Chapter 36: Revolution and Civil War

The Conditions of Modern Life

Background for Revolution (again)

Throughout Europe, situations were reaching crisis proportions by mid-century Cities were overcrowded and dangerous Disease was rampant Agricultural and financial institutions were collapsing Streets were filled with garbage, raw sewage, rats and fleas, which caused diseases such as dysentery, cholera, and typhoid fever
The Proletariat a class of workers lacking ownership of the means of production (tools, equipment, space), and control over both the quality and price of their own work.

Paris, 1848

In February, Louis-Philippe was overthrown and a provisional government established, as the proletariat demanded the right to work. That summer, the June Days saw three days of brutal street fighting between workers and the army. 10,000 died in 3 days.

Revolution and Coup dtat

The legacy of the June Days was that the middle class and the Bourgeois were gripped in the Red Fear, great fear of that the working class would become violent again. In December 1848, Charles-Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte (1808-1873), known as LouisNapoleon, was elected president of France. When the assembly refused to amend the French Constitution to allow him to run for a second term in 1851, he led a coup dtat and proclaimed himself as Emperor Napoleon III, an autocratic ruler.

Revolution Across Europe

After the Paris uprising in February 1848, revolts also occurred elsewhere throughout Europe. Nationalist values spurred many of these movements.

douard Manet, Djeuner sur lherbe (Luncheon on the Grass), 1863, oil on canvas, 6 9.9 by 8 8.5

Giorgiones (Titians?) Pastoral Concert, a Renaissance work

Marcantonio Raimondi after Raphael. The Judgment of Paris. ca. 1520.

douard Manet, Luncheon on the Grass, 1863

douard Manet 1823-1883) made it his business to shock bourgeois sensibilities in his paintings. His Luncheon on the Grass was a prominent feature in the Salon des Refuses an exhibit of works rejected by the official Salon of 1863. The contrast between the nude female and her clothed male companions utterly confounded and dismayed audiences. Lighting clearly effected by the invention of photography flash bulb lighting. Composition taken from Raimondis Judgment of Paris, which is a play on theme, for this is Manets judgment of Paris. Also recalls Giorgiones (Titians?) Pastoral Concert of 1508, which is in the Louvre where Manet could have seen it. Nude versus Naked Nude is a natural, primeval state Naked someone who should be clothed, but isnt. There are signs of that she should be clothed like the presence of socks, jewelry or clothes lying about.

Daumier, This Years Venuses Again, 1864

Edouard Manet, Olympia, 1863

Oil on canvas 51 by 74

Titian, Venus of Urbino, 1538

Giorgione, Sleeping Venus

Alexandre Cabanel, The Birth of Venus, Salon of 1863

Artists of War

The American Civil War changed how war was waged and consequently changed how war was represented. War was certainly unsafe as a spectator event now, so special artists, retained by newspapers and journals, went to the battlegrounds to provide a pictorial record of the battles. Mathew Brady was the most famous Civil War Photographer.

Winslow Homer

Winslow Homer (1836-1910) was hired by Harpers Weekly to depict the events of the war. He presented not a panorama of battles, but almost psychological portrayals of wars reality. The formality of his setting contrasts sharply with the horror of his subject.

Battlefield Photography

The camera was used for the first time in battles of the American Civil War. Photographer Alexander Gardner, an employee of Mathew Brady (1823-1896) used the camera to record an accurate sense of battle. Photographed images, combined with the comments of the photographers, powerfully conveyed the horrors of war

A Harvest of Death, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, July 1863 Alexander Gardner, Photograph, 6 by 7 13/16

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Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, July 1863 Alexander Gardner, Photograph

Alexander Gardner for Mathew Brady, Confederate Soldiers Gathered for Burial at Antietam, September 1862

23,000 soldiers were killed, wounded or missing after twelve hours of savage combat on September 17, 1862. The Battle of Antietam ended the Confederate Army of Northern Virginias first invasion into the North and led to Abraham Lincolns issuance of the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation.

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