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Prehistory
 The prehistoric period is known for paleolithic cave
paintings. There are around 130 caves around the Pyrenees, with the most
famous of the caves being Lascaux. Stone
sculpures made by Cro-Magnon man also exist from this period and are
found in Dordogne (South West of
France).
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Horses' Heads in the Chauvet Cave
Cro-Magnon
Sculpture
Cave Paintings at Lascaux
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Other Sites
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Medieval Period
International
Gothic
The merging of Italian and Northern European art resulted in the
emergence of an International Gothic style by the end of the 14th
century. Artists travelled all over Europe spreading and intertwining
their ideas, until eventually painters in this International Gothic style
could be found in France, Italy, England, Germany, Austria and
Bohemia.
The ancient art of book illumination was
still the prevailing form of painting in France at the beginning of
the 15th century. Easel painting did not develop in France to
any extent until the 14th century.
Architecture
Aussi:
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Les Tres Riches Heures du Duc de Berry
The Coronation of
the Virgin, detail: the Virgin by Charonton
Notre Dame
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Painters
Sculpture
Architecture
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Renaissance
The term Renaissance
describes the radical changes that took place in European culture
beginning in the 15th century. These changes contributed to the demise of
the Middle Ages, and for the first time the values of the modern world
began to emerge in society. Italian scholars and critics of this period
proclaimed that their age had progressed beyond the barbarism of the past
and had found its inspiration in the ancient civilizations of Greece and Rome. The French
Renaissance was strongly influenced by the works of the
Italians.
Architecture
Aussi:
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Charles VII of France by Jean Fouquet
Jean Fouquet, Self-Portrait
 Château Azay le Rideau
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Painters
Sculpture
Architecture
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Baroque
The Baroque period
spans roughly the 17th and 18th centuries. The work that distinguishes
the Baroque period is complex, even contradictory. In general, however,
the work can be categorized by the desire to evoke emotional states by
appealing to the senses. Some qualities that are frequently associated
with the Baroque are grandeur, richness, drama, movement, tension and
appeal to emotions.
Architecture
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The Visit of Venus to
Vulcan by
Boucher
The Silver Goblet by Chardin
The Reader by Fragonard
Versailles - an example of Baroque
architecture
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Painters
Sculpture
Architecture
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Revolution/Restoration
Classicism
Classicism and Neoclassicism refer to aesthetic attitudes and principles
based on the culture, art and literature of ancient Greece and Rome, and are characterized by emphasis
on form, simplicity, proportion, and restrained emotion. Classicism
refers either to the art produced in antiquity or to later art inspired
by that of antiquity; Neoclassicism always refers to the art produced
later but inspired by antiquity. Thus, the terms Classicism and
Neoclassicism are often used interchangeably.
Romanticism
An artistic and intellectual movement that originated in the late 18th
century and stressed strong emotion, imagination, freedom from classical
correctness in art forms, and rebellion against social conventions.
Romanticism can be seen as a rejection of the precepts of order, harmony,
balance, idealization, and rationality that typified Classicism.
Realism
In the arts, the accurate, detailed, unembellished depiction of nature or
of contemporary life. Realism rejects imaginative idealization in favour
of a close observation of outward appearances.
Architecture
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The Death of
Socrates by
Jacques-Louis David
Jacques-Louis David
The Death of
Sardanapal by
Delacroix
Napleon Bonaparte on
Arcole Bridge by Antoine-Jean Gros
The Wounded Man by Gustave Courbet
Arc de Triomphe
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Painters
Sculpture
Architecture
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19th Century
Impressionism
The impressionist style of painting, developing primarily in France
during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, is characterized chiefly
by concentration on the general impression produced by a scene or object
and the use of unmixed primary colors and small strokes to simulate
actual reflected light.
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Impression: soleil
levant by Claude
Monet
Monet
Painting in His Floating Studio by Édouard Manet
Young Women Talking by Pierre Auguste Renoir
Pierre Auguste Renoir
The Kiss by Auguste Rodin
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Painters
- Bazille, Frédéric (1841-70)
- Caillebotte, Gustave (1848-94)
- Cézanne, Paul (1839-1906)
- Degas, Edgar (1834-1917)
- Fantin-Latour, Henri (1836-1904)
- Guillaumin, Armand (1841-1927)
- Manet, Édouard (1832-83)
- Monet, Claude (1840-1926)
- Morisot, Berthe (1841-95)
- Pissarro, Camille (1830-1903)
- Renoir, Pierre Auguste (1841-1919)
- Sisley, Alfred (1839-99)
- Tissot, James (1836-1902)
Sculpture
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20th Century
Fauvism
French Fauvisme is a style of painting that flourished in France
from 1898 to 1908. It used pure, brilliant colour, applied straight from
the paint tubes in an aggressive manner to create the sense of an
explosion on the canvas. The Fauves painted directly from nature as the
Impressionists had before them, but their works were invested with a
strong expressive reaction to the subjects they painted. First formally
exhibited in Paris
in 1905, Fauvist paintings shocked visitors to the annual Salon
d'Automne. One of these visitors was the critic Louis Vauxcelles who,
because of the violence of their works, dubbed the painters "Les
Fauves" (Wild Beasts).
Cubism
Cubism is a highly influential visual arts style of the 20th century, and
was created principally by the painters Pablo Picasso,
Juan Gris, and Georges Braque
in Paris.
They particularly admired the Post- Impressionist Suerat, for his
careful and intellectual approach. The Cubists also appreciated the
primitive work of Paul
Gauguin. The Cubist style rejected the traditional techniques of
perspective, foreshortening and modeling, as well as the notion of art as
an "imitation of nature." Instead, Cubists portrayed subject
matter using geometric forms, cubes and cones -- radically fragmented
objects, whose several sides were seen simultaneously.
Surrealism
Surrealism was a movement that grew principally out of the earlier Dada
movement, and flourished in Europe
between World Wars I and II. With its emphasis on content and free form
fantasy, Surrealism provided a major alternative to the contemporary,
highly formalistic Cubist movement.
Aussi:
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Notre-Dame, une fin
d'après-midi by
Henri Matisse
Big Ben by André Derain
Houses at L'Estaque by Braque
Jeune fille à la
mandoline by Pablo
Picasso
Pablo Picasso, Self-Portrait
Nude Descending a
Staircase, No. 2 by
Marcel Duchamp
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Painters
- Fauvism
- Cubism
- Surrealism
Architecture
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