Customer Reviews

Nineteenth Century Art: A Critical History

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2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I too had this book for a college 19th century art course. Most of the movements were not new to me and I dearly love most art of the period. But for anyone new to it this will be an incredibly boring read, too much bogged down in marxism and political correctness. Eisenman; a self-professed "Marxist-Art Historian" seems unable to speak of any movement without making it into classs warfare or accusing artists of being sexist or rascist, while completely ingnoring the historical context. As with many art history surveys Eisenman also suffers the delusion that there is something inherently wrong with academic art and that the only worthwhile art of the 19th century was made in France.

This is a text based overview of art in the 1800's. It has a text to picture ratio similar to that in Art by Hartt. It has a similar (but obviously more specific) audience. Reproductions are high quality. Most are black and white - maybe 20 percent color. Here the color plates are mixed throughout the book, instead of all together in one color section. So all the thematically similar pictures are grouped together with the information about them. Read through the chapter titles and if you like several of the artists in question then this may be a good book to have reproductions of their work.

Outline of Nineteenth Century Art:
Classicism and Romanticism
Patriotism and Virtue: David to the Young Ingres
Classicism in Crisis: Gross to Delacroix
The Tensions of Enlightenment: Goya
Visionary History Painting: Blake and His Contemporaries
Nature Historicized: Constable, Turner, and Romantic Landscape Painting
New World Frontiers
Old World, New World: The Encounter of Cultures on the American Frontier
Black and White in America
Realism and Naturalism
The Generation of 1830 and the Crisis in the Public Sphere
The Rhetoric of Realism: Courbet and the Origin of the Avant-Garde
The Decline of History Painting: Germany, Italy, and France
Modern Art and Life
Manet and the Impressionists
Issues of Gender in Cassatt and Eakins
Mass Culture and Utopia: Seurat and Neoimpressionism
Abstraction and Populism: Van Gough
Symbolism and the Dialectics of Retreat
The Failure and Success of Cezanne
chronology, bibliography, list of illustrations and index

This is a good book for university libraries. Because realistic art styles have traditionally been overlooked in favor of more abstract styles, there is a gap in history books that cover art. This is a good detailed overview of overlooked art. The sections on American art particularly valuable in filling a potential gap. American art in this time period had a documentary function. (European art had more of an idealized function as from Ruskin or acted more in the traditional way as a status symbol. Also European movements such as Pre-Raphealitism have recently become popular and widely available, so this is not such a big gap.) Having coverage of American art from this time period is especially desirable.

I don't think that this is such a good book for individuals to buy, unless you already know what it is. It is written and intended for academic study (so the writing is dense). Look through the book at a book shop or library first.

I recently purchased this book A) Because it was alot cheaper than my college bookstore's price, and B) Because it was mandatory for the class I'm taking. The book covers alot of the information for the 1800s in the art world. I like to actually see the work of art when it's being discussed, so the lack of images is a little annoying.

Eisenman draws upon the expertise of well-known scholars, most of whom who have already refined their understanding as veteran art historians and authors themselves of major histories of art, to complement his own considerable knowledge of both the artists and issues germane to conceptions of the avant-garde, modernism, and modernity. This compilation is unusual in that the authors all have deep understanding of social and economic history, power relations, and qualities of developing urbanism and apply that for penetrating illumination of the pictures. The writing, pitched for the reader with serious interest in the subject, is honed and clear, and will be revelatory, even, and especially a pleasure, for those who have a generic understanding of 19th century art from basic survey texts or museum visiting.

This is an excellent book with lots of photos and historical details to make everything clear. Eisenman has put together interesting concepts and critiques as well. It may be a difficult read for some people though.

great book. this actually enables you to understand what the 19th Century art and influences were about. Through its critical review, the writing and approach to it is fantastic. The best art history book I have read!

As this is a textbook for a course I'm taking, I was pleasantly surprised to find a copy well !!! below the current bookstore price and delighted when the book arrived extraordinarily promptly.

This is the textbook used in Yale's introductory course to 19th century French art, and is considered to be the industry standard for surveying the period.

You know a book is going to be mind numbing when the author praises their book above all others for about 4 pages. I understand that this is a college level book but it didn't need to use so much jargon. The paragraphs are almost impossible to decipher on the first, second, or even third read. The author obviously had to use ambigious language to make himself seem more academic. When explaining the works of Goya they devote an entire chapter to him. Pages upon pages which in reality could have been truncated down to perhaps 3 or 4. The pictures are on one page and the explanation of the pictures can be PAGES away. Making studying extremely difficult. My classmates and I believe that the true answers are in some other book, or perhaps you need a black light to find them. This book is like punishment from God.

If you want to read one of THE dullest, stuffiest, not to mention stylistically ghastly books in all of art history, please read this one. These writers confuse ambiguity and meanlingless hodgepodge for intelligence.