19th Century Art The Gilded Age in United States history is the late 19th century, from the 1870s to around 1900. Mark Twain's novel The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today, mocked or satirized an era of social problems masked by “a thin gold gilding.” During the Gilded Age American art expanded into several uniquely different styles and movements including: the hudson river school, architecture and engineering, the arts and crafts movement and american impressionism and realism. The Hudson River School was America’s first true artistic society. Its name originated to identify a group of New York City based landscape painters that emerged in about 1850 under the influence of Thomas Cole.Because of the inspiration exerted by his work, Cole is usually …show more content…
The movement began in literature in the mid 19th century. Realism is generally considered the beginning of modern art, it embraced the “progressive aims of modernism.” Realism portrayed how life was structured socially, economically, politically, and culturally in the mid nineteenth century. This led to art that was sometimes considered ugly do to the portrayal of life's unpleasant moments. The color scheme was usually, earthy tones that went against high art's ultimate ideals of beauty. Realism was the first nonconformist art movement, following the explosion of newspaper printing in the wake of the Industrial Revolution, Realism brought in a new conception of the artist. The realist movement also originated in France during the 1800's. The realists wanted to break away from the formal artistic styles and subjects of the past. Their works typically portrayed ordinary, or working class people as opposed to heroic, historic, biblical, or royal figures. They depicted scenes of traditional life, with rural landscapes and ordinary …show more content…
Arts and Crafts designers strived to improve standards of decorative design. The Arts and Crafts movement did not promote a particular style, but it did advocate reform as part of its philosophy. As modern machines replaced workers, Arts and Crafts proponents called for an end to the division of labor and advanced the designer as craftsman. The American Arts and Crafts movement was inextricably linked to the British movement and closely aligned with the work of William Morris and the second generation of architect designers, including Charles Robert Ashbee and Charles Francis Annesley Voysey, whose work was known through important publications such as The Studio. British ideals were spread in America through journal and newspaper writing, as well as through societies that sponsored lectures and programs. Boston was the first city to feature a Society of Arts and Crafts, founded in June
The exact period of time in which the Gilded Age occurred is ever-debatable, but most historians can at least agree that it started within the 20 years after the Civil War ended and lasted until the early 1920s. (West) The Gilded Age itself was characterized by the beginnings of corporations and corrupt political machines. Policies such as the General Incorporation Laws allowed business to grow larger more easily, and with less red tape involved. New technology allowed faster and more efficient production, but this explosive growth of industry called for not only more resources, but new business practices and leaders as well. (Moritz 10-12)
Many people may view something differently than others, this is usually and interpretation. An interpretation is an action of explaining the meaning of something or it can be an explanation of a way to explain something. We have all made interpretations about something and we do it often. Eric Forner and Howard Zinn had different interpretations of the gilded age, which was a time period where the United States population and economy quickly grew with a lot of corruption. Their ways of explaining this era was different from one another.
The Gilded Age was the last three decades of the nineteenth century, when America’s industrial economy exploded generating opportunities for individuals but also left many workers struggling for survival. With the many immigrants, skilled and unskilled, coming to America the labor system is becoming flooded with new employees. During this period, the immigrants, including the Italians, were unskilled and the skilled workers were usually American-born. There was also a divide in the workers and the robber barons. Robber barons were American capitalist who acquired great fortunes in the last nineteenth century, usually ruthlessly. There was much turmoil throughout the business and labor community. Two major organizations, the Knights of Labor and the American Federation of Labor, helped represent the workers in this time of chaos. The Knights of Labor, founded in 1869, were representing both skilled and unskilled workers. They were quite popular with a large boost in membership becoming the biggest union in 1885. They sought for equal pay and equal work. All were welcomed to the Knights of Labor; there was no discrimination on race, gender, or sex. They called for an eight-hour day in order to reduce fatigue and for safety issues. The Knights of Labor Declaration of Principles states their purpose is to “make industrial and moral worth, not wealth” (Reading 9, p. 1). This means the moral worth is to what they could contribute to society rather than monetary gains. They were working towards this improvement of the common mans life to advance in civilization and create new ideas for society. They also called upon the employer to treat the employee with respect and fairness so they can contribute to not only their company but to Amer...
The Gilded Age gets its name from a book by Mark Twain called The Gilded Age: a Tale of Today. It was written in 1873, and unfortunately was not that successful. While the Gilded Age conjures up visions of ostentatious displays of wealth and decorative parties, the over all topic was politics. The book gives an extremely negative assessment of the state of American democracy at that time. Which does not come as a huge surprise coming from Twain, who famously said "It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress.” So when faced with sweeping changes in the American economy after the Civil War, the American political system both nationally and locally dealt with these problems in the best way possible, by inevitably and incredibly becoming corrupt.
The life of an immigrant in the United States during the Gilded Age was a rough life. During this time period the U.S. went through a dramatic change in dealing with changing infrastructure and masses of people coming over from different countries for a chance at a better life. This time period was characterized by small wage jobs, poor working conditions and the struggle to survive. The Jungle embodies the themes of the Gilded Age with first hand experiences of an immigrant's hardships of life.
The Gilded Age was the period of Reconstruction after the Civil War. During this time period, the recently separated North and South were piecing back together as one united nation. After being enemies for so long reuniting as a whole seemed easier than perceived to be, and required strong leadership to aide in the process. Unfortunately, many historians believe that this Reconstruction period did not experience the luxury of having these elite rulers. Chester Arthur, Grover Cleveland, and Benjamin Harrison deserve their historic reputation as they failed to maintain control of the country, and lacked authority when making decisions. However Rutherford B. Hayes and James Garfield do not deserve the historic reputation of a weak president as they succeeded in financially improving the country and continually making the right decision for the people and the nation.
The Gilded Age is marked as the thirty-five years between the end of the Civil War and the end of the nineteenth century. During this period of time, the economy grew at an astonishing rate, producing enormous amounts of wealth. This was also a time where the majority of the population was struggling to get by, and was classified as poor workers, while the industrial and financial aristocracy lives in beautiful homes and lived their lives with opulent amusement. Life was very different between different groups such as the rich and the poor, and even the men and the women. I definitely would not fit into the urban society of the Gilded Age because everything had to do with the men being in power, racism, and men’s constant control over politics, which would make being a women in this period of time very difficult.
The Gilded Age (1870-1900) was considered the golden age of America. The term the Gilded Age was coined by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner in their book The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today (1873). The Gilded Age had success, like the economic boom and the formation of labor unions, but the weaknesses of that era were far greater than those accomplishments, like the ill prepared government, the unequal distribution of wages and the racial discrimination held against the Chinese, African Americans and the Indians
Realism is a style of writing which shows how things are in life. It showed how mostly every person thought life was just perfect. They were not seeing the
The Arts and Crafts movement occurred during the late 19th century and early 20th century. Its aim was “to bring artists and craftsmen together.” The movement developed from the fear that art was being lost to the up and coming manufacturing field (“The Bauhaus”). However, Gropius knew manufacturing would be a big part of the future and promoted art that could be mass-produced by factories. In 1923, the school’s slogan be...
The impressionist movement is often considered to mark the beginning of the modern period of art. It was developed in France during the late 19th century. The impressionist movement arose out of dissatisfaction with the classical, dull subjects and clean cut precise techniques of painting. They preferred to paint outdoors concentrating more on landscapes and street scenes, and began to paint ordinary everyday people and liked to show the effects in natural light.
Realism started in France in the 1830s. It was very popular there for a long time. A man named Friedrich Schiller came up with the word “realism.” Realism is based on contemporary life. There is a very accurate and honest representation of characters in this style of art. Realism tries to combine romanticism and the enlightenment. Life isn’t just about mind and not just about feelings either, it’s about both feelings and reason together. As said in the na...
Realism Modernism not only depicted American society after World War I accurately and unbiasedly, but also tried to find the solutions brought upon by the suffering created by the war (Elliott 705). The realistic movement of the late 19th century saw authors accurately depict life and it’s problems. Realists attempted to “give a comprehensive picture of modern life” (Elliott 502) by presenting the entire picture. They did not try to give one view of life but instead attempted to show the different classes, manners, and stratification of life in America.
People decided to rebel against the political and social rules of their time and started a new trend of art. It conveyed dramatic subjects perceived with strong feelings and imagination.
In conclusion, the art of the 19th century was composed of a sequence of competing artistic movements that sought to establish its superiority, ideologies and style within the artistic community of Europe. These movements, being Romanticism, Realism, Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, ultimately spread far beyond the confines of Europe and made modern art an international entity which can still be felt in today’s artistic world.