The Project Gutenberg eBook of The History of Modern Painting, Volume 1 (of 4)

This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook.

Title: The History of Modern Painting, Volume 1 (of 4)

Author: Richard Muther

Release date: September 22, 2013 [eBook #43792]
Most recently updated: October 23, 2024

Language: English

Credits: Produced by Marius Masi, Albert László and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
file was produced from images generously made available
by The Internet Archive)

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HISTORY OF MODERN PAINTING, VOLUME 1 (OF 4) ***

THE HISTORY OF
MODERN PAINTING

ANTON GRAFF PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST

Printed by
Morrison & Gibb Limited
Edinburgh

CONTENTS

  PAGE

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

ix
INTRODUCTION

Old and new histories of art.—Seeming “restlessness” of the nineteenth century.—To recognise “style” in modern art, and to prove the logic of its evolution, the principles of judgment in the old art-histories are also to be employed for the new.—The question is, what new element the age brought into the history of art, not what it borrowed eclectically from earlier ages

1
BOOK I
THE LEGACY OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
CHAPTER I
COMMENCEMENT OF MODERN ART IN ENGLAND

The commencement of modern art in England.—Two divisions of modern art since the sixteenth century.—Classic and naturalistic schools.—English succeed the Dutch in the seventeenth century.—William Hogarth: his purpose and his inartistic methods.—Sir Joshua Reynolds.—Thomas Gainsborough.—Comparison between them.—Reynolds, an historical painter; Gainsborough, a painter of landscape.—Pictures of Richard Wilson show the end of classical landscape.—Those of Gainsborough, the beginning of “paysage intime”

9
CHAPTER II
THE HISTORICAL POSITION OF ART ON THE CONTINENT

English influence upon the art of the Continent from the middle of the eighteenth century.—Sturm-und-Drang period in literature.—Rousseau.—Goethe’s “Werther.”—Schiller’s “Robbers.”—Spain: Francis Goya, his pictures and etchings.—France: Antoine Watteau frees himself from “baroque” influences, and directs the tendency of French art towards the Low Countries.—Pastel: Maurice Latour, Rosalba Carriera, Liotard.—Society painters: Lancrat, Pater.—The decorative painters: François Lemoine, François Boucher, Fragonard.—“Society” turns virtuous.—Jean Greuze.—Middle-class society and its depicter, Jean Baptiste Siméon Chardin.—Germany: Lessing frees the drama from the classical yoke of Boileau, and, following the English, produces in “Minna” the first domestic tragedy.—Daniel Chodowiecki as the portrayer of the German middle class.—Tischbein goes back to the national past.—Posing disappears in portrait painting.—Antoine Pesne.—Anton Graff.—Christian Lebrecht Vogel.—Johann Edlinger.—The revival of landscape.—Rousseau’s influence.—English garden-style succeeds the French style.—Disappearance of “nature choisie” in painting.—Hubert Robert.—Joseph Vernet.—Salomon Gessner.—Ludwig Hess.—Philip Hackert.—Johann Alexander Thiele.—Antonio Canale.—Bernardo Canaletto.—Francesco Guardi.—Don Petro Rodriguez de Miranda.—Don Mariano Ramon Sanchez.—The animal painters: François Casanova, Jean Louis de Marne, Jean Baptiste Oudry, Johann Elias Riedinger.—An event in the history of art: in place of the prevailing Cinquecento and the “sublime style of painting” degraded at the close of the seventeenth century, a simple and sincere art succeeds throughout the whole of Europe.—Return to what Dürer and the Little Masters of the sixteenth century and the Dutch of the seventeenth century originated

41
CHAPTER III
THE CLASSICAL REACTION IN GERMANY

The influence of the antique at the end of the eighteenth century shows no advance, but an unnatural retrograde movement, and notes in Germany the beginning of the same decadence which had happened in Italy with the Bolognese, in France with Poussin, and in Holland with Gérard de Lairesse.—The teachings of Winckelmann, Anton Rafael Mengs, Angelica Kauffmann.—The younger generation carries out the classical programme in the value it sets upon technical traditions.—Asmus Jacob Carstens.—Buonaventura Genelli

80
CHAPTER IV
THE CLASSICAL REACTION IN FRANCE

In France also the classical tendency in art was no new thing, but a revival of the antique which was restored to life by the foundation of the French Academy in Rome in 1663.—Influence of archæological studies.—Elizabeth Vigée-Lebrun.—The Revolution heightens the enthusiasm for the antique, and once more gives Classicism an appearance of brilliant animation.—Jacques Louis David.—His portraits and his pictures in relation to contemporary history.—David as an archæologist.—Jean Baptiste Regnault.—François André Vincent.—Guérin

98
BOOK II
THE ESCAPE INTO THE PAST
CHAPTER V
THE NAZARENES

Influence of literature.—Wackenroder.—Tieck.—The Schlegels.—Instead of the antique, the Italian Quattrocento appears as the model for the schools.—Frederick Overbeck.—Philip Veit.—Joseph Führich.—Edward Steinle—Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld.—Their pictures and their drawings

117
CHAPTER VI
THE ART OF MUNICH UNDER KING LUDWIG I

Peter Cornelius.—Wilhelm Kaulbach.—Their importance and their limitations

141
CHAPTER VII
THE DÜSSELDORFERS

On the Rhine, a school of painting instead of a school of drawing.—Wilhelm Schadow, Carl Friedrich Lessing, Theodor Hildebrandt, Carl Sohn, Heinrich Mücke, Christian Koehler, H. Plüddemann, Eduard Bendemann, Theodor Mintrop, Friedrich Ittenbach, Ernest Deger.—Why their pictures, despite technical merits, have become antiquated

157
CHAPTER VIII
THE LEGACY OF GERMAN ROMANTICISM

Alfred Rethel and Moritz Schwind oppose the Roman with the German tradition.—Their pictures and drawings

167
CHAPTER IX
THE FORERUNNERS OF ROMANTICISM IN FRANCE

Last years of the David school wearisome and without character, except in portrait painting.—François Gérard, the “King of Painters and Painter of Kings”; his portraits of the Empire and Restoration periods.—Commencement of the revolt: Pierre Paul Prudhon; his pictures and the story of his life; Constance Mayer.—Revival of colouring.—Antoine Jean Gros and his pictures of contemporary life; discrepancy between his teaching and his practice

189
CHAPTER X
THE GENERATION OF 1830

The revolt of the Romanticists against Classicism in literature and art.—Théodore Géricault and his early works.—“The Raft of the Medusa.”—Eugène Delacroix: protest against the conventional, and renewed importance of colour.—Delacroix’s pictures; influence of the East upon him.—His life and struggles.—The Classical reaction.—J. A. D. Ingres and the opposition to Romanticism.—His classical pictures.—Excellence of his portraits and drawings

219
CHAPTER XI
JUSTE-MILIEU

Moderation the watchword of Louis Philippe’s reign, in politics, literature, and art.—Jean Gigoux, a follower of Delacroix and an inexorable realist.—Eugène Isabey.—Middle position occupied by Ary Scheffer between the Classical and the Romantic schools; decline of his popularity.—Hippolyte Flandrin, as a religious painter a French counterpart to the Nazarenes.—Paul Chenavard, compared to Cornelius.—Théodore Chassériau; his short and brilliant career.—Léon Benouville.—Léon Cogniet and his pictures.—Transition from the Romantic school to the historical painters.—The great writers of history: renewed activity in this field: historical tragedies and romances.—Art takes a similar course: popularity and facility of historical painting.—Eugène Devéria; Camille Roqueplan.—Nicolaus Robert Fleury; Louis Boulanger.—Paul Delaroche; his popularity and its causes; his defects as a painter.—Delaroche’s pictures.—Thomas Couture

255
CHAPTER XII
THE POST-ROMANTIC GENERATION

France under the Second Empire; the society of the period not represented in French art.—Continuation of the old traditions without essential change.—Alexandre Cabanel.—William Bouguereau.—Jules Lefébure.—Henner.—Paul Baudry: his pictures; decoration of the Grand Opera House.—Élie Delaunay: his pictures, decorative painting, and portraits.—The “Genre féroce”; predilection for the horrible in art.—Numerous painters of this school.—Laurens.—Rochegrosse and his pictures.—Henri Regnault

278
CHAPTER XIII
THE HISTORICAL SCHOOL OF PAINTING IN BELGIUM

Belgium to 1830.—David and his school.—Navez, Matthias van Bree.—Gustav Wappers, Nicaise de Keyzer, Henri Decaisne, Gallait, Bièfve.—Ernest Slingeneyer, Guffens and Swerts.—The Exhibition of Belgian pictures in Germany

301
CHAPTER XIV
THE REVOLUTION OF THE GERMAN COLOURISTS

Anselm Feuerbach, Victor Müller.—The Berlin school: Rudolf Henneberg, Gustav Richter, Knille, Schrader, and others.—The Munich school: Piloty, Hans Makart, Gabriel Max.—The historical painters and the end of the illustrative painting of history

317
CHAPTER XV
THE VICTORY OVER PSEUDO-IDEALISM

The Historical Picture of Manners as opposed to Historical Painting, an advance in the direction of intimacy of feeling.—The Antique Picture of Manners: Charles Gleyre, Louis Hamon, Gérôme, Gustave Boulanger.—The Picture of Costume from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.—France: Charles Comte, Alexander Hesse, Camille Roqueplan.—Belgium: Alexander Markelbach, Florent Willems.—Germany: L. v. Hagn, Gustav Spangenberg, Carl Becker.—The importance of Hendrik Leys, Ernest Meissonier, and Adolf Menzel as mediators between the past and ordinary life, between the heroic art of the first half of the nineteenth century and the intimate art of the second half

363

BIBLIOGRAPHY

391

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PLATES IN COLOUR
  PAGE
Anton Graff: Portrait of Himself Frontispiece
Reynolds: Mrs. Siddons 20
Gainsborough: The Sisters 38
Greuze: The Milkmaid 58
Chardin: The House of Cards 64
Watteau: Fête Champêtre 74
Angelica Kauffmann: Portrait of a Lady as a Vestal 86
Elizabeth Vigée-Lebrun: Portrait of the Painter with her Daughter 100
Cornelius: “Let there be Light” 144
Schwind: The Wedding Journey 182
Regnault: General Prim 300
Meissonier: A Cavalier 378
IN BLACK AND WHITE
Baudry, Paul.
Portrait of Baudry 286
Charlotte Corday 287
Truth 288
The Pearl and the Wave 289
Cybele 290
Leda 291
Edmond About 292
Bendemann, Eduard.
The Lament of the Jews 165
Bièfve, Edouard.
Portrait of Bièfve 314
The League of the Nobles of the Netherlands 315
Bouguereau, William Adolphe.
Brotherly Love 281
Cabanel, Alexandre.
Portrait of Cabanel 279
The Shulamite 280
Carstens, Asmus Jacob.
Portrait of Himself 88
Scylla and Charybdis 90
Argo Leaving the Triton’s Mere 91
Children of the Night 92
Priam and Achilles 93
Chardin, Jean Siméon.
Portrait of Himself 63
Grace before Meat 65
Chassériau, Théodore.
Apollo and Daphne 259
Chodowiecki, Daniel.
Portrait of Chodowiecki 66
The Family Picture 67
All Sorts and Conditions of Women 68, 69
The Morning Compliment 70
The Artist’s Nursery 71
Cogniet, Léon.
Tintoretto Painting his Dead Daughter 261
The Massacre of the Innocents 263
Cornelius, Peter.
Portrait of Cornelius 143
From the Frescoes in the Friedhofshalle, Berlin 145
Marguerite in Prison 146
The Apocalyptic Host 147
The Fall of Troy 149
Couture, Thomas.
Portrait of Couture 271
The Love of Gold 273
The Romans of the Decadence 275
The Troubadour 277
David, Jacques Louis.
Portrait of David 102
Madame Récamier 103
The Oath of the Horatii 105
The Rape of the Sabines 107
Helen and Paris 109
Belisarius asking Alms 111
The Death of Marat 113
Delacroix, Eugène.
Portrait of Delacroix 226
Dante’s Bark 227
Hamlet and the Grave-diggers 230
Tasso in the Mad-house 231
Entry of the Crusaders into Constantinople 233
Jesus on Lake Gennesaret 235
Horses Fighting in a Stable 237
Medea 238
The Expulsion of Heliodorus 239
Delaroche, Paul.
Portrait of Delaroche 264
The Assassination of the Duke of Guise 265
The Princes in the Tower 267
Strafford on his Way to Execution 269
Delaunay, Élie.
Diana 293
Boys Singing 294
Madame Toulmouche 295
Feuerbach, Anselm.
Portrait of Himself 318
Hafiz at the Well 319
Pieta 321
Iphigenia 322
Portrait of a Roman Lady 323
Mother’s Joy 325
Medea 327
Dante Walking with High—born Ladies of Ravenna 329
Führich, Joseph.
Portrait of Führich 126
From the “Legend of St. Gwendolin” 127
Ruth and Boaz 128
The Departure of the Prodigal Son 129
Jacob and Rachel 130
Gainsborough, Thomas.
Portrait of Gainsborough 34
Mrs. Siddons 35
Wood Scene, Village of Cornard, Suffolk 36
The Market Cart 37
The Duchess of Devonshire 38
The Watering Place 39
Gallait, Louis.
Portrait of Gallait 312
Egmont’s Last Moments 313
Genelli, Bonaventura.
The Embassy to Achilles 94
Thetis lamenting the Fate of Hector 95
Odysseus and the Sirens 96
Portrait of Genelli 97
Gérard, François.
Portrait of Gérard 190
Mlle. Brongniart 191
Madame Visconti 192
Cupid and Psyche 193
Madame Récamier 194
Géricault, Théodore.
Portrait of Géricault 221
The Wounded Cuirassier 222
Chasseur 223
The Raft of the Medusa. 224
The Start 225
Gérôme, Léon.
The Cock-fight 367
Gessner, Salomon.
Landscape 75
Landscape 76
Goya, Francisco.
Portrait of Himself 42
The Majas on the Balcony 43
The Maja Clothed 44
The Maja Nude 45
De Que Mal Morira (from “Los Capriccios”) 46
Soplones (from “Los Capriccios”) 47
Se Repulen (from “Los Capriccios”) 48
Que Pico de Oro (from “Los Capriccios”) 49
Volaverunt (from “Los Capriccios”) 50
Quien lo Creyera (from “Los Capriccios”) 51
Linda Maestra (from “Los Capriccios”) 52
Devota Profesion (from “Los Capriccios”) 53
Otres Leyes por el Pueblo 54
Greuze, Jean Baptiste.
Portrait of Greuze 58
Head of a Girl 59
Girl carrying a Lamb 60
Girl looking up 61
Girl with an Apple 62
Gros, Antoine Jean (Baron).
Saul 215
Portrait of Gros 216
The Battle of Eylau 217
Guardi, Francesco.
Venice 77
Hamon, Louis.
My Sister’s not at Home 365
Henneberg, Rudolf.
The Race for Fortune 330
Henner, Jean Jacques.
Susanna and the Elders 284
The Sleeper 285
Hildebrandt, Theodor.
The Sons of Edward 161
Hogarth, William.
Portrait of Himself 12
The Harlot’s Progress (Plate VI.) 13
The Rake’s Progress (Plate II.) 14
The Rake’s Progress (Plate VII.) 15
The Rake’s Progress (Plate VIII.) 16
Marriage à la Mode (Plate V.) 17
The Enraged Musician 18
Gin Lane 19
Ingres, Jean Auguste Dominique.
Portrait of Ingres 242
The Maid of Orleans at Rheims 243
Portrait of Himself as a Youth 244
Bertin the Elder 245
Study for the Odalisque in the Louvre 247
The Source 248
Œdipus and the Sphinx 249
Paganini 251
Mlle. de Montgolfier 252
The Forestier Family 253
Kauffmann, Angelica.
Portrait of Herself 86
Kaulbach, Wilhelm.
Portrait of Kaulbach 151
The Deluge 152
Prince Arthur and Hubert 153
Marguerite 156
de Keyzer.
Portrait of de Keyzer 308
The Battle of Woeringen 309
Laurens, Jean Paul.
The Interdict 298
Lefébure, Jules.
Truth 283
Lessing, Carl Friedrich.
The Sorrowing Royal Pair 164
The Hussite Sermon 335
Leys, Hendrik.
Portrait of Leys 369
A Family Festival 370
The Armourer 371
Mother and Child 372
Luminais, Evariste.
Les Énervés de Jumièges 297
Makart, Hans.
Portrait of Makart 341
The Espousals of Catterina Cornaro 343
The Feast of Bacchus 345
Max, Gabriel.
Portrait of Max 347
A Nun in the Cloister Garden 349
The Lion’s Bride 351
Light 353
The Spirit’s Greeting 355
Adagio 356
A Winter’s Tale 357
Madonna 359
Mayer, Constance.
Portrait of Mayer 201
The Dream of Happiness 202
The Tomb of Prudhon and Constance Mayer at Père-Lachaise 203
Meissonier, Ernest.
The Man at the Window 373
A Man reading 374
Reading the Manuscript 375
Polcinello 376
A Reading at Diderot’s 377
A Halt 378
Mengs, Anton Rafael.
Portrait of Himself 84
Mount Parnassus 85
Menzel, Adolf.
Portrait of Menzel, 1837 379
Frederick the Great and his Tutor 380
The Round Table at Sans-Souci 381
Frederick the Great on a Journey 383
Illustration to Kugler’s History of Frederick the Great 384
Portrait of Frederick the Great 385
Reifspiel 387
When will Genius Awake? 388
Overbeck, Frederick.
Portrait of Overbeck 118
The Annunciation 119
The Naming of St. John 120
Christ Healing the Sick 121
Christ’s Entry into Jerusalem 122
The Resurrection 123
The Seven Lean Years 124
Portrait of Himself and Cornelius 140
Pesne, Antoine.
Portrait of Himself and Daughters 72
Piloty, Carl.
Portrait of Piloty 336
Girdonists on the Road to the Guillotine 337
Under the Arena 339
Prudhon, Pierre Paul.
Portrait of Himself 195
Joseph and Potiphar’s Wife 196
Study directs the Flight of Genius 197
Le Coup de Patte du Chat 198
Cupid and Psyche 199
The Unfortunate Family 204
The Rape of Psyche 205
Le Midi 206
La Nuit 207
L’enjouir 208
Marguerite 209
Les Petits Dévideurs 210
The Vintage 211
The Virgin 212
Christ Crucified 213
Madame Copia 214
Regnault, Henri.
Salome 299
The Moorish Headsman 300
Rethel, Alfred.
The Emperor Otto at the Tomb of Charlemagne 169
The Destruction of the Pagan Idols 170
Hannibal’s Passage over the Alps 171
Death at the Masked Ball 172
Death the Friend of Man 173
Reynolds, Sir Joshua.
Portrait of Himself 20
Dr. Johnson 21
Garrick as Abel Drugger 22
Heads of Angels 23
Samuel Richardson 24
Miss Reynolds 25
Edmund Burke 26
Mrs. Abington 27
Edmund Malone 28
Oliver Goldsmith 29
Lady Cockburn and her Daughters 30
Bishop Percy 31
The Girl with the Mousetrap 32
Dr. Burney 33
Richter, Gustav.
Portrait of Himself 331
A Gipsy 332
Scheffer, Ary.
Portrait of Scheffer 257
Marguerite at the Well 258
Schnorr von Carolsfield, Julius.
Portrait of Schnorr 125
Adam and Eve after the Fall 125
Schrader, Julius.
Cromwell at Whitehall 333
Schwind, Moritz.
Portrait of Schwind 175
From the Wartburg Frescoes 176
From the Wartburg Frescoes 177
Wieland the Smith 178
From the Story of the Seven Ravens 179
A Hermit leading Horses to a Pool 181
Nymphs and Stag 184
Rübezahl 185
The Fairies’ Song 187
Slingneyer, Ernest.
The Avenger 311
Sohn, Carl.
The two Leonoras 163
The Rape of Hylas 166
Steinbruck, Eduard.
Elves 162
Steinle, Eduard.
The Raising of Jarius’ Daughter 131
“I have trodden the Winepress alone” 132
Portrait of Steinle 133
Book Illustration 134
The Violin Player 135
Sylvestre, Joseph Noël.
Locusta Testing in Nero’s Presence the Poison prepared for Britannicus 296
Veit, Philip.
Portrait of Veit 136
The Arts introduced into Germany by Christianity 137
The two Marys at the Sepulchre 139
Wappers, Gustav.
Portrait of Wappers 303
The Sacrifice of Burgomaster van der Werff at the Siege of Leyden 305
The Death of Columbus 307
Watteau, Antoine.
Portrait of Watteau 56
La Partie Carrée 57
The Music Party 73
The Return from the Chase 74