From theater and literature to sculpture and architecture, French arts are known for their innovation and sophistication.
Fine art was dominated by the Academy of Painting and Sculpture, which organized exhibitions known as salons that set national and international tastes.
Artists challenged academic conventions with bold erotic paintings like Eugene Delacroix’s “Olympia” and realistic works such as Gustave Courbet’s work.
Impressionism
After becoming disenchanted with academic art’s focus on historical subject matter and literary or anecdotal references, Impressionists turned towards producing images with more aesthetic value and less historical content. Their preferred loose brushwork enabled them to experiment with light, color and tone to depict everyday scenes more vividly.
Impressionist paintings capture the new lifestyle of industrialized France through seascapes, gardens and farmland landscapes; boisterous dancehalls and household interiors; elegant flaneurs along city streets and elegant flaneurs in Impressionist paintings. Cezanne and Gauguin revolutionized Impressionism through Symbolism art which disregarded scientific concerns for personal emotional experience and spirituality based creations.
Neoclassicism
Neoclassicism flourished across paintings, sculpture and architecture. Notable examples include Francois-Joseph Belanger’s small neoclassical chateau for Marie Antoinette called the Little Chateau of Bagatelle by Francois-Joseph Belanger as well as classically inspired buildings of Parisian aristocracy such as Petit Trianon in Versailles.
Neoclassical paintings put calm grandeur and spiritual nobility at the forefront, placing less emphasis on dramatic gestures or emotions; even when depicting scenes such as parties or celebrations, gaiety remains subdued.
Romanticism
Romanticism was characterized by strong emotions; its protagonist was often an antihero characterized by tragedy, while natural forces became more significant than orderly classical compositions.
Theodore Gericault’s Raft of the Medusa (1818-19), inspired by contemporary events, stands as an outstanding work of Romantic history painting and early political criticism.
Romanticism was characterized by symbols, exoticism, natural scenery and Middle Ages themes all featuring prominently. Literature was strongly impacted by Romanticism.
Realism
Realism is a literary movement which employs truthful storytelling to depict everyday people and their experiences in society, in contrast to Romanticism which depicts characters and situations idealistically.
Gustave Courbet was one of the earliest artists to self-consciously embrace realism. Rejecting Academy standards, his focus was capturing elements of French landscape and everyday working-class subjects.
Realists such as Honore Daumier employed an energetic linear style and dramatic, realistic details to craft caricatures of French society and politics that made for highly entertaining satirical caricatures.
Neo-Renaissance
Neo-Renaissance architecture is an inspired revival of Renaissance design that utilizes original Renaissance motifs such as rusticated masonry and quoins, as well as pediments and entablatures.
Renaissance buildings featured symmetrical staircases that became an essential feature both indoors and outdoors.
Artworks were inspired by Greek harmony and Biblical themes, with realism becoming more apparent among figures as a precursor to Romanticism.
Neo-Baroque
Neo-baroque logic emerges when different media crossover into each other. From ceiling paintings that become video games to weddings transformed into Spiderman theme park adventures and Renaissance sculpture repurposed as special effects in films, this new baroque logic challenges traditional categories of media.
Scholars have acknowledged the pervasiveness of baroque aesthetics across time and culture. According to Jose Lezama Lima, its focus on illusion and questionable reality found its way into Latin American artists as an act of rebellion against conquest.
Neo-Rococo
Rococo art made a comeback post-French Revolution in paintings, furniture and decorative arts influenced by this movement, drawing people in with its light themes, curvilinear lines and elaborate ornamentation. This artform found much favour among many patrons.
Artworks like Jacques-Louis David’s Oath of the Horatii promoted duty over emotion and noble character over self-fulfillment; these paintings contributed to moral reform during the Enlightenment movement.
Elizabeth Peyton finds the Rococo style an invaluable source of creative expression. She uses its motifs in her paintings to explore private emotions, fantasies and desires.
Neo-Classical Architecture
Neoclassical architecture celebrated simplicity over the flamboyance of Baroque and Rococo styles. Buildings featuring Greek or Roman details with dramatic columns; doors and windows feature triangular ornamentations known as pediments to crown them off.
Painters like Claude Lorrain and Francois-Louis de Saint-Simon drew inspiration from classical mythology; while sculptors such as Canova and Thorvaldsen depicted these themes through sculpture.
Neoclassicism became widespread throughout Europe thanks to archaeology’s discovery of ancient Roman and Greek sites and Winckelmann’s book on art history.
Decorative Arts
Decorative arts play an integral role in art history. Before fine and decorative art were divided, an array of objects held artistic value while fulfilling specific social functions.
Such pieces include furniture, ceramic wares, silverware, metalwork and textiles that feature swirling asymmetrical designs and new naturalism (flowers and other realistic plants and animals), pastel colors or any combination thereof – often inspired by classic styles.