carriage"
This painting is a masterpiece of Dumière's oil painting. Strangers sit in a crowded carriage, and in the foreground is an old woman holding a vegetable basket, dazed and alone, and a stout young woman on the left, clutching a baby, sleepy. The little boy on the right clings to the old woman and enters a sweet sleep. Although people are physically close to each other, they are more lonely and lonely spiritually.
impressionism
I spoke of Impressionism in the article "Impressionism: The Expression of the New Rich Middle Class's Ostentation of Wealth, Sensual Pleasure, and Extravagant Lifestyle."
Impressionism is one of the most important schools of modernism, and its representative figures include Manet, Monet, Renoir, Degas, Pissarro, Sisley, Morisso, Bazijo, and the later figures Van Gogh and Cézanne. Impressionism is the expression of the new wealth of the rich bourgeoisie showing off, sensual pleasures, and extravagant life.
Edouard Manet was a pioneer of Impressionism, with masterpieces such as "The Balcony" and "Lunch on the Grass", while Claude Monet was the most representative figure of Impressionism, a figure who carried forward and flourished, and his representative works were "Sunrise Impression".
Lunch on the Grass
Created in 1863, Manet is a and two men dressed for lunch on the grass. During the day the park has an elegant and pleasant atmosphere, while at night it becomes a well-known red light district.
"Sunrise impressions"
Everything on the screen seems to be shrouded in a veil of air, whether it is the sun, the ship, the figure or the water surface, not through shapes and lines, but through light and color.
Finally, we can make a summary: from Byzantine art, to Baroque art, to Rococo art, the essence is the decline and decline of the feudal old aristocracy. From the Dutch School to the Impressionists, the essence was the collapse of the old aristocratic rule, the establishment of the new rich bourgeois rule.