 Not an age of great scientific discovery; instead it was one of synthesis of previous findings & their technological applications  Science promoted material progress  Scientific discoveries were converted into technological improvements that affected everyone  Growing faith in the benefits of science  Age of Secularism

 Laws of thermodynamics (theoretical foundations of the steam engine)  Louis Pasteur—germ theory of disease & pasteurization  Joseph Lister--used carbolic acid to disinfect during surgery  Dmitri Mendeleyev—classified elements Joseph Lister Louis Pasteur

 Religion was unscientific and should not be taken seriously  Religion was merely a stage of human development, but it was no longer relevant to modern civilization  Religion was necessary to preserve social order, but it shouldn’t be taken too seriously

 Everything mental, spiritual, or ideal was an outgrowth of physical or physiological forces  Truth was found in the concrete material existence of humans, not in revelations gained by feeling or intuition.

 Began career as a naturalist  Sailed around world on the Beagle  Spent 20 years taking notes of his observations of the natural world  **1859—On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection—very significant!

 Life forms originated in and perpetuated themselves through struggle. The outcome of the struggle was determined by natural selection (survival of the fittest).  Competition between and within species led to organic evolution in which simpler forms of life had evolved into more complex ones.

 New power brokers were practitioners of Realpolitik  Understood the importance of public opinion & were able to shape it to build a consensus of support  Understood and used the power of the press  Disregarded traditional morality in decision- making; were amoral & willing to use any method that guaranteed success

 Nation-state was supreme justification for all actions & nation-states competed against one another  New statesmen had to think about military capabilities, technological dominance & acceptable use of force to promote interest of their nation-state  Adapted to circumstances; didn’t insist on principles  Risk-takers who acted without a safety net of traditional legitimacy  Calculators who weighed the levels of risk appropriate for the ends they sought.

 3 political leaders who understood the new world of politics & directed it to their own ends were: Camillo Benso di Cavour Otto von Bismarck Napoleon III

 Rejected Romanticism, as well as religious & metaphysical interpretations of reality  Depicted the everyday life of ordinary people  Tried to rigorously observe reality and accurately portray the external world and daily life  Shifted attention away from internal individual human feelings to the external world

 Tried to describe what they saw with detail and without exaggeration or resorting to sentimentality  Explored the social dislocation caused by the industrial revolution, commercial values, and city life  Didn’t try to “sugarcoat” the harshness of contemporary life, wanted to depict social evils for what they were

 A realist “observes life as it is in its wholeness and complexity with the least possible prejudice on the part of the artist. It takes men under ordinary conditions, shows characters in the course of their everyday existence.”

 Favored prose and the novel  Gustave Flaubert—Madame Bovary  To escape her boring, provincial life, a woman has affairs and lives beyond her means  Charles Dickens—Hard Times  Depicts 19 th century industrial England  Fyodor Dostoyevsky—Crime and Punishment  Focused on the moral dilemma of a poor student who killed a pawnbroker for her money

Gustave Courbet Burial at Ornans 1849 oil on canvas 10 ft. x 22 ft.

Gustave Courbet The Stone Breakers 1849

Honore Daumier. Rue Transnonain, 1834, lithograph Honore Daumier / aftermath of a massacre /lithography

Honoré Daumier Nadar Raising Photography to the Height of Art 1862 lithograph

Honoré Daumier The Third-Class Carriage ca oil on canvas

Winslow Homer. Veteran in a New Field, 1865 an allegory of death at the end of the Civil War/ Isaiah 2:4/ a new field of ripe wheat

Reporter and magazine illustrator during the civil war Made regular people look beautiful, one of the first artists to document the lives of newly-freed former slaves. Winslow Homer, Dressing for the Carnival, c. 1870

Thomas Eakins. The Gross Clinic, 1875, oil on canvas Dr. Samuel Gross/truth expressed in factual visual observation

Jean-Francois Millet. The Gleaners, 1857, oil on canvas P easants depicted with solemn grandeur/ attachment to nature

Henry Ossawa Tanner The Thankful Poor 1894 oil on canvas 2 ft. 11 1/2 in. x 3 ft. 8 1/4 in.

Wilhelm Leibl Three Woman in a Village Church oil on canvas approximately 2 ft. 5 in. x 1 ft. 1 in.

Edouard Manet, Luncheon on the Grass, 1863 Extremely controversial subject matter- an unidealized nude model posing with everyday people- her face is at ease and comfortable Tribute to older artists- classical subject matter- neither real life nor an allegory Visual manifesto of artistic freedom-painter’s freedom to combine whatever elements he chooses for aesthetic affect alone Manet was the first to grasp Courbet’s mission

Edouard Manet, Olympia, 1863 Even more scandalous- Olympia is a pseudonym for “prostitute”. Inspired by “Venus of Urbino”. Quite different in attitude.

Venus of Urbino, Titian Olympia, Manet

Eadweard Muybridge Horse Galloping 1878 collotype print

Etienne Jules Marey Flying Pelican 1882 Example of chronophotography—recording several phases of movement on one photographic surface

 Realism and Impressionism Power Point. William V. Ganis, PhD  Spielvogel, Jackson J. Western Civilization.  Kishlansky,