Van Gogh Museum-Teaching Manual Naturalism 01-11

8/3/2019 Van Gogh Museum-Teaching Manual Naturalism 01-11

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PROGRAMME DESCRIPTION 02

03 NATURALISM

04 MUSEUM VISIT

05 LESSON SUGGESTIONS

10 BACKGROUND INFORMATION NATURALISM

CONTENTS


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At the end o the 19th century the work o numerous artists in

Europe and America displayed striking similarities. These paintings

were aithul representations o the visible world that highlighted

contemporary social issues and oten relied on photographs to

more closely approximate reality. Although these artists were

extremely popular in their lietime, they were later orgotten.

Nowadays they are counted as members o a movement called

Naturalism.

The general public in Western Europe became acquainted with

naturalist art primarily through the Salon exhibitions in Paris.

However, its appeal declined markedly in the course o the years.

Artists o avant-garde movements such as Impressionism are much

more amous now than the Academic artists who were so greatly

admired in the 19th century.

This teachers manual examines Naturalism rom various angles.

Not only are examples o Naturalist painting described, but also o

literature, photography and cinema. In addition, various themes

that occur in naturalist painting are discussed.

The subject o Naturalism is highly suitable or students with a study

ocus on culture, society, history and literature. Students will gain

knowledge and skills or courses on social studies, art, (art) history

and literature.

ViNCENT VaN GOGh aNd NaTuraliSmVincent van Gogh was amiliar with Naturalism, both in painting

and literature, and actually wrote about it to his brother Theo. The

excerpt below reveals that he considered Naturalism a movement

that did not solely render reality, but added something to it. For Van

Gogh the writings o the French naturalist author mile Zola also

had a romantic eel because o the creative liberties he took:

Romance and romanticism are our era, and one must

have imagination, sentiment in painting. HAPPILY,

realism and naturalism are not free of them. Zola

creates, but doesnt hold a mirror up to things, creates

them amazingly , butcreates, poetizes. Thats why its

so good. So much for naturalism and realism, which are

NONETHELESS related to romanticism.

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, Nuenen, about 28 October 1885

NaTuraliSm

PROGRAMME DESCRIPTION


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rESErVaTiONSInormation or booking a visit to the Van Gogh Museum can

be ound at www.vangoghmuseum.com. Please note that

reservations are limited to 40 students at a time. For questions

about your reservation, you can reach us Monday through Thursday

rom 1:00 pm to 5:00 pm by calling the Van Gogh Museums

education number: +31 (0)20 570 52 46.

lENGTh Of ViSiT aNd COSTSA visit to the Van Gogh Museum lasts about one hour. Payment can

be made at the cash register on the day o your visit. For additional

inormation, please consult the museums website:

www.vangoghmuseum.com.

SChOOl SupErViSiONWhen you visit the exhibition with your students, the Van Gogh

Museum educator expects the group to be accompanied by at least

one school supervisor. Teachers and adult helpers are responsible

or their students at all times and must stay with their group.

ViSiTiNG addrESS pOSTal addrESSVan Gogh Museum Van Gogh Museum

Paulus Potterstraat 7 P.O. Box 75366

1071 CX Amsterdam 1070 AJ Amsterdam

TraVElliNG by CarThe Van Gogh Museum is on Museumplein in Amsterdam.

Ample paid parking is available in the Q Park Garage underneath

Museumplein. Follow the signs P Museumplein.

TraVElliNG by publiC TraNSpOrT Trams 2 and 5 run rom and to Amsterdam Central Station.

Tram 5 also runs rom Station Zuid WTC. Alight at the Van

Baerlestraat stop.

Tram 3 runs rom and to Muiderpoort Station. Alight at the

Museumplein or Van Baerlestraat stop.

Tram 12 runs between the Amstel Station and Sloterdijk

Station. Alight at the Museumplein or Van Baerlestraat

stop.

Busses 145, 170 and 172 stop at the museum. Alight at the

Museumplein stop.

muSEum rulES No touching the works o art.

Coats, bags, backpacks and umbrellas must be checked at the

cloakroom.

The use o cameras and audio/video equipment is prohibited.

Mobile phones and MP3 players must be switched o in the

gallery.

No eating, drinking or smoking.

No running or screaming.

QuESTiONSMail your questions to [email protected] . You can

also call the Department o Education and Visitor Services Monday

through Thursday rom 1:00 pm to 5:00 pm, via the Van Gogh

Museums education number: + 31 (0)20 570 52 46.

muSEum ViSiT: praCTiCal iNfOrmaTiON



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lESSON plaNBegin a lesson on Naturalism by outlining the characteristics o

the era concerned, namely the end o the 19th century. Discuss

important social developments, such as industrialisation and the

ensuing urbanisation. You can also describe the position o ar tists

at the time. In this context, the dierence between Academic and

avant-garde artists is relevant. For background inormation on

Naturalism, see page 12 o this manual.

Below are several suggestions for study options, questions

and creative activities for lessons. The suggestions are easily

adapted or expanded to suit your needs.

ViNCENT VaN GOGhWhile nowadays most people have never heard o the movement

called Naturalism, it was well known in the 19th century. Vincent

van Gogh was also amiliar with naturalist art. The ollowing excerpt

rom a letter he wrote to his brother Theo evidences this:

Romance and romanticism are our era, and one must

have imagination, sentiment in painting. HAPPILY, realism

and naturalism are not free of them.


Read the excerpt rom Vincent van Goghs letter. What does

Vincent mean by the statement: Romance and romanticism are

our era, and one must have imagination, sentiment in painting?

Van Gogh is pleased that Realism and Naturalism are not devoid

o Romanticism. What is Romanticism?

The ollowing excerpt is rom the same letter:

Zola creates , but doesnt hold a mirror up to things,

creates them amazingly , butcreates, poetizes. Thats why

its so good. So much for naturalism and realism, which

are NONETHELESS related to romanticism.


Van Gogh mentions Zola as an example. Who was he? Find

inormation on Zola and his work. Explain what Van Gogh

meant by his remark that Zolas work is not ree rom

Romanticism?

lESSON SuGGESTiONS



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SalON praCTiCESIn the 19th century it was important or artists to get their work

exhibited at the Paris Salon, the (bi-) annual show held by the

Acadmie des Beaux-Arts. Participation in these shows was

determined by a very strict and conservative jury, which only

selected works o art made in the Academic style. This meant that

there was no room or innovative art. Naturalist paintings were

displayed at the Salon and were critically acclaimed. The inuence

o the Salon diminished with the establishment o other venues

where artists could exhibit their work. Still, the Salon exhibitions

remained immensely popular: they aorded beginning artists the

best opportunity o garnering critical notice. Because the works

o art were hung above and below one another at the Salon,

admittance was no guarantee that a painting was easy to see. The

height at which a work was hung reected the jurys opinion o its

importance. I it hung at eye level, the artist was ensured greater

recognition.

Determine the criteria or Salon paintings at the end o the 19th

century.

The Salon des reuss was established in 1863. It presented

works o art that had been rejected by the other Salon.

Determine what kind o art was accepted at the Salon des

reuss and how it diered rom that shown in the ocial Salon.

Honor Daumiermade caricatures o the public at the Salon.

Find drawings by Daumier about the Salon on the Internet.

What point was Daumier trying to make with his caricatures?

Did he succeed? What can you learn about Salon practices rom

these drawings?

Honor Daumier made caricatures o the public at the Salon.

Find drawings by Daumier and naturalist paintings (or

example, via Google) on the Internet. Let them inspire you

to make a cartoon in response to a naturalist painting or an art

exhibition.

STOriESNaturalist paintings quite oten tell a story, one that can easily

be perceived by the viewer. A single painting oten includes so

many details that you can imagine an entire story. This diered

greatly rom the more modern paintings being produced. Still,

these two contrasting styles occurred side by side at the end o

the 19th century. The modern paintings gave the viewer much less

inormation or fguring out the given scene. Sometimes they did

not even have a story.

Select a naturalist painting. Write a story in which one o the

scenes you describe is the one depicted in the painting.

Select a naturalist painting. Find a more modern painting that

you believe tells a comparable story in ar t books or on the

Internet. Explain why you think the same subject is depicted as

well as the way in which the paintings diermost.

Select a naturalist painting. Describe the thoughts and eelings

o each character in the painting that he or she might have at

that moment.

iNduSTrialiSaTiON aNd rural lifE Some naturalist paintings criticised social developments, such

as the impact o industrialisation on rural lie. Is there an issue

in present-day society that you believe warrants critical

attention? How would you want to make this abuse clear?

Would you make a painting o it? What would it look like? Would

you choose another way to call attention to the problem?

Describe how you would go about doing this and/or actually do

it now.

Top image: Nikolaj Kasatkin, Poor people collecting coal in an abandoned pit, 1894,

The Russian Museum, St. Petersburg



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rEliGiONCompare Let the little children come to me by Fritz von Uhde with

the Pieta by Vincent van Gogh. Both paintings represent a story

rom the Bible. Even though they were made just a ew years apart

at the end o the 19th century, they nevertheless dier greatly.

List some dierences in the style in which the artists painted.

The way in which they wanted to tell the biblical story deviates.

What is the greatest dierence?

Van Goghs painting is entitled Pieta (ater Delacroix). Look up

Pieta on the Internet. You can fnd Van Goghs painting on the

Van Gogh Museum website. What does ater Delacroix mean?

Vincent wrote the ollowing about von Uhdes painting Let the little

children come to me:

Theo, you mustnt think that if I saw Uhdes painting

itself I would lose the impression I got of it. I say again

that I believe this man will go the same way as Knaus

and Lobrichon namely that after a few things full

of character, the very technique will play a dirty trick

on him, thats to say hell start working more and more

correctly and more and more drily.

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, Nuenen, Monday, 6 July 1885

Vincent van Gogh mentioned Fritz von Uhde more than once

in his letters. Find the letters in which Van Gogh wrote about

Fritz von Uhde at www.vangoghletters.org . Use the search

term Uhde. Explain in your own words what Van Gogh thought

about this painting by von Uhde. Do you agree with him?

Explain why or why not.

Top let image: Fritz von Uhde, Let the little children come to me , 1884, Museum der

bildenden Knste, Leipzig

Top right image: Vincent van Gogh, Pieta (ater Delacroix), 1889, Van Gogh MuseumAmsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)



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yOuThIn this painting The geography lesson The black stainmade by

Albert Bettannier in 1887, schoolchildren are being taught about

the conict surrounding Alsace-Lorraine.

Look up what the Alsace-Lorraine conict was all about. How

did the artist view it? And, how is this reected in the painting?

CiNEmaThe way in which naturalist painters conveyed their stories in a

single image greatly inuenced the cinema. These motion pictures

provided new possibilities or telling stories to the public and

were frst shown in the last decade o the 19th century. Some flm

directors used naturalist visual language to do so. This was done, or

example, in the flms that were made o the naturalist novels by the

French writer mile Zola.

Select a naturalist painting. Can you imagine that this painting

represents a scene rom a flm? What do you think would

happen in the next scene? And what happened previously?

Who are the leading characters? What is their story? Make a

storyboard: sketches o a sequence o scenes. The painting is

the middle scene. Draw two scenes beore and two ater

it. While making your storyboard think about zooming in, the

surroundings, and the development o the story. When you are

done, compare it to those o your classmates. Do you

understand each others stories? Are there comparable story

lines?

Select a naturalist painting. Make a short flm in which you

include the scene that you see in the painting.

O course, you can reverse the inuence paintings had on

flm. Select a scene rom one o your avourite movies and make

a painting o it.

Top image: Albert Bettannier, The geography lesson The black stain, 1887, Deutsches

Historisches Museum, Berlin



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phOTOGraphySome naturalist artists used photographs as the basis or their

paintings. Accordingly, their paintings make a very realistic

impression. Photographs allowed them to study reality very

closely. The French artist Jules-Alexis Muenieroten relied on

photographs when making his paintings. For Beautiul days he took

several photographs o his wie and young son. The other people

in the painting are not relatives, but were included to complete

the picture o a amily. For Muenier, photography had one great

advantage: he no longer had to make so much as a sketch beore

he started to paint. The photographs were his point o departure.

Nevertheless, some art critics noted that the use o photography

had disadvantages.

Write an essay deending the ollowing position: Artists who

rely on photographs to make their paintings are cheating.

Naturalist artists used photographs to make their paintings

more realistic. Ultimately, however, they did not paint reality

entirely aithully. Rather, they manipulated it or the sake o a

perect composition. This gave the artist a certain power over

reality. Experience this power or yoursel. Take a photograph

o an event in your lie and manipulate it to achieve an ideal

image. Perhaps a person is missing in your photograph, or you

wore the wrong clothes. This can be corrected by altering the

photo in a graphics-editing programme on the computer.

Select a naturalist painting. Take a photograph imitating the

scene in the painting as precisely as possible. Pay attention to

the surroundings, the clothing worn by the fgures, and the

lighting. You can also make a more modern version o

the painting, on the condition that you try to approximate its

atmosphere in your photograph.

Make your own naturalist painting with the help o

photography. First, take a series o photographs and then use

them to determine your composition. To enlarge a photograph

to the size o your painting, try the trick that Jules-Alexis

Muenier probably used. Divide your photo into dierentsections. By dividing your canvas in the same way, you can

easily transer the sections in the photo to the corresponding

sections in the canvas.

rESulTSThe Van Gogh Museum would like to see the results o your lessons;

poems, photos and images o paintings can be sent to

[email protected] . Please include the name, age and

class o the student and the name o the school.

Top let image: Jules-Alexis Muenier, preparatory photo or Beautiul days, c. 1889,

collection amily o the artist

Top right image: Jules-Alexis Muenier, Beautiul days, 1889, Bradley P. Radichel



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The 19th century was a multiaceted period, in which the norms

and values o both society and the art world changed drastically.

It witnessed the shit o art education rom the atelier to the

academy, the opening o the frst public museums, and the growing

importance o artists as individuals.

Nineteenth-century artists and art movements have been studied

extensively; even so, some lacunas remained. For instance, Proessor

Gabriel Weisberg discovered the existence between 1875 and

1918 o a long unrecognised art movement, namely Naturalism. In

his bookBeyond Impressionism. The Naturalist Impulse, Weisberg

demonstrated that around the turn o the 20th century the work

o European and North-American artists was stylistically uniorm.

Interestingly there was no structured mutual collaboration or a joint

maniesto. However, through a common (unconscious) pursuit in

terms o style and content it can, in act, be called an art movement.

Although the name o this movement might suggest otherwise,

Naturalism does not mean that the paintings always strictly

reected reality. In contrast to realist painters, the naturalists took

creative liberties, transorming their works rom depictions o raw

reality into careully composed scenes that tell a story about society.

GENESiSA discussion arose in the mid-19th century regarding which

painting style could best convey modern lie. The popularity o

historical, mythological and allegorical scenes steadily diminished in

avour o scenes rom daily lie. Not only did the themes have to be

appealing, contemporary viewers also had to recognise themselves

in and learn rom them, which is why naturalist painters depicted

the lie o the common man. As a result, their work was ideally

suited or display in public spaces, such as town halls or universities.

Consequently, naturalist painters oten worked on commission or

the government. They scaled their works to show up well in the

large spaces where they came to hang.

ThEmESNaturalism addressed subjects in daily lie. These can be groupedinto several categories: rural li e, industry, politics, religion and

youth.

baCkGrOuNd iNfOrmaTiON ON NaTuraliSm



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rural lifENaturalist artists oten painted peasants in the countryside.

Sometimes they chose this subject to present an idyllic image o

rural lie. However, this changed with the advent o the industrial

revolution and artists were eager to immortalise this disappearing

way o lie. This can be seen, or example, in The haymakers by the

French artist Lon Augustin Lhermitte. Other artists captured the

raw side o rural lie and did not shy away rom social problems,

such as alcoholism.

The enormous painting Grimaces and miseryby Fernand Pelez

shows a group o travelling circus perormers. The harshness o their

lie is announced in the title and can also be sensed instantly in the

painting. The painter underscored a poignant irony: the acrobats

and clowns, who travel through villages and towns to entertain

others, themselves lead a bleak existence. The impression this work

made at the Salon was proound.

Top image: Lon Augustin Lhermitte, The haymakers, 1887, Van Gogh Museum Amsterdam

(Vincent van Gogh Foundation)

Bottom image: Fernand Pelez, 1848-1913, Grimaces and misery, 1888, Petit Palais, Muse

des Beaux-arts de la Ville de Paris, Paris



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iNduSTryAt the time o the naturalist movement, the consequences o the

industrial revolution were also recorded on canvas. Some ar tists

wanted to highlight the value o manual labour, others were more

interested in rendering the harsh reality o actory lie. One o the

paintings portraying actory workers is The ironworkers noontime

by the American artist Thomas Anshutz. Like his teacher Thomas

Eakins, he relied on photography to compose his paintings. Each

fgure in The ironworkers noontime seems to have been studied and

photographed in an atelier, and then incorporated in the painting.

However, no photographic evidence to this eect has ever been

ound.

The ironworkers noontime depicts workers at a nail actory in

Wheeling, West Virginia. Washed and stretching their muscles, they

are shown taking a break ater working hard, recalling images o

ancient Greek athletes.

Anshutz grew up near this actory and was ully aware o the

diculties acing this industry through overproduction: i the

actory were orced to close, the small town o Wheeling would

probably also disappear. On the one hand, this painting can be

considered a tribute to the actory worker, and on the other it may

have been intended as a monument to a way o lie on the verge o

extinction.

The Finnish artist Eero Jrneelt made a darker image o the eects

o industry. In his painting Under the yoke (Burning the brushwood)

we see labourers clearing a wooded section o land. Their clothing

and circumstances betray just how heavy and dangerous this work

is. Particularly the exhausted child staring ahead was meant to make

viewers question the quality o these peoples lie.

Top image: Thomas Anshutz, 1851-1912, The ironworkers noontime, 1880, Fine Arts

Museums o San Francisco, git o Mr and Mrs John D. Rockeeller 3rd

Bottom image: Eero Jrneelt, 1863-1937, Under the yoke (Burning the brushwood) , 1893,

Ateneum, Art Museum Finnish National Gallery, Helsinki



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pOliTiCSNaturalist artists depicted political events in a penetrating and

at times biased manner. For example, in The strike at Le Creusot

by Jules Adler, the artists sympathies clearly lie with the striking

labourers. This painting was exhibited in the Salon in 1900. It

presents a mass o people moving as a single entity in protest

against the repression o their employers. The painter probably

went to Creusot to gain a realistic idea o the strikers grievances frst

hand.

Top image: Jules Adler, The strike at Le Creusot, 1899, Muse des Beaux Arts, Pau



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rEliGiONReligion was also oten the subject o naturalist paintings, but then

rendered in a dierent, untraditional way. This genre was adapted

to the demands o modern times. The lie o Christby Ernest Renan,

o 1863, inuenced the way in which Christ was depicted. In this

book, Renan wanted to humanise Christ, so that anyone could

identiy with him. In paintings Christ was given human traits and

shown participating in daily l ie. An example o this is Fritz von

Uhdes Let the little children come to me, in which Christ is shown

in a 19th-century interior as an ordinary man without a halo and

approachable or the children surrounding him.

The religious eelings and experiences o the common man were

also conveyed in naturalist paintings. In these works, humble

human beings were endowed with saintly characteristics: a praying

labourer could be depicted as though he were a devout saint. Using

Christian subjects, attention could be ocused on contemporary

issues o injustice. For instance, a painting o the Good Samaritan by

Aim-Nicolas Morot became an exhortation to care or the sick and

needy.

Top let image: Fritz von Uhde, 1848-1911, Let the little children come to me , 1884, Museum

der Bildende Kunste, Leipzig

Top right image: Aim-Nicolas Morot, The Good Samaritan, 1880, Petit Palais, Muse des

Beaux Arts de la Ville Paris, Paris



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yOuThIdeas on the education and the raising o children changed in the

19th century. This, too, was expressed in naturalist art. An example

o this is The geography lesson The black stain, in which a class is

being taught about a conict between France and Germany. In the

painting a teacher points his stick at a large black area on a map.

Ater the Franco-German War (1870-1871), this territory - Alsace-

Lorraine, which originally was part o France was annexed by

Germany. The message o the painting is easily understood: French

youngsters had to learn that this territory belonged to France and

would one day be returned it.

Top image: Albert Bettannier, The geography lesson The black stain, 1887, Deutsches

Historisches Museum, Berlin



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ThE iNfluENCE Of phOTOGraphy ONNaTuraliST paiNTiNGSVarious naturalist painters relied on photographyin making a

painting. They would manipulate the fgures and the setting in

a photograph to arrive at the best composition. Because o their

realistic rendering, such paintings made a great impression on the

public. Some artists even became avid amateur photographers,

including Jules-Alexis Muenier and Thomas Anshutz.

Another development was emerging at the same time: photography

began to evolve into an art orm. In 1886, an English painter and

photographer, Peter Henry Emerson, wrote an inuential book

entitled Naturalist Photography or the Art Student. He argued that

photography should not be staged, but be real. The advent o

photography as an art orm prompted a discussion about the role o

painting in rendering reality.

The eect photographs had on the making o paintings varied.

For example, in the paintings the fgures sometimes seem oddly

situated in their surroundings. Another eect is evident in the

paintingAll Saints Dayby mile Friant, in which a amily visiting

a cemetery is portrayed. A young girl oers a coin to a beggar

seated at the entrance. She is depicted in suspended motion, her

oot hovering just above the ground and her arm outstretched.

This suggestion o movement recalls photography. The painting

elicited a note o criticism: a caricature oAll Saints Daywas made

in which the beggar is shown with a camera in his lap. The use o

photography as a tool to acilitate the painting process was thus not

always viewed in a positive light.

Top let image: mile Friant, All Saints Day, 1888, Muse des Beaux Arts, Nancy

Top right image: Caricature o All Saints Day, Le Journal Amusant, 1889, Bibliothque

Nationale de France, Paris



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milE ZOla: NaTuraliST liTEraTurE,ThEaTrE aNd CiNEmaNaturalism was not only a movement in the visual arts, but also in

literature, photography and cinema. One o the leading proponents

o Naturalism was not a painter, but a writer: mile Zola. Zola was

instrumental in the development o a new naturalist writing style.

Preparatory to his novels he flled notebooks with his observations

on the basis o which he hoped to portray his characters objectively.

This is comparable to the studies made by painters, who use

sketches (and possibly photographs) as tools or observing reality.

In his novels, Zola levelled criticism at the dark side o man and

society. He broke through taboos, writing about incest, prostitution,

rape and alcoholism. In a precise style he ruthlessly described

the shortcomings o his main characters. He set his stories in

surroundings recognisable to his readers; or example, a rural or

industrial environment. This choice also had a bearing on painting.

Zola aimed to describe the lie o peasants and labourers and

painters ollowed suit.

Zola wanted his novels to reach as many people as possible. To this

end he published them in serials in newspapers. He also ensured

that inexpensive paperback editions were available on the market.

He enjoyed giving interviews, which in turn drew great attention to

his books. In order to bring his novels even closer to the pubic, he

made stage adaptations o some o them. In these plays, as in his

novels, Zola attempted to approximate reality. This impacted the

dcor o his plays: the customary painted backdrops were replaced

with real objects. The theatre critics were not enthusiastic, however.

They ound Zolas plays banal.

The next step or Zolas stories was cinema, a new medium frst used

in the last years o the 19th century. This technique opened up new

possibilities or presenting stories to the public.

The early cinematographers undoubtedly saw the impressive

naturalist paintings at the Salon and could also draw a great dealo inspiration rom the theatre. However, while in the theatre an

attempt was made to create the most realistic possible setting,

flmmakers could actually go to the places where the story took

place.

Zolas novel Germinalwas shot on location in 1913. The director

Albert Capellani flmed the conict between an employer and his

employees in a very naturalist manner. Germinalis about wealthy

capitalists in the mining industry and the power they wield over

poor labourers. Nevertheless, these labourers also have power,

namely by going on strike they disrupt the dominion o the rich.

Capellani conveyed his view on power relations through subtle

visual clues. For example, hanging in the residence o the mines

owner is a painting that reers to a work oConstantin Meunier. This

artist was known primarily or his heroic portrayal o labourers, and

mine workers in particular. An eye or detail is also characteristic

o naturalist paintings. This gives the viewer more background

inormation about the story, which in a painting, ater all, has to be

told in a single image.

Top let image: Hubert von Herkomer, On strike, 1891, Royal Academy o London, London

Top right image: Film still Albert Capellani, The strike /The charge, Germinal, 1913,

Gaumont-Path Archives, Saint-Ouen



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iN CONCluSiONNaturalist art aords an image o society in the period 1875 1918.

Artists at the time oten added an extra dimension to their works,

however: they did not just depict what they saw, but used and

adapted reality to say something about society. By showing daily

lie, they wanted people to reect on social issues. By the end o

the 19th century, avant-garde movements took the lead, fnding

new ways to depict lie. Naturalism no longer dominated and the

movement was subsequently orgotten.

addiTiONal rEadiNGThe exhibition Illusions o reality: Naturalist painting, photography

and cinema, 1875-1918 is accompanied by a catalogue o the same

title. It is available in the Van Gogh Museum store, via the Van Gogh

Museums online shop, and in quality bookstores.

www.vangoghmuseumshop.com

Gabriel P. Weisberg, Beyond Impressionism: The Naturalist Impulse,

New York 1992

Top image: Albert Edelelt, Conveying the childs cofn, 1879, Ateneum Art Museum, Finnish

National Gallery, Helsinki


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Van Gogh Museum-Teaching Manual Naturalism 01-11