Influence of the Industrial Revolution on Design
The following essay is a part of my Design Heritage module assignment. It is not a 3 minutes read and please expect constant googling on strange art terms.
If you wish to copy any part of the essay, please keep the reference together with you. You might have trouble dealing with the grammar mistakes. You are warned. Thanks in advance.
Industrial Revolution, an era where Europeans awake from the Dark Ages that last almost a century. The term "Dark Ages" originally was intended to denote the entire period between the fall of Rome and the Renaissance; the term "Middle Ages" has a similar motivation, implying an intermediate period between Classical Antiquity and the Modern era [1]. During this period, a significant amount of famous traditional paintings (mainly medieval art) were produced. Fast forward to “Renaissance” period, which literally “Rebirth” in french, artist like Leonardo Da Vinci and Raphael gave a new meaning to art starting late 15th century
. In fact, they’ve totally changed their approach towards design, from Leonardo’s Vitruvian’s Man to Raphael’s The School of Athens (the painting which includes every genius man since early Roman and Greek period), “perfection” is the only destination of their art, making its title as what we call them “classical paintings”.
Raphael’s The School of Athens
Soon after, the society achieves a new height in technology, which again contribute to the change in art. During the mid 18th century where the first Industrial Revolution starts, certain transitions happened, including hand production methods to machines, new chemical manufacturing and iron production processes [2]. The cause of the transition was complex and remain a topic for debate, with some historians seeing the Revolution as an outgrowth of social and institutional changes brought by the end of feudalism in Britain after the English Civil War in the seventeenth century. As national border controls became more effective, the spread of disease was lessened, thus preventing the epidemics common in previous times. The percentage of children who lived past infancy rose significantly, leading to a larger workforce. The Enclosure movement and the British Agricultural Revolution made food production more efficient and less labour-intensive, forcing the surplus population who could no longer find employment in agriculture into a cottage industry, for example weaving, and in the longer term into the cities and the newly developed factories Technological innovation was the heart of the industrial revolution.
Feudalism in diagram
As time goes by, textile factories quickly rise and become one of the dominant industries. With the help of technological advance during the 1760s, James Hargreaves introduced Spinning Jenny, making thread production faster and smoother [4], which soon contributes to the exploitation of child labour. The workers who migrated to modern city to work in factories also contribute to the high demand of residential need. However, the bad sewage system of houses soon caused the rise of Cholera disease among neighbourhood and later the whole city. The rapid production of steel products during the mid-19th century, which was coined as the start of “Second Industrial Revolution” also contributed to massive air pollution which still effects the air quality until now. The filthy side of Industrial Revolution made an uproar in society, especially artists who decided to react against the period via art.
Imagery of child labour during Industrial Revolution
The overly worshipped machines brought wealth to middle-class citizens. Capitalism became the number one factor towards every kind of exploitation: from child labour to natural resources. Artists first oppose this cruel era by doing paintings that implies the rejection of machine, a return to human sense. They embrace the nature, and call the people to fear the power of nature. This movement eventually made officially when Romanticism was introduced in 19th century. What makes this movement one of a kind is that it left away from the “perfection in art” approach and start to focus more on evoking emotions, nostalgia and also the wild beauty of nature, the rugged, remote places, the exotic and free places [5]. Thus, romantic paintings gave a new prominence to freely brushed colour.
Caspar David FriedRich, Wanderer above the Sea of Fog (1818)
As an example, Liberty Leading the People, which is a painting by Eugène Delacroix commemorating the July Revolution of 1830, which toppled King Charles X of France was painted freely with huge liberty symbolism. In this painting, the fighters are from a mixture of social classes, ranging from the bourgeoisie represented by the young man in a top hat, a student from the prestigious École Polytechnique wearing the traditional bicorne, to the revolutionary urban worker, as exemplified by the boy holding pistols. What they have in common is the fierceness and determination in their eyes [6]. Liberty Leading the People is considered to be a republican and anti-monarchist symbol, and thus was sometimes criticised, especially by royalists and monarchists [7]. Here, romanticism can be related as partly a reaction to the aristocratic social and political norms of the Age of Enlightenment [8].
The symbolism implied in romantic paintings is even clear in the painting “The Slave Ship” by J.M.W.Turner. As a romantic landscape painter who travelled in Europe to observe the world, he has a vast collection of paintings specifically focused on nature like forest and ocean. In “The Slave Ship”, William Turner took a landscape of a stormy sea and turned it into a scene with roaring and tumultuous waves that seem to destroy everything in its path. Turner's aims were to take unique aspects of nature and find a way to appeal strongly to people's emotions. The real incident happened in 1783, involving a ship filled with slaves. Many of the slaves on board that were sick and dying were ordered to jump off the ship and into the sea. This particular landscape also reveals Turner's preoccupation with the Industrial Revolution and its effects on society [9]. However, the most important element that make this image a romantic painting is its depiction of fierce stormy nature. The ocean is a distinct portrayal of the capabilities and powers that nature can take hold of on earth.
Turner, Slave Ship (Slavers Throwing Overboard the Dead and Dying, Typhoon Coming On), 1840
It is also during this period era artists paint with their emotion as context. This kind of individualism departs modern artist from traditional painters back until Renaissance period.
Before the 18th Century, few Europeans concerned themselves with discovering their own individual identities. They were what they had been born: nobles, peasants, or merchants. As mercantilism and capitalism gradually transformed Europe, however, it destabilised the old patterns. The new industrialists naturally liked to credit themselves for having built their large fortunes and rejected the right of society to regulate and tax their enterprises. Sometimes they tried to fit into the traditional patterns by buying noble titles; but more and more often they developed their own tastes in the arts and created new social and artistic movements alien to the old aristocracy. This process can be seen operating as early as the Renaissance in the Netherlands.
The changing economy not only made individualism attractive to the newly rich, it made possible a free market in the arts in which entrepreneurial painters, composers, and writers could seek out sympathetic audiences to a pay them for their works, no longer confined to handful of Church and aristocratic patrons who largely shared the same values. They could now afford to pursue their individual tastes in a way not possible even in the Renaissance.
It was in the Romantic period--not coincidentally also the period of the industrial revolution--that such concern with individualism became much more widespread. Byron in literature and Beethoven in music are both examples of romantic individualism taken to extremes. But the most influential exemplar of individualism for the 19th century was not a creative artist at all, but a military man: Napoleon Bonaparte. The dramatic way in which he rose to the head of France in the chaotic wake of its bloody revolution, led his army to a series of triumphs in Europe to build a brief but influential Empire, and created new styles, tastes, and even laws with disregard for public opinion fascinated the people of the time. [10]
The invention of photography around the industrial revolution era (first photograph was clicked by Joseph Nicephore Niepce in the year 1814) also contributed to the legacy of romanticism as an art movement which emphasise emotion over real-like paintings. Although the concept of “capturing the moment” is more suitable to describe the earlier impressionist painters’ work, the invention of camera made artists realise that there is no need to paint realistic paintings anymore. Some of the romanticism works were almost cartoon-like such as Goya’s The Second of May 1808 and The Third of May 1808. One of his most notable works is Saturn Devouring His Son. This disturbing image isn’t something easy to be captured by imagination or written journal. Goya’s approach to this painting is his reflection on current society where monarch tried to secure its position by having wars - same as Saturn, who devoured his son right after Saturn knew he would be dethroned by his own son. This perfect metaphor took symbolism to a whole new level. This painting which belongs to Goya’s black painting series directly adds individualism to his work too. [11]
There’s not only Romanticist who looked back to the past, on the other hand, there was another secret group of artists that formed a party called Pre- Raphaelites Brotherhood (PRB). As titled, PRB ’s primary aim is to bring back the glorious painting technique of 15th century Flemish artists such as Jan van Eyck and Rogier van der Weyden. They reject the contrasty dark shadow paintings of Caravaggio, they reject the fluid movement of human figures by Raphael and Leonardo and they reject the rise of industrial revolution by introducing medieval subjects into their paintings. One of the most notable work from PRB period is Christ in the House of His Parents by Sir John Everett Millais. This painting has certain unconventional features that make it different from Renaissance’s medieval art / typical depiction of Christ - in this painting, Christ is depicted as a normal child , opposed to infant Christ which is in Renaissance’s painting. PRB also shares several similar styles with Romanticist, such as free brush style and starring contemporary background. Furthermore, Christ was depicted having a wound on his hand and feet, symbolising the Crucifixion of Jesus [12].
Christ in the House of His Parents by Sir John Everett Millais
One source of inspiration for the young artists was the writing of art critic John Ruskin, particularly the famous passage from Modern Painters telling artists “to go to nature in all singleness of heart . . . rejecting nothing, selecting nothing and scorning nothing.” This combination of influences contributed to the group’s extreme attention to detail, and the development of the wet white ground technique that produced the brilliant colour for which they are known. [12]
Aside from Romanticism and Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood movement, another art movement which reacts against the Industrial Revolution is Art and Crafts movement. Art and Crafts was founded by William Morris which himself said that 'diligent study of Nature' was important, as nature was the perfect example of God's design. He saw this as the spiritual antidote to the decline in social, moral and artistic standards during the Industrial Revolution [13]. Morris' solution was for a return to the values of the Gothic art of the middle Ages, where artists and craftsmen had worked together with a common purpose: to glorify God through the practice of their skills. Due to the lack of pursuit of beauty by that time, he thought that the machine will one day kill the presence of art. His work is heavily influenced by John Ruskin who supports the slogan of “Art for Art’s sake”, where “Art should be independent of all claptrap – should stand alone [...] and appeal to the artistic sense of eye or ear, without confounding this with emotions entirely foreign to it, as devotion, pity, love, patriotism and the like.” [14] Such a brusque dismissal also expressed the artist's distancing himself from sentimentalism. As one of the art movement during the Industrial Revolution period, his patterns are inspired by his intimate knowledge of natural forms discovered through drawing and stylised through his detailed knowledge of historical styles. They were usually titled with the names of the flowers that they depicted such as 'Chrysanthemum', 'Jasmine', 'Acanthus', and ‘Sunflower'. [13]
The influence of the industrial revolution in design is huge and important. Industrial revolution serves as a bridge that connects both worlds of art - modern and traditional. As society progresses, our perception of art changes. It is so relevant that the new Tate Modern had a slogan of “art changes we change”. We might not realise our small act will contribute to the next art movement, no matter how ignorant we are, we will always be a part of the constantly changing art. Early art might not be functional to be what we call “design” today, but it indirectly opened a door for designers to view things from another perspective. After all, art revolves and designers will always use what is used to create something better and nicer.
REFERENCES
[1] Dark ages (historiography) (2016) in Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/Dark_Ages_(historiography) (Accessed: 5 December 2016).
[2] En.wikipedia.org. (2016). Industrial Revolution. [online] Available at: https:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Revolution#Second_Industrial_Revolution [Accessed 5 Dec. 2016].
[3] Newworldencyclopedia.org. (2016). History of the Industrial Revolution - New World Encyclopedia. [online] Available at: http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/ History_of_the_Industrial_Revolution [Accessed 5 Dec. 2016].
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[5] Quora.com. (2016). Elin Grimes's answer to What major influence did the Industrial Revolution have on art? - Quora. [online] Available at: https://www.quora.com/What-major- influence-did-the-Industrial-Revolution-have-on-art/answer/Elin-Grimes [Accessed 5 Dec. 2016].
[6] En.wikipedia.org. (2016). Liberty Leading the People. [online] Available at: https:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberty_Leading_the_People#Symbolism [Accessed 5 Dec. 2016].
[7] En.wikipedia.org. (2016). Liberty Leading the People. [online] Available at: https:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberty_Leading_the_People#Critism [Accessed 5 Dec. 2016].
[8] En.wikipedia.org. (2016). Romanticism. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/Romanticism [Accessed 5 Dec. 2016].
[9] Britishromanticism.wikispaces.com. (2016). BritishRomanticism - The Slave Ship. [online] Available at: http://britishromanticism.wikispaces.com/The+Slave+Ship [Accessed 5 Dec. 2016].
[10] Britishromanticism.wikispaces.com. (2016). BritishRomanticism - The Slave Ship. [online] Available at: http://britishromanticism.wikispaces.com/The+Slave+Ship [Accessed 5 Dec. 2016].
[11] Khan Academy. (2016). Goya, Saturn Devouring His Son. [online] Available at: https:// www.khanacademy.org/humanities/becoming-modern/romanticism/romanticism-in-spain/v/ goya-saturn-devouring-one-of-his-sons [Accessed 5 Dec. 2016].
[12] Khan Academy. (2016). Khan Academy. [online] Available at: https:// www.khanacademy.org/humanities/becoming-modern/victorian-art-architecture/pre- raphaelites/a/a-beginners-guide-to-the-pre-raphaelites [Accessed 5 Dec. 2016].
[13] Artyfactory.com. (2016). William Morris - The Arts and Crafts Movement. [online] Available at: http://www.artyfactory.com/art_appreciation/graphic_designers/ william_morris.html [Accessed 5 Dec. 2016].
[14] Edwards, Owen (April 2006). "Refined Palette". Smithsonian Magazine: 29. Retrieved 2007-08-08.
