Chapter 31 Europe and America 1870-1900

118. The Valley of Mexico from the Hillside of Santa Isabel (El Valle de México desde el Cerro de Santa Isabel). Jose María Velasco. 1882 C.E. Oil on canvas.

Monet, Impression: Sunrise, 1872

Monet, Rouen Cathedral: The Portal, 1894

Monet, Water Lillies

Pisarro, La Place du Theatre Francais, 1898

Renoir, Le Moulin de la Galette, 1876

Manet, Bar at the Folies, 1882

Degas, Ballet Rehearsal, 1874

Suzuki Harunobu, Evening Bell at the Clock, Japan, 1765, woodblock print

121. The Coiffure. Mary Cassatt. 1890–1891 C. E 121. The Coiffure. Mary Cassatt. 1890–1891 C.E. Drypoint and aquatint on laid paper.

Toulouse-Lautrec, At the Moulin Rouge, 1895

Seurat, Sunday on la Grande Jatte, 1886

Van Gogh, Night Café, 1888

120. The Starry Night. Vincent van Gogh. 1889 C.E. Oil on canvas. “This morning I saw the countryside from my window a long time before sunrise, with nothing but the morning star, which looked very big” 777, c. 31 May – 6 June 1889). As he wrote to his sister Willemien van Gogh from Arles, “It often seems to me that the night is even more richly colored than the day, colored with the most intense violets, blues and greens. If you look carefully, you’ll see that some stars are lemony, others have a pink, green, forget-me-not blue glow. And without labouring the point, it’s clear to paint a starry sky it’s not nearly enough to put white spots on blue-black”.(678, 14 September 1888)

123. Where Do We Come From. What Are We. Where Are We Going 123. Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? Paul Gauguin. 1897–1898 C.E. Oil on canvas. “It is a canvas four meters fifty in width, by one meter seventy in height. The two upper corners are chrome yellow, with an inscription on the left and my name on the right, like a fresco whose corners are spoiled with age, and which is appliquéd upon a golden wall. To the right at the lower end, a sleeping child and three crouching women. Two figures dressed in purple confide their thoughts to one another. An enormous crouching figure, out of all proportion and intentionally so, raises its arms and stares in astonishment upon these two, who dare to think of their destiny. A figure in the center is picking fruit. Two cats near a child. A white goat. An idol, its arms mysteriously raised in a sort of rhythm, seems to indicate the Beyond. Then lastly, an old woman nearing death appears to accept everything, to resign herself to her thoughts. She completes the story! At her feet a strange white bird, holding a lizard in its claws, represents the futility of words….So I have finished a philosophical work on a theme comparable to that of the Gospel.” Gauguin

124. Carson, Pirie, Scott and Company Building. Chicago, Illinois, U.S. Louis Sullivan (architect). 1899–1903 C.E. Iron, steel, glass, and terra cotta. (3 images)

125. Mont Sainte-Victoire. Paul Cézanne. 1902–1904 C.E. Oil on canvas. In this work, Cézanne divides his composition into three roughly equal horizontal sections, which extend across the three-foot wide canvas. Our viewpoint is elevated. Closest to us lies a band of foliage and houses; next, rough patches of yellow ochre, emerald, and viridian green suggest the patchwork of an expansive plain and extend the foreground’s color scheme into the middleground; and above, in contrasting blues, violets and greys, we see the “craggy mountain” surrounded by sky. The blues seen in this section also accent the rest of the work while, conversely, touches of green enliven the sky and mountain. 

Cezanne, Basket of Apples, 1895

Redon, The Cyclops, 1898

122. The Scream. Edvard Munch. 1893 C. E 122. The Scream. Edvard Munch. 1893 C.E. Tempera and pastels on cardboard. For all its notoriety, The Scream is in fact a surprisingly simple work, in which the artist utilized a minimum of forms to achieve maximum expressiveness. It consists of three main areas: the bridge, which extends at a steep angle from the middle distance at the left to fill the foreground; a landscape of shoreline, lake or fjord, and hills; and the sky, which is activated with curving lines in tones of orange, yellow, red, and blue-green. Foreground and background blend into one another, and the lyrical lines of the hills ripple through the sky as well. The human figures are starkly separated from this landscape by the bridge. Its strict linearity provides a contrast with the shapes of the landscape and the sky. The two faceless upright figures in the background belong to the geometric precision of the bridge, while the lines of the foreground figure’s body, hands, and head take up the same curving shapes that dominate the background landscape.

 “I was walking along the road with two friends—the sun went down—I felt a gust of melancholy—suddenly the sky turned a bloody red. I stopped, leaned against the railing, tired to death—as the flaming skies hung like blood and sword over the blue-black fjord and the city—My friends went on—I stood there trembling with anxiety—and I felt a vast infinite scream [tear] through nature.” The figure on the bridge—who may even be symbolic of Munch himself—feels the cry of nature, a sound that is sensed internally rather than heard with the ears. Yet, how can this sensation be conveyed in visual terms?  The Scream represents a key work for the Symbolist movement as well as an important inspiration for the Expressionist movement of the early twentieth century. 

128. The Kiss. Gustav Klimt. 1907–1908 C.E. Oil on canvas.

119. The Burghers of Calais. Auguste Rodin. 1884–1895 C.E. Bronze.

Rodin, Walking Man, 1905

Gaudi, Casa Mila, 1907

Gaudia, La Sagrada Familia

Louis Sullivan, Guaranty (Prudential) Building, Buffalo, NY 1894-1895