19th and 20th Century Art

Very little is known about Tomàs Aceves, a Spanish artist working during the late 19^th century. However, looking at his extensive body of work, it is clear that the artist had a favored subject: the Alcázar in Seville. The intricate architectural forms of the royal palace’s mudéjar style—a distinctive mélange of Islamic, Moorish, Gothic, Renaissance, and Romanesque elements—appears in countless of Aceves’ paintings. Originally constructed in the 8^th century by the Umayyad Caliphate, the palace was later reconstructed and added upon by the Catholic monarchs of Spain who reclaimed the region during the Reconquista of the 13^th – 16^th centuries. 

This painting displays the Courtyard of the Dolls (Patio de las Muñecas), a small courtyard designed to organize the rooms of the Palace’s private area. The name derives from the small doll heads that decorate the entryway arches. The columns and capitals of the structure date to antiquity; however, much of the courtyard was remodeled by the Catholic Monarchs and later restored during the 19^th century. Aceves carefully renders the various textures and patterns of the courtyard’s elaborate architecture to almost photorealistic detail. This purported documentarian quality of the work, along with the unnaturally inserted props (the potted plant, rug, and pillow), situate that artist within the Orientalist genre. The verisimilitude of the painting sought to capture “realistic” images of the distant colonies while the unusual props, particularly the Oriental rug and pillow, further exotified the foreign lands and cultures. The reappearance of these items along with the prolific nature of Aceves’ paintings perhaps indicates the artist’s efforts to cater to the popular Orientalist genre of the time.

Bouguereau, perhaps better than any other artist, typifies the French Academic style of painting in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. His paintings are characterized by superb technique, harmonious composition, and elegance. His first lessons were with Louis Sage, a pupil of Jean-August-Dominique Ingres (1780-1867). Draughtsmanship and long, elegant lines are the qualities for which Ingres is renown, and these qualities are apparent in Bouguereau's work as well. Bouguereau was the recipient of an outstanding education, culminating at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He was awarded the Grand Prix de Rome in 1850, and in 1888 he was appointed a professor at the École des Beaux-Arts, Paris. Yet, his reputation as an artist has waxed and waned several times from the late nineteenth century to the present. Bouguereau's work tends to be sentimental and quasi-mythological in a neo-classical manner. Because of this, his work was considered passé by the end of the nineteenth century when critics, following Charles Baudelaire's charge, called for works of art that reflected everyday life. In contrast to Bouguereau's neo-classical refinement, we may consider Pablo Picasso's blue period subjects (1901-1903) of beggars and absinthe drinkers. When it came into the Cornell's collection, Tendres propos was known as "Innocence." However, research undertaken in the late 1990s for the catalogue raisonnée of Bouguereau revealed that in a sale of 1901 this painting was known by its current, and less-generic, title.

This is an excellent example of French nineteenth-century Realism, a movement that rebelled against the idealized content of mythical and historical painting and turned, instead, to contemporary subjects. In 1851, Gustave Courbet (1819-1877) became the leading French Realist, creating a coherent and revolutionary movement through his massive compositions with great social consciousness. Wood Rafts on the Rhine River also shows a debt to Romanticism (the movement preceding Realism), especially to an 1819 work by the great Romantic painter Théodore Géricault (1791-1824), The Raft of the Medusa. The grim sky, muted colors, muscular figures, and triangular composition (formed by the barge, workmen, and poles) all recall The Raft of the Medusa, but with an added grittiness and naturalism. The artist Gustave Brion lived most of his life in Strasbourg on the Rhine. His Realistic works, of which this painting is very typical, exhibit a great sympathy for the workmen and farmers of Alsace-Lorraine. Brion exhibited this award-winning work, which helped to establish his reputation, in the Salon of 1855. It was engraved in 1856 by Jean-Pierre-Marie Jazet (1788-1871).

Paul Cezanne was a French Post-Impressionist painter, who greatly inspired the art of Cubism, Fauvism, and other avant-garde styles. His expressive brushwork and use of color highlight the artist’s methodical approach to depicting landscapes and genre scenes. Throughout Cezanne’s prolific career, the nude became an important recurring theme.. He often drew the bodies from memory or his imagination, rather than from a human model. The Large Bathers, based mostly on his 1876-1877 painting Bathers at Rest, is an example of Cezanne’s work in lithography, rare in the artist’s oeuvre. In 1896-1897, Cezanne created this lithograph for art dealer Ambroise Vollard’s album of prints. Although this work is black and white, there are other hand-colored versions of this print.

Raised in France, Jean Charlot’s commitment to his Christian faith was a constant in his life and artistic practice. But the decision to leave France—he moved to Mexico with his mother in 1920—forever changed his artistic path. Before the move, he had developed a great interest in the history and visual culture of Mexico. From a young age he heard stories of Mexico and became familiar with its ancient civilizations. Upon his arrival there, Charlot lived in Mexico City, but traveled to other parts of the country.

The Great Builders II was inspired by his time in the Yucatán. In addition to his fascination with pre- Columbian ruins, Charlot engaged in deep learning about contemporary indigenous traditions, and became a particular proponent of Indigenismo, a social and political movement that encouraged emphasis on Amerindian cultures that was embraced by artists working in Mexico in the first half of the twentieth century. He also wrote prolifically about Mexican art, from popular art to murals.

A prolific painter and printmaker, Lovis Corinth was a leading figure in the Berlin Secession, an avant-garde artist collective that pushed against the academic salons and state organized exhibitions to advance modern art in Berlin. He produced numerous portraits and landscapes characterized by impressionist and expressionist visual elements and deep psychological tension. In this work, the artist portrays himself in his studio, with the instruments of his craft and looking out at the viewer while standing next to his easel. The loose linework emphasizes the expressionist quality of the image and contrasts with his severe expression and gaze. In 1911 Corinth suffered a stroke that left him partially paralyzed and affected the use of his hands. His style became much more vibrant and expressive as a result. 

Honoré Daumier, a prolific draughtsman, printmaker and illustrator, is best known for his satirical caricatures and his critique of all segments of society from the urban middle class to the upper echelons.  Daumier’s works are characterized by scenes of modern life.  In his Les Paysagistes, translated as The Landscapers, Daumier depicts two figures, an artist and a farmer, in the countryside.  The artist sits at an easel and sketches the farmer while she holds the tools of her trade.  The French description at the bottom of the sketch translates to “Do not move! You are beautiful like this.”  Here, he produces his satirical commentary on the Barbizon painters, who found inspiration working en plen air, or outdoors. Barbizon painters rejected classical conventions and instead of the traditional practice of artists in a studio rendering academic subjects, they often depicted scenes of everyday life while working directly in nature. Daumier spent some time in Barbizon, near the Forest of Fontainebleau in the summer of 1865.

Edgar Degas was a founding leader of the Impressionist movement, however he disliked the term and preferred to classify himself as a Realist.  Throughout his prolific career, the artist often experimented with new artistic materials and methods. His body of work is composed of numerous types of media such as pastel, sculpture, printmaking, and drawing, which often depicted the human figure and scenes of everyday life.  Mary Cassatt in the Louvre shows Degas’ technical innovation by combining etching, aquatint, and dry point to create a pastel effect. In this work, the artist pays unique attention to the Paintings Gallery in the Louvre, where several of his works were displayed along those of Mary Cassat (1844-1926). Cassatt, an Impressionist Painter and American expatriate, was known for her representations of mothers and children. Her silhouette creates a strong diagonal in the work and contrasts the seated position of her sister. Cassatt is the more engaged of the two as she interacts directly with the artworks, while her sister appears hidden behind a guidebook and turned away from the paintings.  

Trained at the Florentine Accademia di Belle Arti, Emilio P. Fiaschi was a marble sculptor whose surviving works are mostly allegorical and mythological status, and busts of maidens. This work stands out in its remarkable liveliness and illusionism, the face still discernible underneath the clinging gossamer of a windblown (or wet) veil. Her subtly modeled facial features, such as downcast eyes and parted lips revealing her teeth, make strong contrasts to the jagged lines of her creased veil. Her bare-skinned shoulders and neck are pumiced to perfect smoothness in contrast to the wrinkled dress.

Many other nineteenth-century artists, including Raffaelle Monti (1818-1881), Camilo Torreggiani (1820-1896), and Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse (1824-1887), sculpted veiled figures in marble, a technically demanding subject. Unlike other examples, The Veiled Lady is neither static nor neoclassical. It captures the subject’s vivacity and conveys a sense of the transient moment derived from a close observation of reality. Instead of a vestal virgin, Fiaschi represents a modern woman of means in the finery of that time. The single rose stem beneath her chest may still be a traditional symbolic motif, whether referring to the transience of life or love.

Though best known for his large-scale work, Gasq also created modestly sized statues in both marble and bronze, like this Hero and Leander, for the market. Characteristic of an artist trained at the École des Beaux-Arts and exhibiting at the Salon, Gasq favored classical and allegorical subjects. Hero and Leander are two mortal lovers in Greek mythology. Leander swam a dangerous strait in the dark for his nightly trysts with Hero, a priestess of Venus, until on one tempestuous night he was drowned. Gasq renders the moment when Hero mourns over Leander’s dead body cast ashore. She kisses him, lifts up and embraces his head with one hand, and draws his lifeless hand close to her chest with the other. Her gestures and the expression on her face encapsulate deep sorrow and her love for Leander. The sculptor masterfully represents the wet drapery clinging to Hero’s lower body, her wind-blown hair, water churning over rocks, and Leander’s inert yet beautiful body.

Twentieth century artist Käthe Kollwitz’s emotional and powerful works became associated with the German Expressionism movement in which artists expressed and represented the social anxieties during the era leading up to WWI. Dedicated to social reform, most of Käthe Kollwitz’s works symbolize the anguish and burdens of the working class in Germany. During the turn of the century, Germany faced numerous economic crises in which much of the population was poor with very little income. Her naturalistic style appeals to the viewer’s emotions and captures the bleak outlook thatmany individuals endured at thetime, especially those of working women. In this work, the woman appears dejected, with her eyes downcast and the dark shadows enveloping her face. This work reflects the artist’s personal sympathies towards the working classes.

Marie Laurencin began her long and successful career as one of the artists in the circle known as the Bateau-Lavoir, named after the building in Paris’ Montmartre district where Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) and Georges Braque (1882–1963) had their studio in the 1910s. Laurencin met Braque when she was studying art at the Académie Humbert. She became a regular participant in the artistic, intellectual, and social life of the Parisian avant-garde; among the visitors to the Bateau-Lavoir were the painters Henri Matisse (1869–1954) and André Derain (1880–1954) and the writers Guillaume Apollinaire (1880-1918) and Jean Cocteau (1889-1963).

She developed an individual style characterized by graceful images of female figures rendered in delicate shades of blue, pink, and green, with dark eyes and hair. Untitled: Two Women is representative of this style: two dancers stand close together, clothed in pale pink-beige outfits against a background of soft blue-gray and a more vivid periwinkle blue on the left. The collage technique and unfinished quality of this piece suggest that it may have been a sketch for a more finished work. Like Picasso, Laurencin was commissioned by dance impresario Sergei Diaghilev to produce costumes and set designs for ballets, and she produced several oil paintings of dancers, often in pairs or trios. It is conceivable that this work was used as a way to experiment with color combinations of costumes and sets for a ballet production.

Read the Virtual Lavender Label for this work.

Sir John Lavery was best known for his portraiture. In the 1870s, he attended classes at the Haldane Academy of Art while he worked for a Glasgow photographer, retouching photographs. In 1879 he moved to London and took painting classes at Hetherley’s School, where he painted costume models and learned the art of producing marketable backgrounds. Lavery traveled to Paris in 1888, studied at the Académie Julian, and worked alongside international artists. There, his work gained recognition, and by 1888 he was awarded the opportunity to paint Queen Victoria's visit to the International Exhibition in Glasgow during the year of her jubilee. This commission propelled his career and solidified his standing as a distinguished portrait painter.

In 1910, the editor of the Illustrated London News commissioned Lavery to paint a portrait of the Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova, to advertise her second season at the Palace Theatre. Lavery accepted the request with the stipulation that Pavlova would provide “a reasonable number of sittings and some kind of understanding that appointments would be kept.” Pavlova modeled for Lavery regularly during her time in London. These appointments resulted in the portrait for Illustrated London News, in addition to two full-length painted portraits of Pavlova in her role as Bacchante, including the one shown here (the second is in the collection of the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow).

Henri Matisse, an early twentieth century French designer, writer, and artist worked in painting, sculpture, and print. After an exhibition at the Salon d’Automne in October 1905, Matisse among several of his contemporaries were identified as fauves (wild beasts), for their brash, colorful, and avant-garde compositions. He used expressive brushwork and unnaturalistic, bright and vivid colors in his works that challenged traditional modes of representation and moved away from the style of Impressionism.  In this work, created not long after that exhibition, Matisse depicts a female nude in an intimate setting. Though the composition is void of color, the linework is signature of his technique. The busy, geometric lines of the background emphasize the delicate, curved lines and the lack of defined musculature of the figure in the foreground. While Matisse worked in a variety of printing techniques, this woodcut is a rare example from his oeuvre. 

Marius-Jean-Antonin Mercié, who studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, was one of the most prominent French sculptors of his time, and his monumental works were in great demand. During the four decades of his prolific career beginning with his Salon debut in 1868, he received numerous major institutional awards, public popularity, and critical acclaim.

The hollow-cast bronze Gloria Victis is a reduced serial cast after his 3-meter-high original in plaster made while in Rome. When Prussia invaded France in 1870, Mercié executed a winged female figure of Glory supporting a victorious soldier, but after learning of the French surrender in 1871 he replaced the latter with a dead soldier holding a broken sword. The work thus became a memorial for the fallen soldiers of the Franco-Prussian War, an allegory of “Glory to the Vanquished.” This commemorative monument, first shown in Rome in 1873 and then in Paris the next year, received a sensational public reception. The city of Paris acquired the plaster sculpture and had it cast in bronze at full scale (now in the Hôtel de Ville) in 1875. Other communities throughout France also commissioned full-scale bronze casts of this celebrated work. In response to its enormous popularity, Barbedienne, a noted Parisian foundry, was authorized to make Gloria Victis in reduced scale. Inscribed on the front rim of this sculpture’s base is the work’s title, “GLORIA VICTIS,” and on its back, the foundry mark, “F. BARBEDIENNE, FONDEUR.” Near the left foot of the winged figure is the artist’s signature, “A. MERCIÉ.”

It is worth noting the grace of both figures’ elongated bodies. The diagonal lines created by Glory’s limbs and open wings suggest energetic movement. The bronze surface also has sumptuous patinas: dark brown for the drapery, medium brown on the skin, and gilt tone on Glory’s armor.

Born in Palermo, Italy, in 1851, Domenico Pagano was a portrait sculptor who exhibited nationally and internationally in the 1880s and 1890s. Although little is known about his life and specific artistic training, his portraits of children from North Africa are among his most notable works. The two illustrated here represent a Berber (or Imazighen) boy and girl in their native garb. The works show the dignified treatment of the figures capturing the individuality of their expressions and adornments. It is unclear whether Pagano traveled to North Africa or if the sitters were among the African residents of Palermo. Instead of the exoticizing and Orientalist approach of other artists of the period, Pagano focused on the personalities and characteristics of the individuals he represented. The polychrome technique he employed renders the expressions, textures and details with a degree of realism that makes the figures seem familiar.

Alberto Pasini is best known for his Orientalist paintings that realistically depict Middle and Near Eastern subjects, based on first-hand observations during his extensive travels to the region.  His first trip was to Persia via Egypt in 1855–56.  During his second trip in 1859, he stopped at Cairo, crossed Arabia along the Lebanese coast, and ended in Athens. A Mosque in Cairo is characteristic of Pasini’s genre-like paintings with Orientalist themes that render city lives and highlight Islamic architecture and customs. Equally typical is the atmosphere evoked through intense light and brilliant color. Here, Pasini captures a slice of urban life taking place in the corner of a square, outside a smithy and a small mosque. Two farriers hammer a horseshoe onto one of two horses, watched by two men dressed in caftans nearby. Though meticulously rendered and having the semblance of a careful recording of an observed reality, it is an imaginary scene concocted from earlier drawings.

Pablo Picasso was a Spanish painter whose prolific career totals more than 20,000 artworks. His style encompasses that of Cubism, Neoclassicism, Surrealism, and Expressionism. In his final years, Picasso was highly influenced by historic paintings and how he would fit into the art historical canon. Les Femmes d’Alger is a series of around 14 paintings and 100 drawings inspired by Eugene Delacroix’s 1834 painting The Women of Algiers in their Apartment. Picasso encountered this work at the Louvre in 1874 and visited many times to study the painting. While Delacroix’s orientalist work was rendered in a romanticized style, Picasso dismantled Delacroix’s themes, figures, and imagery and transformed them with a modern take. Here, Picasso emphasized the two-dimensional quality of the picture plane and created abstracted, geometric figures inspired stylistically in part by his colleague, Henri Matisse.

Emile Louis Picault made numerous bronze statues of allegorical, mythological, and historical subject matter. Typical of his work, La Source du Pactole (The Source of Pactolus/Great Wealth) is an allegory personified by an idealized young male nude. The figure that appears seated on a rock personifies the river Pactolus, where according to Greek mythology King Midas washed his hands and thereby turned sand into gold; the word “pactole” in French is synonymous with “great wealth” and “gold mine.” His pose and attribute of a water jug, out of which gold coins spill like water, adhere to the traditional iconography of river gods. However, this figure appears to be modeled after a worker who holds a hammer and a caliper in each hand and wears a headscarf. In the last quarter of the nineteenth century, images of workers and manual labor were indeed prevalent and tended to be idealized like heroes and gods.

Joseph Mallord William Turner was a nineteenth century English Romantic painter and printmaker, recognized for his sublime landscapes and seascapes.  In his Shipwreck, the artist demonstrates the sheer force of the elements; the sea becomes the focus of the composition as the individuals on the boats fall victim to the power and strength of the water.  Turner incorporates chiaroscuro, the contrast between light and dark, to create perspective, depth, and drama.  This intensely atmospheric and dynamic scene depicts the dangers of natural phenomena and emphasizes the sublime notion that humans are at the mercy of nature which was popular in the nineteenth century. This engraving, created after Turner’s 1805 painting, highlights the work of one of his most dedicated principal engravers, William Miller.

The nineteenth century saw the revival of gothic and medieval designs, and by the 1860s they had become a major influence in Europe, especially England due to its cultural past. Craftsmen explored the medieval period further by reviving the stained-glass medium to adorn the interior of churches and private residencies. These stained-glass windows were likely made by a commercial English studio for the 1871 Hartford, Connecticut home of Lucy and James Goodwin.  Set at the end of the hallway of the main entrance of the house, which overlooked the piazza, the windows immediately set the tone for visitors. The jewel-toned windows recall medieval stained-glass design, with roundels featuring oak, maple, and cherry branches, birds, and fruit.

Born in Puteaux, France in 1875, Jacques Villon was a printmaker and illustrator whose earlier works aligned with the stylistic characteristics of Cubism. Villon (born Gaston Duchamp) was the brother of Marcel Duchamp, one of the most influential artists of the 20th century. The subject of this work, Renée, was the daughter of a relative, who appears in several of Villon’s works created around the same time as this one. This was a period of transition for Villon who experimented with various styles before embracing abstraction as his predominant visual strategy. Here, the artist focuses on capturing the young woman’s intense gaze as she looks directly at the viewer.