Painting in the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century
During the second half of the nineteenth century, the ideal of self-determination
fostered by the French Revolution and spread by Napoleon helped spawn a revolutionary
spirit across Europe. This spirit of rebellion also infected artists of the period. Painters
began to challenge the philosophy and the aesthetic principles of the academies, looking
outside these conservative institutions for their training, subject matter, style, and
purpose. While many artists and critics promoted the status quo, others sought change,
seeing vali…
