Course Content
Technical Support
1-800-234-5832
M–Th: 8:00A.M.–Midnight EST
F: 8:00A.M.–10:00P.M. EST
Lesson Plans
Art History ©1999
by Marilyn Stokstad
Focus Lesson 15
Chapter 27: "Realism and Impressionism in Europe and the United States"
AP* Course Description
- Renaissance to Present
- Nineteenth Century
Key Components
- Instructor's Resource Manual with Tests, Vol. II: pp. 46–50, 80–81, 148–154, 195–198
- Study Guide, Vol. II: pp. 94–102
Key Web Sites
Given the changing nature of the Internet, you may wish to preview these sites. Check the Online Companion Web site for updated information and links to other sites.
Key Words and Terms
- historicism
- order
- barrel vault
- rib
- academic
- arcade
- polychromed
- lithography
- camera obscura
- engraving
- heliograph
- diorama
- daguerreotype
- intaglio
- incising
- calotype
- value
- primary colors
- hue
- complement
- school
- style
- porcelain
- edition
- etching
- japonisme
- ukiyo-e
- painterly
- iconographic
Suggested Pacing
This material will typically take from one and a half to two weeks. The chapter ends with the late work of Monet, leaving the early works of the Post-Impressionists for Chapter 28.
Test Strategy
Distinguishing between the works of the Impressionist painters can be difficult. Attention to each painter's preferred subject matter as well as the way in which each handled the media can help students distinguish works. Degas, for instance, is known for his depictions of dancers, bathers, and racehorses, while Renoir's feathery touch is easily spotted in crowd scenes. Students should make notes on each painter's style and subject matter and list several paintings from different stages of the painter's oeuvre as examples.
Key Concepts
- Rise of photography
Is it a coincidence that the rise of photography and the birth of modern art occur within the same period—essentially simultaneously? While the earliest photographers took pictures that were composed to look like paintings, the Impressionist painters were creating works that were less and less photographic. The use of the photograph as the new method of illustration in printed matter gradually freed artists to move farther and farther away from naturalism in their own work. - Realism versus Naturalism
The artistic movement known as Realism should not be confused with Naturalism, which means verisimilitude to nature in art. The Realism of Courbet accurately depicted the lives of France's working class but was not photographic in detail. - Painters of modern life
While much has been written about the painting style of the Impressionists, the importance of their choice of subject matter is frequently overlooked. As explained on pp. 1009–1010 in the text, this group of artists more than anything else wished to portray modern life in France as they saw it. Many of their works depicted leisure activities. The Industrial Age had left many people with time to fill—a major change from the world of their ancestors.
Summing Up Student Understanding
Have students participate in a debate arguing either the pros or cons of the following statement: Impressionism is the first movement of modern art. Students must be able to support their opinions with examples either from the text or from outside research.
While some students may think that Impressionism is indeed the beginning of modern art, others may feel that realism should bear that title. Still others may feel that modern art begins with the Post-Impressionists or Cubists. Any of these points of view can be convincingly argued.
Challenge students to choose carefully the works that they use to illustrate their arguments. Is Renoir's Moulin de la Galette more revolutionary than Manet's Bar at the Folies-Bergeres? Is it because of his brushstrokes or his subject matter? Are these paintings more revolutionary than Courbet's A Burial at Ornans? Why or why not? Perhaps the class feels that all of these paintings are too close to the accepted academic norm to be considered modern. In that case, is Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon the beginning of modern art? Many believe that Cezanne was the first modernist. Ask the class to describe what new pictorial devices Cezanne utilized that Manet or Renoir did not.
Some points that students might make are:
- The Realists broke with tradition by depicting the rural lower classes.
- The Impressionists preferred to depict urbanites at leisure and employed some revolutionary techniques.
- The Post-Impressionists did not have one single preferred subject but expanded the visual vocabulary of ways in which to put paint on a canvas.
- The Cubists broke down the very way in which we see the world, and toppled accepted notions about how to depict a three-dimensional object in a two-dimensional space.