Later Europe and the Americas: 18th–19th Century Movements (AP Art History)

Neoclassicism

An 18th-century European and American movement that revives ancient Greek and Roman forms to promote Enlightenment ideals like reason, civic virtue, moral seriousness, and public-minded political messages (often reacting against Rococo/late Baroque decoration).

Romanticism

A late 18th- and early 19th-century movement emphasizing emotion, imagination, individual experience, political struggle, and the power of nature—often highlighting the sublime, the irrational, and dramatic intensity rather than restraint.

Realism

A mid-19th-century movement committed to depicting contemporary life (often ordinary people and modern social conditions) without idealizing; more an attitude about subject and purpose than “photographic accuracy.”

Impressionism

A late 19th-century movement aiming to capture an immediate visual impression—especially shifting light, atmosphere, and modern life—using visible brushstrokes, bright color, and everyday contemporary subjects.

Post-Impressionism

A label for diverse late 19th-century approaches that build on Impressionism but go beyond fleeting perception toward structure, symbolism, or heightened emotional expression (not a single unified style).

Civic virtue

The idea that citizens should prioritize public duty, sacrifice, and moral responsibility to the state/community; a central theme frequently promoted in Neoclassical art.

Sublime

A Romantic concept describing awe mixed with fear when confronting vast, overwhelming, or dangerous nature (or forces beyond rational control).

Anti-idealization

A Realist strategy of refusing to “perfect” bodies or situations; figures may appear tired, bluntly physical, and unglamorous to emphasize modern social truth over heroic beauty.

Broken color

An Impressionist technique of placing distinct strokes of color next to each other so the viewer’s eye mixes them, helping convey shimmering light and momentary optical effects.

Pointillism/Divisionism

A systematic Post-Impressionist approach (associated with Seurat) using small marks and careful color placement to construct optical effects methodically rather than relying on spontaneous observation.

Allegory

A method of representing abstract ideas through personified figures or symbols (e.g., “Liberty” as a figure) while still engaging real historical or political events.

Jacques-Louis David, The Oath of the Horatii (1784)

A Neoclassical painting from Roman legend showing brothers swearing loyalty to Rome; uses clear geometry, crisp contours, and ordered grouping to teach public duty over private family ties.

Jacques-Louis David, The Death of Marat (1793)

A Neoclassical work functioning as revolutionary propaganda: Marat is presented like a calm martyr/“modern saint,” with an austere composition and minimal distractions to frame his death as virtuous sacrifice.

Thomas Jefferson, Monticello (begun 1768; remodeled 1796–1809)

A Neoclassical architectural statement using symmetry, columns, and dome/temple-like references to connect the new United States to Roman republican ideals of order and rational governance (even as slavery complicates those ideals).

Francisco Goya, The Third of May 1808 (1814)

A Romantic condemnation of violence showing Spanish civilians executed by French soldiers; the victims are individualized and spotlighted, while the firing squad appears anonymous and machine-like to intensify moral outrage.

Théodore Géricault, The Raft of the Medusa (1818–1819)

A monumental Romantic painting of a real shipwreck tied to political scandal; uses unstable sea/sky and a pyramid of despair-to-hope to dramatize modern tragedy at the scale of history painting.

Eugène Delacroix, Liberty Leading the People (1830)

A Romantic mix of allegory and contemporary revolution: a personified Liberty leads varied social types through turbulent, energetic color and movement—political but emotionally charged rather than stoically exemplary.

J. M. W. Turner, The Slave Ship (1840)

A Romantic seascape indicting the transatlantic slave trade; churning paint, storm, and overwhelming light/color make nature feel vast and violent, turning the sublime into ethical critique.

Gustave Courbet, The Stone Breakers (1849)

A Realist painting of laborers doing exhausting work, shown without heroic idealization; challenges academic hierarchies by treating the working poor as a serious, confrontational subject.

Édouard Manet, Olympia (1863)

A Realism-linked modern nude that shocked viewers by stripping away mythological “disguise”; the direct gaze and blunt paint handling foreground modern urban life and the economics of sexuality.

Thomas Eakins, The Gross Clinic (1875)

A Realist depiction of a modern surgical demonstration; unsentimental and intellectually serious, using light to emphasize observation, medicine, and contemporary institutions as worthy of “history painting” scale.

Claude Monet, The Saint-Lazare Station (1877)

An Impressionist view of a modern train station where steam, glass, and light dissolve edges; focuses on transient atmospheric effects and modern industrial urban life.

Georges Seurat, A Sunday on La Grande Jatte (1884–1886)

A Post-Impressionist scene of modern leisure constructed with systematic marks (pointillism/divisionism); figures appear posed and still, emphasizing controlled design and calculated optical structure.

Vincent van Gogh, The Starry Night (1889)

A Post-Impressionist work using swirling brushwork and intensified color to convey inner emotion; visible paint is expressive (mood-driven) rather than primarily recording fleeting light effects.

Paul Gauguin, Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? (1897–1898)

A Post-Impressionist monumental, symbolic meditation on life and spirituality, using non-naturalistic color and flattened space; tied to constructed “unmodern” fantasies shaped by colonial-era power dynamics.