Effects of the political turmoil on nineteenth-century painting. America and Europe underwent significant social, political, and intellectual changes during the eighteenth century. For instance, the civil war in America between the northern states and the southern confederacy had a significant impact on this time period, causing a great deal of property damage and a great deal of casualties. People's lives altered drastically on all levels, and there were numerous conflicts as a result of the conflicts between the old and new worlds. The world was going through a lot of changes and the effects of these changes affected every aspect of life including the arts of that period.
This period was faced by great adjustments in the world of art, there were great upheavals brought about by the changes made on the geopolitical boundaries the wars and many other political factors. These effects affected the world of art both in positive and negative ways whereby the upheavals contributed to the downfall of some artistic works while on the other hand they also greatly contributed to the development of more artistic works.
In France for example, the political upheavals were characterized with the Napoleonic wars and the French revolution, these also led to countless changes in France’s arts. These wars and conflicts limited the artists from travelling but was also of great advantage to them in some ways. One way is that some artists were able to begin their careers by commemoration. An example of this was in the painting by Gros which was meant to exalt the France’s Emperor, Napoleon 1 for being a charismatic leader. (Victoria Charles, 293). His painting was meant to glorify him for the victory in the battle of Eylau, where the Emperor had led the millitary in the bloody battle.
Another effect of the political upheavals was that, some artists were able to rise to fame. This is because, they were able to take advantage of the situation to uncover and confront the main racial stereotypes in the society by use of art. Lorna Simpson for example, started as a street photographer, in her work she could feature photos of unknown men and women with catchphrases that appeal to the people on issues related to gender and race. Her art work was able to grow and it later was able to feature various media like paintings and video works. Other artists like Charles Bell who was an army surgeon would also make paintings that showed how the injuries from the battle looked like, these paintings were meant to make people understand the patients wounds and the possible treatment.(J.Aminoff,224)
These political changes also contributed to technological growth. The technological growth led to the spread of internet and increased use of home computers, this made it easier for different countries to interact and promote the spread of culture and artistic works as the world had become smaller. The growth led to minimizing the distance between various countries which led to the artwork being available to a wider market. The art work from the artists in Europe and the United States was able to be accessed by people all over the world which led to increasing their popularity.
Another result of the political changes was that, the artists started addressing daily issues by use of more up-to-date and particular ways. This steered the emergence of the prominent impressionist movement in the later period of the nineteenth century. These artists would capture images with bold colors but with no details, they assimilated scientific study in the physics of color to help them obtain a better picture of color and better quality. An example of one of their artistic works was the painting of The Cradle in the 1872 (Robert Katz,100). They Impressionists painted a lot of good scenes and also stuck to their object sensation, which greatly contributed in raising the standards of the art work around the world.
The political upheavals led to growth of the art markets in London. The warfare in Europe led to destruction of many art works as they were broken when the owners of the art works were running away from their countries,some of the artworks were also confiscated and sold . With this outbreak of artwork redistribution London became a market for the global art market. An example of a famous collection that was brought to the London market was the Philippe collection.
The political upheavals also altered the lives of the musicians including the composers and the type of music produced. The wars and the conflicts which led to loss of lives made those who composed the music to compose the songs in response to the tragedies. This is because the wars had led loss of lives of families and close friends which greatly affected the musicians. All the songs that such musicians came up with would evidently show the emotional scars that they had developed from the outcomes of the wars. Some of these works include, Vaughan Williams’s Pastoral Symphony. (Vaughan ,10)
In a nutshell, the political upheaval in Europe and United States greatly influenced the art work of different artists in those areas .Even though the upheavals brought a lot of pain and misery among the people like due to loss of lives, and as discussed above,the upheavals brought about more benefits to the world of art than the shortcomings.
WORK CITED.
J.Aminoff, Michael. Sir Charles Bell. 2016.
Robert Katz, Dars Celestine. The Impressionist Handbook. 1991.
Vaughan, Ralph. Pastoral Symphony. 1924.
Victoria Charles, Joseph Manca,Megan McShane. 1000 Paintings of Genius. 2014.
