From 1830 To 1845

In the 19th century, art history underwent a dramatic transformation. The field had formerly been dominated by the study of artworks from a strictly chronological perspective, but in the 19th century, art historians began to focus on stylistic and formal analysis. This shift resulted in a more nuanced understanding of art history and the development of new methodologies for studying art.

Vase

    This vase is among the most ambitious ceramics made in this nation's early republic era.
    Referencing sumptuous metal-mounted French porcelains of the period, it features elaborate gilded and polychrome enamel decoration.
    Each side is embellished with a different view of Philadelphia, taken from print sources.

A River in a Meadow

    The painting is largely comprised of three horizontal bands:empty foreground, screen of trees, and sky.
    These broad registers are animated by nimble details, such as the complementary curves of the path and the river, or the straight line of figures that begins with the cow at left and leads the eye to the far bank.
    Light is deployed as a unifying element, a feature of seventeenth-century Dutch landscape painting that Rousseau transposed to a French setting.

The Hall of Antiquities at Charlottenborg Palace, Copenhagen

    The young watchman's casual lack of self-awareness contrasts with the stiff formality of plaster casts made from Greek and Roman sculptures.
    These galleries in Charlottenborg Palace, seat of the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Art, provided students like Müller with models from antiquity as the basis for learning to draw.

View of Lormes

    This sketch is one of many views of the countryside and villages in the Morvan, the mountainous region of Burgundy where Corot had many relatives, and which he visited in the early 1840s.
    The sketch is rapidly executed and made outdoors.
    This sketch is one of many views of the countryside and villages in the Morvan, the mountainous region of Burgundy where Corot had many relatives, and which he visited in the early 1840s.

The Great Pyramid, Giza

    Dauzats traveled to Egypt with a French diplomatic mission in 1830 and painted this striking view of the Great Pyramid soon after he returned to Paris.
    In his written account of the journey (Quinze jours au Sinaï, 1839, co-authored with Alexandre Dumas), the artist marveled at the "lizard-like" physical dexterity required to scramble over the ancient monument's massive stone blocks to reach the summit.
    Dauzats traveled to Egypt with a French diplomatic mission in 1830 and painted this striking view of the Great Pyramid soon after he returned to Paris.

A Village in a Valley

    Rousseau was not yet twenty years old when he painted this study from nature during one of his many expeditions into the countryside around Paris in the late 1820s.
    It is probably the painting described as a view of the plain of Saint-Ouen from the hill of Batignolles, with the forest of Montmorency in the distance, that was included in the 1867 retrospective of his work.

Study of Water and Plants

    This large study amply conveys Fearnley's interest in rendering effects of light and reflection in water, as well as the flora growing on its banks.
    He painted the picture on September 23, 1837, in Surrey, during an extended sojourn in England.

Cows Crossing a Ford