Sunday 1 March 2015

Design

Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution took place between the late 18th century and the early 20th century.The Industrial Revolution was a period which took place in rural societies such in Europe and America became industrial and urban.The Industrial Revolution first took place in Britain.Britain is known to be it's birthplace.While this time was in place,it meant to go through from hand production methods to machines.People took a small step further by using machines,new chemical manufacturing and iron production processes.Water Power also improved and people were being interested in science and technology.One well known engineer by that time was Thomas Newcomen.Thomas Newcomen was a British engineer and inventor.One of his famous machines he created and was very well known was the steam engine.This engine was a precursor of James Watt's engine.The steam engine meant having unlimited power day and night.In Newcomen's engine the intensity of pressure was not limited by the pressure of the steam.When this engine was created the steam age had started.This led to the machine age and the Industrial Revolution.Because of the Industrial Revolution,people had to move from the country side to the cities looking for work.



The 19th century came along and it was an era of innovations and revivals.At the start of this century,the Cornish engineer Richard Trevithick, and the American,Oliver Evans began constructing higher pressure non-condensing steam engines.The steam engine also underwent many improvements.It was then at the middle of the 19th century that London boasted the steam engine world's first underground railways and the first photograph.

Gothic Revival

The Gothic Revival took place between 1820 and 1870.It was the Gothic Revival in America and England.By this time England had seen a return to the church and restoration of cathedrals had featured the medieval Christian values and therefore buildings.This Revival was never popular as Greek or Italianate styles.The other styles were the Neo-Morish,Neo-Turkish and Neo-Egyptian.One known man from this age was Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin.Augustus was an architect,designer,writer and theorist.He had been studying with his father when he was young.When he got older in 1835 he had started his architectural career and had worked with Charles Barry on the designs.They worked on designs for new Houses of Parliament.Augustus was a prolific designer of stained glass,metalwork,furniture,textiles,wallpapers,ceramics,embroideries and jewellery.Pugin also had writings which provided the foundation of the later development of the Arts and Crafts.For Pugin the Gothic Revival represented the order and stability of the Christian Faith.


The Crystal Palace

This Palace was a glass and cast iron building which was located in London.It was for the Great Exhibition of 1851.This Palace was built by Joseph Paxton.The Crystal Palace was happening at the same time the Gothic Revival was happening yet in another place.Paxton had made a design and it had been based on a module that the size of the largest glass sheet available at the time had been accessed.People kept coming for this exhibition and it was very popular.Though in 1936 the building was sadly destroyed by a fire.Queen Victoria had written in her Journal that the day of the exhibition,it was her best day for her.She said that the park presented a wonderful spectacle and that there were crowds streaming through it.



Bibliography


History,Industrial Revolution (Online site)
http://www.history.com/topics/industrial-revolution
(First accessed in 1 March 2015)

Wikipedia,Industrial Revolution (Online Site)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Revolution
(First accessed in 1 March 2015)

Britannica,Thomas Newcomen (Online Site)
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/412902/Thomas-Newcomen
(First accessed in 1 March 2015)

Architecturestyles,Gothic Revival (Online Site)
http://architecturestyles.org/gothic-revival/
(First accessed in 1 March 2015)

Victorianweb,Pugin (Online Site)
http://www.victorianweb.org/art/design/pugin/bio.html
(First accessed in 1 March 2015)

Archdaily,Crystal Palace Joseph Paxton (Online Site)
http://www.archdaily.com/397949/ad-classic-the-crystal-palace-joseph-paxton/
(First accessed in 1 March 2015)

Art

Realism

In my lessons of History of Art we discussed the Art of Realism.This type of art has been widespread for many years.There have been various realism movements in the arts,such as the opera style of verismo,literary realism,theatrical realism and Italian neorealist cinema.In the 19th century famous British artists such as Hubert von Herkomer and Luke Fildes were in success with their realist paintings they had dealing with various social issues.


Sir Luke Fildes,The Widower painted in 1870,was a great example for social issues.This showed the life of a family being with their everyday life as it seems to ahve many social problems.This familt also seems to be from the lower level class.George Augustus Sala wrote that it touched him very deeply to see this paiting.Sir Fildes was a very popular atist for these realistic paintings and he was also once asked to provide an illustration to accompany an article on the Housless Poor Act.



Gustave Courbet

Another artist that inspired me was the famous Gustave Courbet.His work also shows the disaster of how life was by that time and this inspires me because he is showing the truth.It doesn't show the happy days of work but the torturing days of how life was when you actually work and the poor of how many people had die because the town was over populated by workers yet there were less homes.Some of Courbet's other works were greeted with total incomprehension and caused outrage.This was when he painted the Stone Breakers in 1849.In 1873,Courbet was held responsible for launching a petition asking the government of the National Defence to authorise him to pull down the column.Courbet began drinking heavily when he had to exile and go and move to Switzerland and he rarely produced artworks of his talent.He started having problems with money and legal proceedings soon became an obsession.Courbet had died on the 31st December in 1877 at the Tour-de-Peilz.His final painting he had made was known to be The Trout.


The Pre-Raphaelites

The Pre-Raphaelites was a group of famous English painters,poets and critics.The group was founded in 1848.The group's most eminent members were John Everett Millais,William Holman Hunt and Dante Gabriel Rossetti.This rebellious group went against the predictability of academic art and turned to the directness and simplicity of Italian painters who care before Raphael-Pre Raphael.This group's main objective was to reform art by rejecting what it considered the mechanistic approach.This was first adopted by Mannerist artist who succeeded Raphael and Michelangelo.At the London's Royal Academy and Free Exhibition shows of 1849,several paintings by the Pre-Raphaelites Brotherhood were exhibited.These were shown along with the artists' signatures.Some of these paintings were Slain in a Skirmish between the Colonna and Orsini Factions which was painted by William Holman Hunt,Isabella by John Everett Millais and the Girlhood of Mary Virgin by Dante Gabriel Rossetti.In 1853,Edward Burne-Jones and William Morris had made a friendship that had common interests in theology,art and medieval literature.Rossetti was tutoring these two students two years after the friendship of these two.They had met Rossetti at Oxford in 1856.These students became the second generation of the Pre-Raphaelites.As the work of the students became more decorative,the Pre-Raphaelites were increasingly interested in the decorative arts.




Victorian Art

Victorian Art was the Royal Academy of Arts which led the British Art world.Queen Victoria was reigned between 1837 and 1901  and by this time Britain was very influential and wealthy.This time was also known as the Golden Age where the arts became very popular and these works were commissioned by the royalty.The second half of the 19th century was very positive and was one of the most fascinating periods in our history.The Victorian Art's vibrant colours represented the high society of the picture of England which was shaped by the ecletic period of the 64-year reign of Queen Victoria.Artists were very wealthy and the middle class-wealthy industrialists.Edward Poynter was one artist of these famous artists who was very known for his famous history paintings such as Israel in Egypt.Some of his other works emphasis on mood and visual.His work also included mythological subjects such as the Garden of the Hesperides.This genre of art scene continued being popular and people loved stories.



Bibliography

Wikipedia,Realism Arts (Online Site)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Realism_%28arts%29
(First accessed in 1 March 2015)

Spartacus Educational,JFildes (Online Site)
http://spartacus-educational.com/Jfildes.htm
(First accessed in 1 March 2015)

Musee Orsay,Courbet Dossier Biography (Online Site)
http://www.musee-orsay.fr/en/collections/courbet-dossier/biography.html
(First accessed in 1 March 2015)

Metmuseum,Praf (Online Site)
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/praf/hd_praf.htm
(First accessed in 1 March 2015)

Wikipedia,Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (Online Site)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre-Raphaelite_Brotherhood
(First accessed in 1 March 2015)

Avictorian,Victorian Art (Online Site)
http://www.avictorian.com/victorianart.html
(First accessed in 1 March 2015)