The Art History Browser
NeoClassicism to Present

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Neo-Classicism, Romanticism, Art Nouveau

The Middle Ages, Real and Imagined - an interesting site with brief illustrated pieces on Medieval archaeology and restoration, literature, heraldry and more. Includes pieces on the Sainte Chapelle, St Denis, and various European cities. Multiple languages - if the English one is missing, try another.

Brighton Pavillion - brief introduction to this astonishing building, designed by Nash for the Prince Regent in the 19th century. By Ann Noon.

Bougereau - an Academic painter of the nineteenth century, and everything the Impressionists reacted against. Maybe you can see why - but you have to admire his skill and whimsy. Page from Brian Yoder.

Painting the Weather - from the BBC, three expandable paintings from one of my favourite Victorian artists, Mad John Martin. When you've seen these, check out the other artists represented there.

Thomas Girtin at the Tate - a truly great watercolourist, and I've started you at my favourite of his works, The White House at Chelsea Reach. This is part of the Tate site, whose index pages are painfully slow. Click on the picture to expand it; move forward or backward by the inner arrows for more. About this artist, Turner is said to have observed, "if he had lived, I should have starved". Indeed. LINK RENEWED 15th January, 2005

William Blake: Visions of the Daughters of Albion - Poem, illustrations and printing all done by Blake. With Blake, art as understood by the masses changed. No longer speaking its own subtle and complex language in which the meaning was brought out by considerations of design, composition, Classical ideas of beauty and what it was and could do - with Blake, art becomes mere illustration. Note how you can read his pictures like a text. It's all in the content. And the drawing is - well, I won't insult Blake fans! Gorgeous site, though.

William Blake: The Book of Thel - another book completely produced by Blake. Go see. Be sure to click on the compare button, and scroll left with the cursor key.

Pre-Raphaelite Windows - site of St Mary the Virgin, Speldhurst, Kent, UK with windows by Burne-Jones. Site reorganized. Kind of liked it better with the black background, but still ... good pics.

Rosetti - one of the founder members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, and I can't stand him! However, many people think he's tremendous, so go and decide for yourself. Page courtesy of Brian Yoder, again.

Edvard Munch - the collection of his works (including the stolen "Scream" on page 3) in the Nasjonalgalleriet, Norway, accompanied by an essay and bio. LINK REPLACED 12th January, 2005

The Painted Churches of Texas - you just have to see these churches! Click on the first link for a brief rundown, then return and scroll down to the link "fifteen of these churches". From there, you'll find links to each with the most glorious scans giving wonderful detail of the elaborate designs. These churches are national treasures.

 

Historic Places and Materials

This new section is hard to categorize, so I've put it directly after the Neoclassical and Romantic stuff since those movements generated the modern interest in the empathic possibilities of historic styles and ruins.

L'Eure en Images - Eure is a Département of Normandy, France. An amazingly rich site. Click on an area of the map and choose a link to find historic photos and sketches of individual villages. Here's the town of Evreux to give you an idea of what's possible.

American Landscape and Architectural Design, 1850-1920 - fascinating collection of lantern slides presented by the Library of Congress.

The Lost Gardens of Heligan - an unspoiled 19th century Cornish parkland estate restored. Lovely site - be sure to watch the picture shows and panaramas. NEW LINK 14th January, 2005 Then complete your sense of period with a look at the Wallace Collection

 

Impressionism

Remember to check out the galleries and museums section, and the general link collections, as well.

Musée d'Orsay - great stuff, Impressionism onwards

Hooker Heroes - don't worry, the title's just a teaser. This is about Manet's two famously controversial works, Le Déjeuner sur l'Herbe and Olympia - both of which feature a model widely thought to be a prostitute. Let me add my mite to the discussion of Olympia - she is not just a likely prostitute but one who is categorically rejecting your advances. A far cry from Titian's Venus of Urbino.

 

Other 19th Century

Augustus Welby Northmore PUGIN - very famous multi-facetted architect, interior designer and restorer. Illustrated pages can be very slow, but excellent images are worth the wait. SITE TIMING OUT as at 12th January, 2005

The Penny Magazine - some articles and engravings from this very popular magazine, most of them dating to 1835. Don't be put off by the broken sponsor links. The rest is fine.

Otis and His Elevator - another Library of Congress exhibit, with tiresome journeys between text and image, but it is important to remember Otis. Modern cities would not be the same without him.

World's Fair Collection - from the University of Maryland Libraries, a fantastic collection of photos of Worlds' Fair grounds. I've started you at the 1851 Crystal Palace exhibition, which has rare and wonderful images - as with all the other exhibitions, too. Work gradually through the galleries, or click on "fairs" to go straight to the Expo that interests you.

The Eiffel Tower - like many important art historican landmarks, the Eiffel Tower is not well represented on the web. Therefore I am including this site which has a good photo on it.

La Cathédrale de la Major - extraordinary to think that while they built the Eiffel tower in Paris (link above), they were also building this neo-Romanesque neo-Byzantine cathedral in Marseilles! Outside it's Italianate black and white striped marble with domes, and inside it's porphyry and gold. Hey! Go gawp!

Masters of Photography - very full site and oh so politically correct! Here's a not-immediately visible one I like by Doisneau, which shows a French gendarme walking past a Mannerist Gate of Hell.

William Henry Jackson in India - a superb artist photographer, why haven't I heard of him before?? These are hand tinted magic lantern slides Jackson made for Harper's Magazine of his travels in India. See also his photochroms - a very early form of colour photo print whose technique is now lost.

Tin Tabernacles - this you have to see! Little tin churches built accross Britain from c.1870 onwards. Often built from kits and relocated at need. This site shows dozens still in existence and has a large archive collection too. Fascinating.

Wooden Churches of Lithuania - lots of pics of these little folk churches in Lithuania, but they aren't dated, sadly. Some may be as early as 15th century, but they continued into the very early 20th century, so I'm putting them with the tin tabernacles for now. LINK TIMING OUT as at 15th January, 2005

Railroad Station Home Page - 19th century railroad stations around Europe and America, fast loading, great images, a delight. It's been rearranged, I think, and has become less intuitive. Odd site now but still good pics.

The Statue of Liberty - I am somewhat shocked to find no good websites on the Statue of Liberty. This brief page gives a few pics and history. Perhaps it took the French to conceive of a thing like this (here are some goodish pics at least). Is the message of the Idealization lost on America, whose concept of the Ideal is better demonstrated by the Greek Slave and the Gibson Girl?

Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World - I guess this confirms my suspicions. This is a French site in very charming English that shows wonderful shots of the statue being built and caught in lightning, as well as duplicates all over the world (nine in France, two in England, four others in America, and one each in Argentina, Thailand and China).

Historic Views of Liberty - yes, I've got a bee in my bonnet now. Seriously, this situation is shocking, and I'm not even American. These interesting pics are from the Library of Congress.LINK FIXED 12th January, 2005

The Greek Slave - here she is, complete with the blurb that had to accompany her so that Victorian Americans could be persuaded that Ideal nudity was not obscene. Scroll down to see her surrounded by respectable Victorians. From IATH, University of Virginia.

Evelyn Nesbit - nice site showing photos of Nesbit and politely outlining her story as the original model for the Gibson Girl. She died in 1967 and is rumoured to haunt her in-laws' house.

The Other Gibson Girl - was Charles Dana Gibson's own wife, Irene (née Astor). And here are some drawings by Gibson, showing the Gibson Girl in a number of social situations. And some more, not one of which shows her in that classic contrapposto stance!

 

20th Century

The Rodin Museum - in French and English, lavishly illustrated with this artist's works in all media, as well as those of Camille Claudet.

Beatrix Potter - her first book was published in 1903 and became an instant success. Explore this site that shows her wonderfully strong watercolour studies of natural history, and her imaginative paintings of clothed woodland animals. Her books as we know them now are printed in sadly faded colours.

Arthur Rackham's Alice - A delightful illustrator, Rackham's illustrations to the 1907 Alice in Wonderland are a whole lot more attractive than the famous ones by Sir John Tenniel, which we now identify with the book.

The Armory Show - the introduction of modern European art to America in 1913. This excellent recreation of that art exhibition is by Shelley Staples, for the American Studies Program at the University of Virginia.

Georgia O'Keeffe Museum - this is the permanent collection page, with nicely enlargeable pics.

Georgia O'Keeffe - selected works - rather a nice frames site with many good examples of her work.

The Joy of Shards - a delightful site by Rod Humby on mostly modern mosaic work, including the re-use of older materials for the purpose. I've started you out on his virtual visits page - he'll show you work by Gaudi and Paolozzi, the Tarot Garden and the Maison Picassiette, as well as some Roman and Medieval pieces. Must see this.

Finding Mr. Wright - an elegant, nicely organized site with many colour pics of Frank Lloyd Wright residences (only), inside and out. One of the best Wright sites I've seen.

Saving Falling Water - interesting article on the problems of cutting-edge design.

John Lautner - this is Frank Lloyd Wright with wings! Not surprising, really, since he was a Wright student, although very much his own person. You really have to see these inspired buildings. Sadly, not all the pages link logically onwards which is tiresome, but a site worth exploring, nonetheless.

Bart Prince, Architect - an architect of the fantastic, as designed for residences. Take a look at this one.

Dada and other Counter Culture Movements - fascinating and lucid Swiss site. Go see.

Alexander Calder - an American artist who invented mobiles in Paris c.1930 after seeing the virtual movement of Mondrian's dynamic equilibrium and remembering Arp's whimsical morphism. Compare his early "wire drawings" with his late "walk-through" works, first and last links in this interesting site. Friendly with Picasso - you can tell, can't you?

Diego Rivera Museum - a very rich site with huge numbers of expandable images. Visit this site, especially if you've got the forgiveable impression that he only paints in terracotta, mustard and black!

Posters from the Spanish Civil War - the site won't tell you the war dated 1936-39, and many European thinkers, writers and artists volunteered to try and stave off Fascism. Ultimately unsuccessfully. This is also the context for Picasso's Guernica, which is almost unavailable on the web. Explore the rest of the site too. LINK TIMING OUT as at 12th January, 2005

Holocaust Art - inmate art from Auschwitz and Birchenau, very moving - oddly reminiscent of the Ancient Roman catacombs in some cases. This is an excellent and informative site, if occasionally over zealous to the point of irresponsibility. Note, the ancient Greek Key pattern is NOT a swastika (Munich Third Reich architecture section). Shocking misrepresentation.

Joseph Nassy - an African-American Jewish artist interned in Germany during the Second World War under more humane conditions than the inmates of Auschwitz and Birchenau documented above. Interesting, responsible and nicely presented site.

Nagasaki Nightmare - remembered in drawings, paintings and photos. Atomic bombs were dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima in 1945. Face it. Do it. LINK TIMING OUT as at 12th January, 2005

Notre-Dame-de-Toute-Grace, Assy - a postwar church equipped and decorated by the foremost avante-garde artists of the time. This church was part of an attempt to revitalize liturgical art in specifically modern terms. Do not ignore this important art historical monument just because established art historians do. This is the church's official site with more pics. UNDER RECONSTRUCTION as at 15th January,2 005

Le Corbusier, Notre-Dame-du-Haut, Ronchamp - Le Corbusier's famous church like an upturned boat, or peeling wave. This virtual tour will let you see it all, inside and out, and its context. If you don't know this building, you should!

Vietnam Combat Art LINK CORRECTED 8 November 2008 - work by Jim Pollock, U. S. Army Vietnam Combat Art Team IV, accompanied by documentation about the Combat Art Teams.

The Alberto Giacometti Page - well, actually, it's twelve speedy pages with reminiscences by Giacometti himself and others involved at the time, plus one image per page. Compare his work with other artists in war-torn environments, linked above.

Peggy Guggenheim Museum, Venice - very important collection of early 20th century art, much of it produced under the shadow of war. Images are linked to the rooms and expandable, but if you don't know what's where you'll just have to click and see.

Maxfield Parrish - one of Brian Yoder's generous pages, you will find Maxfield Parrish's most famous works here, including "Daybreak" and "Morning (Spring)", but he did far more interesting works than those. Go see.

Gerard Hoffnung - a truly great cartoonist best-known for his hilarious send-ups of the concert world. Enjoy the caricatured pianists' hands on the first page, then click on the "bio" link, which is enlivened with many of his works. LINK FIXED 12th January, 2005

Norman Thelwell - sadly little of this master cartoonist's work on the web. Most famous for his renditions of fierce little girls on fierce little and not-so-little horses. The above link is a niceish example. Then explore the site for other cartoonists.

Ronald Searle - another great cartoonist. This site gives an account of Searle's fictitious St Trinians girls boarding school in the context of his wartime experience in a Japanese POW camp. Interesting speculations on the cause of the cartoons' popularity. Blue arrows are for footnotes; green arrows link to cartoons.

Mark Rothko - remarkable, clear and fast-loading site from the National Gallery of Art, Washington. Note that each link on the navigation bar at the bottom leads you to the first page of each section. To move back and forth through each section, click on the little brown arrows above. Must visit this one. And here is a one page view of the Chapel he equipped for the de Menils in Houston.

Robert Smithson - rather a nice site with rare colour pictures of his works. I've started you on the "Earth Works" section, but check out the rest too. And while you're about it, remember that it is mistaken to emphasize the "earthness" of these works, which are more about natural forces and the relinquishing of artistic control.

Museum of Modern Art, New York - updated site with excellent reproductions.

Art After the Crash - illustrated essay by Andrew Jack for Culture Kiosque, of American art during the Depression. You'll need to enlarge the font several sizes or use a magnifying glass.

Gertie the Dinosaur - some original artwork from the first ever animated film, by Winsor McCray. Fascinating.

Tamara Lempicka - an art deco artist with very distinctive style. Good for Brian Joder.

Burbs, Blockbusting, and Blacks - The Morphosis of the Post-war American City, by Matt Jalbert. A fascinating and beautifully presented site, and the language is a model of perfection.

Learning from Tijuana - by Mike Davis, discussing a city of incredible "outsider" architecture.

Radical Urban Theory - the two illustrated essays above were taken from this site, which is much too interesting for me to block you out of. Go visit and explore.

Roy Lichtenstein - annoying site but full of his work.

Ted Frater, Bronzesmith and Minter - a mix of eastern and western tradition in space age materials. Go see.

The Tinguely Museum - if you don't know this Swiss artist who died recently, you should! I've never seen gallery visitors so happy and interested as at his exhibitions.

The History of Spiderman - an excellent and still growing site by Eric Gillette on this Marvel hero who burst on the world in 1963.

The Official Roger Dean Site - well. It's been renovated, redesigned and generally improved. Nuff said. Sigh. Oh wonderful. Now it has a slow plug-in too.

The Yes Album and Single Covers - Take a look at Dean's covers for the rock group YES. Green text opens an excellent image in a separate window. It was a different world then, and we still thought we could beat the corporations ...

James Turrell, Roden Crater - excellent site by a very interesting artist. Calling him an "earth" artist is to focus on the wrong aspects. SITE UNDER RECONSTRUCTION as at 12th January, 2005

Lucid Art - I've started you with my favourite lucid artist, John Anderson, but explore the whole site. Lucid art is a way of capturing, or evoking, a state of being or plane of existence that usually eludes our awareness.

Gordon Onslow-Ford, Retrospective - the Lucid Artists group around Gordon Onslow-Ford, whose roots go back to Surrealism. Here is an attractive site giving the range of his work. CONNECTION REFUSING as at 12th January, 2005

Andy Goldsworthy - an article from the Smithsonian Magazine with expandable images of his recent work. A necessity to refresh your soul.

Andy Goldsworthy - a good complement to the site above, this collection includes his work in ice and some of his more colourful works.

Dale Chihuly - studied on the Venetian glass-making island of Murano, and active from the early 70's until an accident cost him an eye, Chihuly now directs a collaborative team to produce the most stunning glass sculptures and installations anyone has ever seen, anywhere, in, the, WORLD! You MUST see this - explore the whole site.

Jonathan Andersson - another glass artist, quite different from Chihuly, above. Andersson casts his glass rather than blowing it, and then fuses copper onto his vessels. Rather lovely. I've started you on a detail, but be sure to check out his main site.

Function - an interesting site. Give yourself plenty of time to explore this one.

Stelarc - a performance artist who has organized for you to take control of his body through the web! Not all the time, however. Check out the archived sequences.

An Art History - a concept piece from 1981 by Wolfgang Temmel linked to another concept in which he discusses his creative process in multiple languages.

Seward Johnson, Sculpture - extraordinary photorealistic life-sized sculptures in painted bronze.

Urban Control, the Ecology of Fear - another (6 page) essay by Mike Davis. Looks like social studies, but its art historical interest is its analysis of the cause of particular building designs, city embellishments, and town plans. Very important essay.

Troll's Castle - Vebjørn Sand is an interesting conceptual artist. I've started you at this link because the link to it from his main site was broken (now mended but less dramatic). He is perhaps best known for his Leonardo Bridge.

New York Times, Review of "Sensation" Exhibition - This exhibition was on display for two years in London before it hit the Brooklyn Museum in 1999. In London, Marcus Harvey's "Myra" (the "Moors Murderer", serial child-killer and torturer), made with children's hand-prints caused outrage. In New York, Chris Ofili's Holy Virgin Mary (which includes elephant dung in its media) causes the most offence. This is a thoughtful review, with links to twelve of the exhibits, including both those mentioned above - decide for yourself what you think.

Harriet Casdin-Silver: The Art of Holography - widely presented as "the" pioneer in artistic holography. See what you think. For comparison, here are works by ten other holographic artists. This medium needs more imagination than it's getting.

MAM: Milwaukee Art Museum - a remarkable waterfront building by Calatrava that embodies concepts of travel by water, wind, wings and warp. LINK REPLACED 12th January, 2005

General

Several of these are indexes to interesting sites, and several are world museums and art galleries whose collections are very mixed.

Museums, Real and Virtual

The Vatican Museums - masses of stuff.

Musée du Louvre - the Louvre museum, click on "Treasures" link for holdings.

Uffizi Gallery LINK FIXED 12th January, 2005

The Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna - I've started you on their "collections" index, but explore the site. Glorious images with informative commentaries. Formed from the Imperial collections and thus containing landmarks of art history. Take your time with this one.

The Web Gallery of Art - really excellent resource with good scans and some info with them.

Mark Harden's Virtual Museum - once it only had Rembrandt, now it has a whole lot more. Lovely display. See also Juxtapositions - Mark Harden's online, illustrated reviews (or rather tours) of real exhibitions past and present.

A Hundred Highlights - lovely images from the Koninklijke Bibliotheek, manuscripts, buildings and more. Gorgeous.

The Hunter Museum of American Art - lovely site with many good scans of American art from all periods, each with its own short essay and general period introduction. Definitely visit this one.

The Norton Simon Museum - wide range of holdings from east and west and all periods. Works by the great masters and others, many illustrated with accessible short piece of info. Gracious site. Good one.

The Dahesh Museum of Art - an interesting collection of art that was considered outmoded and in poor taste when it was collected. Now, of course, back in vogue. 19th-century art, scroll down to find the excellent. LINK FIXED 12th January, 2005

Eastman Kodak Museum of Photography - good for a visit, some photos by important historic figures like Jackson, Cameron, Muybridge and others. LINK FIXED 15th January, 2005

Artpics - Sadly, Bernard Huyvaert's lavishly illustrated record of real exhibitions as they happen has ceased to exist. But he has replaced it with this rich collection of images. The scans have to be seen to be believed! Rare illustrations included - have YOU seen Campin's Prado Annunciation?

Culture Kiosk, Art and Architecture - always a very nicely chosen and presented selection. You want to keep up to date with this site and to know it well.

The Waddington Galleries - a rich site with a tremendous range of 20th century art beautifully presented. Check it out!

Tours

A World Tour of Churches - interesting, but very slow, last time I tried it.

Indexed Collections

British Castles, Stately Homes and Houses - enormous range of excellent images of Britain's architectural heritage indexed alphabetically. Photographer is Risto Hurmalainen. Note that the dates under each image refer to when the photo was taken.

ABCentral - a wide-ranging index by Jack Inglis-Arkell, 1,000s of links sorted by subject type but without notes. Try especially the Arts, architecture, and History links.

The Mother of All Art History Link Pages - as its name says: the MOTHER of all link pages.

Art History Resources on the Web - another unbelievable page, by Chris Whitcombe. So many links you'll be exhausted, but check some of them. This site has now become part of Prentice Hall's "Gateway to Art History".

The World-Wide Web Virtual Library: Art History - Birkbeck College in London, UK. Good links, art historical and professional.

World Art Treasures - an interesting, wide-ranging site made from the unique slide collection of Berger. Worth a visit or three.

Web Museum: Artist Index - looks a lot better with its new backgrounds. Everyone cites this, but I think it is one of the least interesting complexes on the web. LINK FIXED 12th January, 2005

Image Collections

Web Gallery of Art - artists listed alphabetically. Lavish site with good pics - mostly Renaissance and Baroque. Incredibly slow, though.

Carol Jackson Presents: Fine Art - Carol Jackson helped put the Web Gallery together too, so there are some duplications. There are also some extras, so check her out. Immense site with excellent scans.

Mark Harden's Artchive - very rich collection of images organized alphabetically by artist or period. Nice emphasis on less well-known works in American collections. Glorious scans.

Artcyclopedia - an amazing resource! Think of an artist. Click on the name - and find a page of links to every work by that artist on the web.

Brian Yoder's Art Gallery and Critic's Corner - several galleries, mostly concerned with the nineteenth and twentieth century. Generously illustrated. Visit his Rogues' Gallery too, where you will find easy targets like Jackson Pollock and two of my favourite pioneers, Mondrian and Kandinsky.

Thais: 1200 years of Italian Sculpture - huge site with thousands of images, sorted by alphabetically and by period.

Great Buildings On-Line - nice site with a lavish collection of images.

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Tips & Journals Prehistoric to Early Medieval Romanesque to Rococo NeoClassicism to Present Museums and Collections Yes, But is it Art?