Neoclassicism is the restoration of the classical style of art, and literature and architecture and so on. Classical influence spread across Europe around the 1850s. People began to enjoy the harmony, simplicity and proportion that art used to bring back in the old times again. This style represents the great achievements of artists like Raphael, Nicholas Poussin, and Claude Lorrain who worked in the classical times and their works and styles being brought into the 18th century. The great sense of beauty that was in the 16th century has been brought to the 18th century.
Paintings also had been portraits of political leaders such as Napoleon in Jacques-Louis David’s painting The Emperor Napoleon in His Study at the Tuileries. Paintings like this would share the artist’s opinion of that figure and even influence our own thoughts about them. In this painting you see Napoleon dressed in a uniform, you also see symbols of things meaning wealth and power, you see a candle to represent how long he’s been working in a day, the Napoleonic code showing Napoleon as a law giver, and lastly a sword that could represent military power all of which are positive things being said about Napoleon.
Impressionism was a style that came from France and as freedictionary. com puts it “characterized by concentration on the immediate visual impression produced by a scene and by the use of unmixed primary colors and small strokes to simulate actual reflected light. ” Founding members of the movement that was impressionism were Claude Monet and Edgar Degas as well as Camille Pissarro and other artists.
Critics saw their work as unfinished and sketch like but as for others they honored its depiction on everyday life. Impressionists work is still commended today for modernity. The Luncheon of the Boating Party by Pierre Auguste Renoir does a great job on showing how an impressionist piece like this depicts modern life. It shows a group of friends causally eating lunch and drinking wine, it reflects the French society back in the late 1900s. It shows how the French society changed around this time period.
Making this painting fit the impressionist style considering the fact that impressionism came from France and it shows how France began to modernize with the citizens. Impressionism was at its peak during the late 1900s in France because of Napoleon III changing the city clearing and building sites. Abstract Expressionism came from New York where abstract art was a big thing around the 1940s and 1950s. Expression has symbolic colors and imagery, as well creating new emotional depths for the world of art.
The Autumn Rhythm(Number 30) by Jackson Pollock was an abstract expressionist work of art created in 1912-1956 in East Hampton, New York. This was painted pretty much in the heart of where abstract expressionism started , New York. In this painting he used dark and light colors, thick and thin lines, vertical and horizontal lines, curvy and straight all of which gives the painting a meanings. Especially the choice in color expressing the way Pollock felt. All three paintings have much in common and all at the same time have many differences.
These styles of art make you feel something when used properly and even has its own emotion at the same time. The choice in color and the use of lines and figures help build the painting as well as the detail. One may have to do with politics and the other everyday life and citizens, and another one may not understand at all but each make you feel something when you look at it making you prefer one over the other and even though they are extremely different in looks they all start with one brush and one stroke.
