Many artists shared the curiosity about nature, society, institutions, human relations, and the past that was fostered by the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution. They began to question inherited ideas and traditions, seeking instead a concrete and rational understanding of the world based on experience and facts. Conflicting ideas about the role of tradition and hierarchies in society and nature made the late 18th century an exciting and turbulent time.
An Introduction to Nineteenth Century Art
Using the tools of the ‘new’ art history (feminism, Marxism, social context, etc.) An Introduction to Nineteenth Century Art offers a richly textured, yet clear and logical introduction to nineteenth-century art and culture. The book provides readers with a basic historical framework of the period and the critical tools for interpreting and situating new and unfamiliar works of art.
Michelle Facos goes beyond existing histories of nineteenth-century art, which often focus solely on France, Britain and the United States, to incorporate artists and artworks from Scandinavia, Germany and Eastern Europe.
The book takes a thematic approach combined with overall chronology. Detailed discussions of individual works are always put in the context of the broader social picture, thus providing readers with a sense of art history as a controversial and alive arena of study.
This dedicated supporting website provides helpful supplementary resources. Its goal is to enable readers to better understand connections among artists and art works and to better envision the world in which they lived and worked. These resources are ideal for classroom use or as an aid to independent study. The website will be regularly updated with new, relevant, and interesting material, so be sure to visit regularly!
How the website works:
- Chapter pages provide lists of artists, art works, carefully selected supplementary readings, and links to relevant websites
- Artist pages include biographical information, lists of and links to key works, and relevant readings
- Artwork pages include links to images discussed in the book as well excerpts from recent scholarship providing stimulating interpretations of art works from varying methodological approaches
What else?
- Passages from original documents pertaining to art works discussed in the book
- Extracts from contemporary criticism giving greater context to the works discussed
- Maps helping readers to locate places referred to in individual chapters
- Historical maps clarifying shifting national borders
- A chronological chart of artworks enabling viewers to see at a glance the sequence in which art works were produced
- Chart of which artists were in Rome and in Paris when, fostering a better understanding of these important artistic centers
- An extensive yet selective bibliography so readers can find the best reliable information quickly
- References to other artists producing similar subjects to the art works discussed in the book
- Links to useful online resources
- Extensive supplementary visual material, recent and historical: where artists lived, the places they painted, and their final resting places
We welcome your feedback. You can contact the author, Michelle Facos, using the Comments & Suggestions link, below.
