 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 Otto von Bismarck

Napoleon III
Cavour
 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 19th 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. 1862
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
 Winslow Homer, Dressing for the Carnival, c. 1870
•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.
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
Peasants 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
1878-1881
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.
 Olympia, Manet

Venus of Urbino, Titian

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,