| This paper addresses the production of culture, specifically the shift in French painting from its 19th century academic form, a highly institutionalized, well-delineated practice that prescribed why, how and what to paint, to its 20th century form characterized by stylistic diversity, de-institutionalization, concept of artist-genius, ties to the marketplace and independent critics. It is contended that the essential features that characterize modern painting evolved between the Romantic period and the end of the Impressionist era. Though various cultural, sociological and material factors are mentioned as essential contributions to the rise of modern painting, the approach taken in this paper focuses on the role of the artist as an individual and general representative of his era and participant in the production of the new painting practice. The biographies and works of nine painters contemporarily considered masters of modernism are looked at--Theodore Gericault, Eugene Delacroix, Gustave Courbet, Cadmille Corot, Theodore Rousseau, Jean-Francois Millet, Edouard Manet, Claude Monet and Edgar Degas--in an attempt to discern what prompted each to risk breaking with academic convention and forge new and individual modes of visual expression. The essential preoccupations of each are addressed and it is suggested that together their efforts reflect a deeply rooted need to use the medium of painting as a domain for self-expression, as an on-going dialogue between themselves and their worlds. This use of painting in an existential manner is seen as a reflection of the conditions of 19th century France and the evolving modern world in general, and the likely form artistic expression will take therein. The intensity and tenacity the early innovators displayed in using painting thusly is considered important in effecting the shift to its contemporary practice. This paper further notes that other historical periods such as third century Greece and the Italian Renaissance have allowed for a measure of self-expression and questions why some but not other art traditions have institutionalized an allowance for freedom of expression, and the form artistic imagination might take in such traditions. |
