The Humanistic Tradition, Book 5 Romanticism, Realism, and the Nineteenth-Century World

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Painting in the Late

Nineteenth Century

Science and Technology

116 CHAPTER 31 The Move Toward Modernism

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engulf the listener in a nebulous flood of sound that calls

to mind the shimmering effects of light on water and the

ebb and flow of ocean waves. Indeed, water—a favorite

subject of Impressionist painters—is the subject of many

of Debussy’s orchestral sketches, such asGardens in the

Rain(1903), Image: Reflections in the Water(1905), and

The Sea(1905).

Symbolism

In the visual arts, Symbolists gave emphasis to the simpli-

fication of line, arbitrary color, and expressive, flattened

form. The Chosen One(Figure 31.3) by the Swiss artist

Ferdinand Hodler (1853–1918) employs these features in

depicting a young male child surrounded by a circle of

angelic figures. The painting does not represent a specific

event; rather, it suggests a mysterious and unnamed rite

of passage. Symbolist emphasis on suggestion rather than

depiction constituted a move in the direction of Modernist

Abstraction and Expressionism (see chapters 32 and 33

respectively).

Impressionism

The nineteenth-century art style that captured most

fully the intuitive realm of experience, and thus, closely

paralleled the aesthetic ideals of Bergson, Mallarmé, and

charged gestures and by dancing portions of the ballet bare-

foot. He outraged critics who attacked the ballet for its “vile

movements of erotic bestiality and gestures of extreme

shamelessness.”

Debussy had little use for the ponderous orchestras of

the French and German romantics. He scored the Prelude

for a small orchestra whose predominantly wind and brass

instruments might recreate Mallarmé’s delicate mood of

reverie. A sensuous melody for unaccompanied flute pro-

vides the composition’s opening theme, which is then

developed by flutes, oboes, and clarinets. Harp, triangle,

muted horns, and lightly brushed cymbals contribute

luminous tonal textures that—like the images of the

poem itself—seem based in pure sensation. Transitions

are subtle, and melodies seem to drift without resolution.

Shifting harmonies with no clearly defined tonal center

Figure 31.3 FERDINAND HODLER, The Chosen One, 1893–1894. Tempera and oil on canvas, 7 ft. 3^1 ⁄ 2 in.  9 ft. 10^1 ⁄ 2 in.

Six angelic figures float above the ground on which a nude boy sits before a barren tree. While the images suggest

renewal and rejuvenation, no clear narrative attaches to the scene.

1841 John G. Rand invents the collapsible metal paint

tube

1879 Edison produces the incandescent light bulb

1889 Edison invents equipment to take and show moving

pictures

1898 Wilhelm C. Röntgen (German) discovers X-rays

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