Rococo and Revolution-Ready Art Notes

Discovering Art History chapter 11.5, pages 364-377

Time Period: 1700-1800

The Rococo in Europe

Key Ideas

»Power shift from royal court to aristocrats

»French Royal Academy dictated taste

»Traditional style

»Anatomy

»Perspective

»Male-dominated

»Playful, pastel, metallic, graceful, leafy, delicate style

Rococo Visual Style

»Lines - s-shaped, curlicues

»Shapes - shells, leaves, plumes and flowers

»Forms - delicate

»Textures - leafy, “rocaille”

»Colors - white, silver, gold, pastels

»Style - light, graceful

»Mood - playful, superficial, “pop”

Vocabulary

Academy

Aristocracy

Bourgeoisie

Fête galante

Rocaille

French Rococo Art to Know
Jean-Antoine Watteau, The Gamut of Love, 1717, oil on canvas, 20x23 ¼ “, The National Gallery, London, England. (p364-365) / Francois Boucher, The Fountain of Love (The Pastoral Scene), 1748, oil on canvas, 116 ¼”x 133”, J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu, CA, USA. (p366) / Jean-Honoré Fragonard, The Swing, 1766, oil on canvas, Wallace Collection, London, England. / Marie-Louise-ÉlisabethVigée-Lebrun, Self-Portrait in a Straw Hat, 1782, oil on canvas, National Gallery, London, England.
English Rococo Art to Know
William Hogarth, Marriage à la Mode, 1745, oil on canvas, 27 ½ x 35 ½ “, National Gallery, London, England.
The Marriage Settlement
The Tete a Tete (The Breakfast Scene)
The Inspection
The Toilette
The Bagnio
The Lady’s Death / Sir Joshua Reynolds, Lady Sarah Bunbury Sacrificing to the Graces, 1765, oil on canvas, 9 ¾ x 59 ¾ in., Art Institute of Chicago, IL, USA. (p372) / Thomas Gainsborough, Blue Boy, 1770, oil on canvas, 70 x 44”, Huntington Library, San Marino, California, USA.

Revolution-Ready in America

Key Ideas

•Art considered “unessential” to the nation

•Artists considered “little better than sign painters”

•Wealthy Americans preferred European paintings over American work

•Art supplies were expensive in America

therefore•American artists left for Europe as soon as they could afford the trip to study and gain credentials and clients

Vocabulary

Limners

American Revolution Ready Art to Know
John Singleton Copley, Paul Revere, 1768-1770, oil on canvas, 35 x 28 ¼”, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA, USA.. (p374) / Benjamin West, The Death of General Wolfe, 1770, oil on canvas, 60 3/5 x 83 4/5”, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Canada. (p375) / Gilbert Stuart, The Athenaeum Portraits of George and Martha Washington, 1796, oil on canvas, 47 3/4x 37”, shared between National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian, Washington DC and Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA. / Joshua Johnson, Portrait of a Man, c. 1805, oil on canvas, 28 x 22”, Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, ME, USA. (p376)