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Restoration

 

The restoration period describes the years from 1660 to roughly 1685 when Charles II was restored to the English monarchy. Previously, the Wars of the Three Kingdoms (England, Ireland, and Scotland) over religious freedom and whether or not a monarch can dictate which religion a country would follow, caused civil disputes, war, and persecutions throughout the United Kindgom. Charles II, a Stuart monarch, was reigned King of all three countries and brought a period of relative peace.

 

 

 

THEATRE DURING THE RESTORATION:

 

In England, prior to the Restoration, religious persecution and government control (Puritan) was so bad that most of the theatres shut down. Upon the coronation of Charles II, theatres re-opened and Restoration Comedies performed as if nothing had happened. Restoration Comedy was famous for being heavily sexually explicit. Plots were contemporary, poignant, and busy with action constantly moving. Professional actors began making names for theirselves and we see the beginnings of celebrities. 

 

Charles II was a huge patron of the arts. He granted the Royal patents, exclusive stage rights, to the King's Company and the Duke's Company. They eventually built new theatres in Drury Lane and Dorset Gardens.

 

Other styles of theatre that were popular during the Restoration period were:

 

Restoration Comedy (Comedy of Manners):

Aristrocratic Comedies (1660 - 80) stole plotlines from plays throughout history creating multi-plot, fast-paced, comedies that usually poked fun at higher class society.

                   

                   William Wycherley - Playwright                                  George Etherege - Playwright

                           The Country Wife - 1675                                                Love in a Tub - 1664

                           The Plain Dealer - 1676

 

A decline in comedy happened between 1678 - 1690 when the King's Company and the Duke's Company combined. The focus changed to political drama instead of comedies based on upper class frivolity.

 

From 1690 - 1700 there was a resurgence in Restoration Comedy in England bringing about celebrity performers as well as a celebrity playwright: Aphra Behn. These plays began focusing on inter-marital relations among the sexes. 

                 

               Thomas Southerne - Playwright                   William Congreve - Playwright                         John Vanbrugh - Playwright

                    The Wives' Excuse - 1691                                  Love for Love - 1695                                          The Provoked Wife - 1697

                                                                                                   The Way of the World - 1700

 

                  Aphra Behn - Playwright

                          The Forced Marriage - 1670

                          The Rover - 1677 & 1681 (Parts I & II)

                          The Feigned Courtesans - 1679

                          The Emperor of the Moon  - 1687

 

 

Heroic Drama: 

              Plays done in heroic verse (epic poetry), that focused on national foundations, mythological events, or important                         matters where the hero is powerful and decisive, even when wrong. 

                     

                     John Dryden - Playwright                                                                                                 Roger Boyle - Playwright

                             The Indian Emperor - 1665                                                                                                 The Black Prince - 1667

                             The Conquest of Granada - 1670  

                             All for Love - 1678 (Based on Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra)

 

Pathetic Drama:

                     Plays focusing on the sufferings of women who have committed a sexual sin. Also called She-tragedy.

 

                    Thomas Otway - Playwright                                               John Banks - Playwright

                             The Orphan - 1680                                                                Virtue Betrayed, or, Anna Bullen - 1682                

 

                    Thomas Southerne - Playwright                                       Nicholas Rowe - Playwright

                              The Fatal Marriage  - 1694                                                  The Fair Penitent - 1703

                              Lady Jane Grey - 1715

 

RESTORATION & ROCOCO

Portrait of King Charles II. John Michael Wright or Studio. c. 1660 - 1665. National Portrait Gallery, London. Oil on canvas.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

 

Charles, Victoria, and Klaus H. Carl. Rococo. New York, USA: Parkstone International, 2010.

 

Derek Hughes (2001). The Theatre of Aphra Behn. Palgrave Macmillan.

 

Heckscher, Morrison H., et al. American Rococo, 1750-1775: Elegance in Ornament. New York; Los Angeles: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1992.

 

Marsden, Jean I (2006). Fatal Desire: Women, Sexuality, and the English Stage, 1660-1720. Cornell University Press.

 

Milam, Jennifer Dawn. Fragonard's Playful Paintings: Visual Games in Rococo Art. New York; Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 2006.

 

Millon, Henry A. Baroque & Rococo Architecture. New York: G. Braziller, 1961.

 

Minor, Vernon Hyde. Baroque & Rococo: Art & Culture. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1999.

 

Sewter, A. C. Baroque and Rococo Art. London: Thames and Hudson, 1972.

 

Snodin, Michael, and Victoria and Albert Museum. Rococo: Art and Design in Hogarth's England : [Exhibition] 16 may-30 Sept. 1984, the Victoria and Albert Museum. London: Trefoil Books/Victoria & Albert Museum, 1984.

 

Stone, Anne, and Edward Thomas Joy. Antique Furniture: Baroque, Rococo, Neoclassical. London: Orbis Publishing, 1982.

 

Waith, Eugene M. Ideas of Greatness: Heroic Drama in England, London, Routledge, 1971.

Rococo

 

1709: Discovery of ruins of Herculaneum

1714-1820: Georgian Period of England

1715: Death of Louis XIV, Louis XV becomes King (Child)

1715-1723: Regency Period in France

1733: John Kay patents the flying shuttle

1720-1770: Rococo style predominate

1745: Madame Pompadour influence prominent in courts

1748: Discovery of Pompeii

1756: Birth of Mozart

1764: James Hargreaves invents spinning jenny

1769: Richard Arkwright develops spinning machine

1770-mid 1800s: Neoclassical style dominate

1774: Death of Louis XV, Louis XVI becomes King

1776: French Revolution

Jean-Antoine Watteau (1684 - 1721) was a French painter who is known for painting many subjects in the Italian comedy and ballet. He worked with Jacques-Albert Gerin and Claude Gillot. His popularity grew in the Bourgeois class who commissioned individual works from him. 

 

His paintings of contemporary interior scenes with women had a style of dress named after him. Pleating along the neckline on the back of a dress is now referred to as a Watteau back.

Louise Elisabeth Vigee Le Brun (1755 - 1842) was born in Paris and has the reputation of being the most important female painter of the 18th century. She painted mostly portraits, most notably, being the portrait painter for Marie Antoinette. 

As a young girl, she was trained by her father, a portrait painter for a few years prior ot his death. She spent five years in a convent, and upon leaving, received training from painters at the Palais Royal. She was a professional portrait painter by the time she was thirteen. When she was fifteen, Le Brun's studio was shut down because she was practicing without a license. 

 

Her work became known as risk-taking. After the closing of her studio, she and her husband, an art dealer, spent several years traveling, where she developed her style. At 30, she produced a scandalous self-portrait of her smiling with an open mouth, something that had not been done for hundreds of years. Her acclaim received attention from Versaille and it was the start of her close relationship to Marie Antoinette. Over the next 30 years, she painted upwards of 30 paintings of the queen and her family. 

 

After the royal family was imprisioned during the French Revolution, Le Brun moved to St. Petersburg. Here, she painted another famously scandalous painting of Queen Catherine's daughters. The original painting showed the young girls arms from shoulder down. After Catherine disapproved, Le Brun added sleeves to the painting. 

Jean-Francois de Troy (1679 - 1752) was a French painter and tapestry designer. He was in a family of painters, his father being the famous painter, Francois de Troy. Jean-Francois de Troy was known mostly for his historical and allegorical compositions during his time and now, critics think he was a better painter of the smaller scenes of elegant social life.

 

In 1738, he was appointed as Director of the French Academy in Rome and spent the rest of his life there. His family life was difficult. His wife died at a young age and all seven of his children died. 

William Hogarth (1697 - 1764) was an English painter and printmaker best known for his work depicting cartoons and satire. He is also credited with pioneering western sequential art (now used mostly in comic books). Formally trained as an engraver, he spent most of his career earning money as a illustrator for booksellers and creating advertising. For fun, he found himself sketching the bourgeouis as he saw them as well as political events like the stock market crash of 1720. Hogarth was a freemason and there are many references to freemasonry in his works. 

Thomas Gainsborough (1727 - 1788) was an English portrait and landscape painter. In 1740, he moved to London to study painting under Huber Gravelot,  Francis Hayman, and William Hogarth. He was a founding member of the Royal Academy. However, he often withdrew his work from being presented there do to a difference in moral and ethical standards among other members. He returned to England, and painted several portraits for the King and Queen. Unfortunately, he did not recieve the title of Royal painter, which went to his rival, Joshua Reynolds instead. Gainsborough died of cancer.

Jean-Honore Fragonard (1732 - 1806), a french painter and printmaker, was best known for his paintings involving and "an atmosphere of intimacy and veiled eroticism". Over Fragonard's career, he has painted more than 500 paintings.

 

Fragonard was born in Grasse, France. He was sent to study with Boucher at 18, but having little experience, Boucher decided not to help him. After apprenticing under Chardin, Fragonard returned to Boucher. Very quickly, he was so talented, that Boucher allowed Fragonard to produce replicas of his paintings completely on his own. 

 

In 1760, he toured Italy with a friend, Hubert Robert, and this is where he found the gardens and terraces that would become the part of his work that was so memorable. Wealthy art patrons of Louis XV spurred Fragonard to complete the series of love inspired works including The Swing. After receiving complaints and lukewarm response to these paintings, he attempted to switch to a more Neoclassical style of paintings. However, art historians today consider these love paintings to be the best of all of his works, and many consider them to be the best example of Rococo artwork.

Francois Boucher (1703 - 1770) was a French painter known  for his paintings of classical themes, allegories, and pastoral scenes. He was also the main portrait painter of Madame de Pompadour.

 

He apprenticed under his father, Francois Lemoyne, and the engraver, Jean-Francois Cars. He became a member of the Academie royale de peinture et de sculpture and eventually a teacher there in 1734. In 1765, he was the Premier Peintre du Roi or First painter of the King. 

 

In addition to painting, Boucher was involved with the theatre. He designed costumes and sets for comic operas for Charles Simon Favart. HIs tapestry design, Fetes Italiennes (Italian Festivals) in 1736 was so famous that it was rewoven into other uses several times. 

Portrait of Antoine Watteau. Rosalba Carriera. 1721. Museo Civico Luigi Bailo, Treviso. Pastel on Paper.

Self-Portrait. Jean-Francois de Troy. 1723. Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Oil on Canvas.

Self-Portrait in a Straw Hat. Louise Elisabeth Vigee Le Brun. 1782. National Gallery. Oil on Canvas.

Architecture

Similar to the art and decorative arts of the time, the few Rococo architecture examples we have is an amalgamation of decorative elements creating a frivolous and grandoise appearance. Using layers of many types of mediums: frescos, carvings, and paintwork, the architectural style is layers upon layer of decoration. It is important to note that a lot of Asian elements were used during this time period as well. The trade market from Asia was extremely prevalent and European architects used elements of the Chinoiserie to incoporate in their rococo inspired designs.

OTHER ARTISTS

Portrait of Francois Boucher. Gustaf Lundberg. 1741. Louvre, Paris. Oil on Canvas.

Self-Portrait. Jean-Honore Fragonard. 1760 - 1770. Musee Fragonard, Grasse. Oil on canvas.

Self-portrait. Thomas Gainsborough. 1759. National Portrait Gallery. Oil on canvas.

The Painter and His Pug (Self-portrait). William Hogarth. 1745. Tate Britain. Oil on canvas.

STYLES MORGUE

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