Contextual Influences on Art and Design: 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.