Paris Art Studies
The
British Aesthetic Movement – a
Chronology
1835 – The slogan “l’art
pour l’art” (“art for art’s sake”)
is coined by the writer Théophile Gautier in France during the Romantic period,
in the preface of his celebrated novel Mademoiselle
de Maupin.
1848 – Founding of the Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood in London by
the painters Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Holman Hunt and Everett Millais.
Theirs was the first art movement in England to challenge the precepts and
styles of the Royal Academy and to try to re-instill in modern painting a sense
of purity, beauty nature and the spiritual.
1851 – Great Exhibition in Crystal Palace in Hyde
Park, London. Organized by Henry Cole and Prince Albert, its object is to
promote peace and goodwill among the nations by bringing together industrial
and cultural artifacts created by all. Its phenomenal public success
inaugurates an era of pride and world dominion in Great Britain. Critics,
however, find most objects badly designed, mechanical and tasteless.
1853 – Opening of Japan to international trade. Japanese
artifacts arrive in great numbers in American and European markets.
1856 – Publication of Owen Jones’ Grammar of Ornament. Its 1000 illustrations from all cultures
of the past will provide new designers with a vast repertory of ornamental
patterns, notably Islamic.
1857 – Founding of Sough Kensington Museum (today Victoria
and Albert) by Henry Cole. Its collections, notably in the decorative arts were
meant to educate artists and the public in history and good taste.
1859 – The American painter
James MacNeill Whistler arrives in
London from Paris. He will be a most influential member of the Aesthetic
movement, central figure of Chelsea, propagator of Japonisme and a link to the French Impressionists.
1861 – The founding of
Morris, Marshall, Faulkner and Company, Art Workmen by William Morris signals a return to craft and fine workmanship. His
famous credo was: “Have nothing in your house which you do not think beautiful
or know to be useful”.
1862 – South Kensington International Exhibition: first appearance of a
« reformed » style in the decorative arts in reaction to vulgarity
and confusion of 1851 Exhibition. Morris, the architect Philip Webb and the
artists Dante Gabriel Rossetti,
Edward Burne Jones, Ford Madox Ford
all contribute to the renewal of British art and design in great part inspired
by the Medieval art and architecture. Morris moves to Tudor House in Chelsea, then a semi rural district
soon to acquire one of the most important artistic colonies in London. E. W. Goodwin and Christopher Dresser lean more towards Japanese
inspiration.
1863 – Whistler exhibits
“Symphony in White N. 1, the White Girl” at the Salon des refusés in Paris.
1866 – Publication of Poems and Ballads by Algernon Charles Swinburne. The mix of sensuality and
cruelty notably in Laus Veneris or Dolores scandalizes public opinion.
1869 – Mathew Arnold
castigates British Philistinism in Culture and Anarchy.
1871 – The French artist
James Tissot settles in London in St
John’s Wood.
1873 – Walter Pater professor of Classics and
Philosophy at Oxford publishes Essays on
the History of the Renaissance. He argues for the necessity of an intense
experience of beauty for its own sake, distinct of any religious or moral
considerations. He will be condemned by the bishop of Oxford and obliged to
retract by the university authorities. His writings will greatly inspire the
next generation of students, that of Oscar Wilde.
1875 – Opening of Liberty’s in London, first shop to
specialize in Japanese and Far Eastern ornaments, fabrics and objets d’art.
1876 – Whistler’s “Peacock Room” created for the home of
his patron, the shipping magnate F.R. Leyland, in Prince’s Gate, London,
becomes the icon of the Aesthetic style.
1877 – Inauguration of the Grosvenor Galleries in London by
Lindsay Coutts, which will become the principal venue for the exhibition of the
Aesthetic movement artists.
1878 – Goodwin’s Japanese
style cabinet decorated by Whistler “Harmony in Yellow and Gold” is much
admired at the Paris World’s Fair drawing international attention to the new
British aesthetic movement.
Celebrated libel case brought by Whistler against
John Ruskin writer, critic and defender of the Pre-Raphaelites. In reviewing
Whistler’s “A Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket” shown at the
Grosvenor galleries Ruskin wrote: “(I) never expected a coxcomb ask two hundred
guineas for flinging a pot of paint in the public’s face”. Though Whistler won
the case he had to bear the legal costs (£ 3000) which precipitated his
bankruptcy.
1881 – First performance of
the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta Patience
or Bunthorne’s Bride mocking the pretentions of the followers of
Aestheticism.
1882 – Death of Rossetti.
Oscar Wilde undertakes his much publicized American tour to spread the gospel
of Aestheticism. Publication by Walter Hamilton of “The Aesthetic Movement in
England”. In the same year the Goncourt brothers in France coin the word “esthète”.
1885 – Gilbert and
Sullivan’s production of The Mikado
assures that knowledge and taste for Japonisme
spreads to a vast new audience.
1886 – Death of Goodwin.
1893 – Death of Albert
Moore.
1895 – The trial and imprisonment of Oscar Wilde
accused of homosexual acts tarnishes the reputation of Aestheticism of which he
was one of the great champions.
1896 – Death of Morris and
Frederick Leighton.
1898 – Death of Burne-Jones
and Aubrey Beardsley (at 25 of tuberculosis) .
1904 – Death of Watts.
1910 – Roger Fry organizes
the first Post Impressionist exhibition at the Grafton galleries, London. The
event, asserting the primacy of French modern art, spells the death of British
Aestheticism, associated by the new “Bloomsbury” generation to the dead and
dusty Victorian era.
Principal figures of the Aesthetic movement:
Artists:
Lawrence Alma Tadema
1836-1912 (Dutch)
Aubrey Beardsley 1872-1898
Edward Burne-Jones 1883-1898
Walter Crane 1845-1915
(illustrator)
Frederick Leighton 1830-1896
John Everett Millais
1829-1896
Albert Moore 1841-1893
Edward Poynter 1836-1919
Charles Rickets 1866-1931 (illustrator)
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
1828-1882
Frederick Sandys 1829-1904
Simeon Solomon 1840-1905
James Tissot 1836-1902
(French)
John William Waterhouse
1849-1917
George Frederick Watts
1817-1904
James Abbott McNeil Whistler
1834-1903 (American)
Photographers:
Julia Margaret Cameron
1815-1879
Frederick Evans 1853-1943
Decorative arts:
William de Morgan 1839-1917
(ceramicist)
William Morris 1834-1896
(furniture, tapestry, wallpaper)
John Moyr Smith 1839-1912
(ceramicist)
Edward William Godwin
1833-1886 (furniture)
Architects and designers:
Christopher Dresser
1834-1904
Thomas Jeckyll 1827-1881
Philip Webb 1831-1915
Notes:
Aubrey Beardsley
(1872-1898)
He co-founded The Yellow
Book with American writer Henry Harland, and for the
first four editions he served as art editor and produced the cover designs and
many illustrations for the magazine. He was also closely aligned with Aestheticism, the British
counterpart of Decadence
and Symbolism.
Most of his images are done in ink, and feature large dark areas contrasted
with large blank ones, and areas of fine detail contrasted with areas with none
at all.
Beardsley was the most controversial
artist of the Art Nouveau
era, renowned for his dark and perverse images and grotesque erotica, which
were the main themes of his later work. Some of his drawings, inspired by
Japanese shunga artwork, featured
enormous genitalia. His most famous erotic illustrations concerned themes of
history and mythology;
these include his illustrations for a privately printed edition of Aristophanes' Lysistrata, and his
drawings for Oscar Wilde's
play Salome, which
eventually premiered in Paris in 1896.
William Blake
Richmond
Mrs Luke Ionides 1882
The sitter, Elfrida Ionides, was married to Luke
Ionides, of the famous British family of art patrons. She wears a loose,
flowing dress and amber beads. In 1881 the ornate sofa was illustrated in a
book on advanced interior decoration. The screen is made of embroidered
Japanese kimono silk. This setting and her costume epitomise the ideals of the
Aesthetic Movement.
Edward Burne Jones
Love song 1865 – Arthurian landscape, influence of Carpaccio,
inspired by old Breton song:
Alas, I know a love song, / Sad or happy, each in turn.
Laus Veneris (praise of Venus) – 1873-78 – inspired by eponymous
Swinburne poem on Tannhauser tale, knight enslaved by physical love and Venus –
melancholy, claustrophobic love sickness. Languid Venus, maidens trying to
entertain her with music, intrigued knights out the window.
The Wheel of Fortune 1875-83 portrays a giant wheel, turned by Dame Fortune, carrying the three nude figures — presumably a king, a poet, and a slave, as
indicated by the crown and laurel wreath. Dame Fortune towers above the three
men, her heavy clothing and cap covering most of her body in contrast to the
almost complete nudity of the mortals. Their faces seem strangely void of
expression, Dame Fortune gazing down dispassionately and both the slave and
king looking into the distance. Only the poet looks, not at Fortune's face but
at her feet, with a mildly pleading air. The figures are reminiscent of
Michelangelo's works as well as the ancient Greek and Roman sculptures he based
his work on, with their idealized bodies and Dame Fortune's distinctive
contraposto.
Sir Frederick
Leighton
Pavonia 1858-59 – model is Nanna Risi cobbler’s wife met in
Rome – posed for may painters
Countess Bronwlow c. 1879 – Aristocratic lady in languid
aesthetic pose and flowing dress
John Everett Millais
Kate Perugini 1880 - She was Dickens' youngest surviving daughter,
and according to her siblings her father's favourite child;[2] he named her after his friend William Charles Macready. As a girl, she
also bore the nickname "Lucifer Box" for her hot temper.
Louise Jopling
1879 – prominent
woman artist - She joined the Society of Women Artists (1880) and the
Royal Society of Portrait Painters (1891); she became the first woman to be
admitted to the Royal Society of British Artists (1901). During the years of
her marriage with Jopling, she became the primary earner of the family.
"She found this responsibility weighty and stressful, necessitating
constant production, regular sales and a continual search for commissions and
clients. In 1879, despite her own illness and that of her son Percy, she
produced eighteen works."
Albert Moore rejects narrative in pictures – combines Greek w Japanese
aesthetic in v. original way.
Edward Poynter – Mary Constance
Wyndham 1886
Mary Constance Wyndham was born on 3 August 1862. She married Hugo Richard Charteris, 11th Earl of Wemyss,
son of Francis
Richard Charteris, 10th Earl
of Wemyss and Lady Anne Frederica Anson,
on 9 August 1883.1 She died on 29 April 1937 at age 74. She
was the daughter of Hon. Percy Scawen Wyndham
and Madeline
Caroline Frances Eden Campbell.2
Her married name became Charteris.
Dante Gabriel Rossetti –
Bocca Bacciata 1859 – Fanny Cornforth – Titianesque inspiration –
his housekeeper, lower class , life long affair.
John William Waterhouse
St Cecilia 1895
Cecilia lived in Rome around
230 AD. She is famous for taking a lifelong vow of chastity which she kept
despite her enforced marriage. She converted her husband to Christianity and
both suffered martyrdom. "While the profane music of her wedding was heard, Cecilia was
singing in her heart a hymn of love for Jesus, her true spouse."In medieval times, a
misreading of her Acts led to her connection with church music and when the
Academy of Music was established at Rome in 1584, she was adopted as its
patroness.
Frederick Watts
'Blanche, Lady Lindsay', of 1876-7. Lady Lindsay (hostess of
intellectual and artistic salon) is playing the violin and, in front of her is
a tapestry of music-making angels. She looks back at us over her shoulder. But
this picture is no paean to Art with a capital A. Yes, her expression shows a
sort of rapture at the music that she's playing. But it also shows a look of
incipient pleasure, and you feel that the whole upper part of her body is going
to shake into a rumbustious dance at any moment as if she were playing in a
rough tavern. Art is pleasure, not platitude. This picture exemplifies the
revealing power of Watts' work and it makes us question whether he really was a
Grosvenor Gallery man - at least, in that institution's later years when it
became associated with a languid decadence that would be the subject of laughter
and, after Wilde's fall, of scorn.
James McNeil Whistler -
Symphony in white n. 1, the White Girl 1862 – Jo Hiffernan shown at salon des
refuses 1863
Little White Girl – Symphony in White n. 2 1864
Jo Hiffernan. Swinburne poem about it: “before the
mirror”
“Deep in the gleaming glass she sees all past things
pass”
fallen white rose in hand - Japanese fan in other - Blue
and white porcelain - Red lacquer bowl
Purple and Rose; the Lang Leizen of the six
marks 1864
Orientalist shop - Western girl - Title refers to
maker’s stylized signature on rare pieces of b&w
Harmony in Grey – Miss Cecily Alexander 1872-74
Posed as Manet’s Lola de Valence, inspired by
Velasquez, 70 sittings – model cross and tired end in tears
Peacock room (1876) the dining room for Liverpool shipping magnate
FR Leyland’s London house at Prince’s Gate (S. Ken.) London
Whistler paints completely over original leather and
beige scheme by Thomas Jeckyl (who much shaken goes mad and dies in asylum
–“that’s the effect I have over people”) during Leyland’s absence in the summer
and shows it to the press before Leyland himself can see it. Also has affair w
Mrs Leyland. Big fall out.
Now artist superior to patron.
Gold scab – an arrangement in filthy lucre – 1879 nasty caricature of Leyland painted
year of his bankruptcy painted in his White House confiscated by creditors,
Leyland is a hideous peacock sitting on White House playing piano. Though
Leyland becomes owner of house he never erased painting.
Paints Goodwin’s Butterfly
Cabinet – a Harmony in yellow and gold
1877 – exhibited at Paris World’s Fair of 1878 – originally a fireplace
transformed in to cupboard.
Thomas Carlyle - Arrangment in Grey and
black 1872-73. 78 year old
philosopher who admired Whistler’s Mother
Margaret Cameron
Married to British Indian official. Gets involved in
photography on her return to England, Isle of White at 50. Photgraphs all
luminaries of her day. Invents the “close up”.
Mary Hillier her housemaid often poses for her
compositions
Male aesthetic costume: knee breeches, loose
flowing tie, velvet jacket (adaptation of French romantic costume from Murger’s
vie de Bohème)
