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academic (adj)
conforming to standards, traditions, or conventions promoted
by an academy or school of higher learning. During the Impressionist
period, the term referred specifically to France’s Academy
of Fine Arts, which encouraged students to paint classical or biblical
subjects in a highly detailed style.
Students trained at the Academy drew from plaster casts, progressing
slowly to painting live models in poses, and finally to creating
compositions based on classical
sources and the work of Old Masters. |
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asymmetrical (adj)
not identical on both sides of a central line; lacking conventional
balance or symmetry |
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avant-garde (adj)
unconventional or experimental; ahead of its time; often used to
describe progressive art, music, or literature |
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background (n)
the part of a painting or drawing representing the space behind
the figures or objects close to the viewer (in the foreground) |
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(George-Eugène) Baron
Haussmann (1809-1891)
French administrator who transformed Paris
during the mid-19th century, turning a mass of small streets into
a space marked by wide, straight, tree-lined avenues. Haussmann’s
city planning also opened up parks, increased the number of streetlights
and sidewalks, and gave rise to the sidewalk cafés enjoyed
and portrayed by the Impressionists.
There were three motives behind the planning effort: to promote
industrialization by enabling goods and services to be transported
more efficiently, to beautify the city, and to prevent rebellion
by eliminating the narrow streets where barricades could be erected. |
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Ben-Day process (n)
named for New York printer Benjamin Day (1838-1916), a process for
adding tone or shading by overlaying patterns, usually dots, onto
the plate; used in printing comic strips |
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cholera (n)
an acute, infectious, often fatal disease found in India, China,
and occasionally elsewhere (such as France during the late 19th
century), characterized by profuse diarrhea, vomiting, cramps, and
dehydration |
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composition (n)
the arrangement of elements such as shape, space, and color in a
work of art |
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Cubism (n)
the early-20th-century art movement led by Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)
and Georges Braque (1882-1963) that used abstract, fragmented shapes
to depict several views of the same subject simultaneously, emphasizing
the basic geometry or structure of the subject |
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draftsman (n)
an artist exceptionally skilled in drawing |
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