Junior Docent School Program - Milwaukee Art Museum

seldom depicted still. Instead they stretch, move, and gesture. Whether it is a religious
subject, mythological theme, battle, hunting scene, or portrait, Baroque artists gave
drama to the ordinary scenes they depicted in their artwork.
Realism and Naturalism (1830s - 1870 CE)
In the 1800s, the Industrial Revolution caused many social and economic problems.
Jobs were hard to find and working conditions were poor for those people lucky enough
to find employment. There was growing concern on the part of artists and writers about
the plight of ordinary persons at home and at work. The concern was reflected in this
style of art that became popular in the mid-nineteenth century. Realism/Naturalism
implied a desire to depict things accurately and objectively. Although these artists did
paint in a realistic style, the realism they were interested in was a matter of subject
rather than style. Artists limited themselves to facts of the modern world as they
personally experienced them; only what they could see or touch was considered real.
They painted real life: everyday problems, work, and everyone‟s joys and tragedies.
These artists used new ways of handling brushes and paint so that their paintings had
more textures and visual interest. The invention of the camera gave them the possibility
of working from a photograph, an entirely new concept during this time. Realists also
were interested in painting landscapes from a realistic point-of-view, and they were
especially interested in how the land looked during different weather and different times
of the day. Realists‟ desire to paint in the open air and interest in how light affected
one‟s perception of a scene paved the way for Impressionism.
Impressionism (1860s - early 1900s CE)
The European Impressionists began in the tradition of Realism. They favored subjects
that appeared informal and spontaneous. They depicted ordinary people picnicking,
dancing, boating, or on outings in the landscape of northern France. However, it is the
way they painted, and not the subject matter, that is important to Impressionism.
The Impressionists adapted some of the science of optics researched in the nineteenth
century. They understood that when we look at something we see not the object itself,
but light reflected from the object. Our eyes perceive the object as many small spots of
color of varying shades and tones, not as a solid-color shape. To capture this optical
sensation, Impressionists worked on small canvases set up outdoors, painting with
small brushstrokes. They worked quickly, before the sun shifted to a great degree. In
doing so, they were able to produce a feeling of spontaneity rather than of posed studio
effects. They created bright paintings with brilliant colors that almost shimmer in their
intensity and which paved the way for abstract art.
Abstraction (late 1900s - 1940s CE)
Abstraction applies to art that looks as if it contains no recognizable forms from the
physical world. All the artist gives us to focus on are colors, lines, shapes, values,
forms, textures, spaces, and materials. Abstractionists carefully painted and arranged
colors and cleanly outlined geometric shapes. These artists explored new ways to
combine the elements of art (line, shape, color, form, texture, value, and space) in nonobjective
paintings and sculptures to express feelings and distorted shapes and
rearranged parts, reconstructing the subject so it became something totally new and
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JDSP – Docent Packet
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