19th Century Art by H. W. Rosenblum, Robert;Janson

19th Century Art Reviews

• 
  Michael Smith

  I’m not an artist, I’m a historian, with a special interest in physical social and cultural history: Costume, domestic architecture, social mores, all that stuff. Photography is the obvious source for that, at least from the Civil War on, but an artist’s interpretation can also be very useful. For those reasons, I learned early in my career to pay attention to the Realists, especially Bingham, Breton, Millet, Tissot, Eakins, Degas, Whistler, Winslow Homer, John Singer Sargent, and some of Monet and Manet. While studying that lot, I also developed a taste for the Pre-Raphaelites and the later artists of myth and dream, like Burne-Jones, Leighton, and Alma-Tadema, who don’t get much attention these days. I lose interest when I get to the Post-Impressionists like Seurat, Van Gogh, Gauguin, and Munch, however. (So sue me.) All of which is to say that the authors, both of whom are NYU professors in the fine arts, have done an excellent job of surveying the entire century in which all of the above had their careers. The discussions cover not only artistic influences but political and familial factors as well as relevant biographical details. There are more than 500 illustrations, though fewer than 90 are in color, and many of them are rather small -- which seems inadequate for a coffee-table-sized art book. And, frankly, I’m puzzled how any survey of the 19th century could completely ignore Frederick Remington and Charles Russell. Otherwise, it’s an excellent book for slow perusal.
• 
  Lindsay

  19th century is not my favorite period, but goddamn bob rosenblum is a fine art historian and author. i bought this for a class a couple years ago and i still read it just for fun (yeah, accept that it's nerdy of me.) his formidable intellect and sense of humor are all sorts of humbling.
• 
  Gretchen

  I've had this book for decades and love it almost as much for the gorgeous paper cover graced with a crop of Flaming June, one of my favorite paintings, as for all the wonderful works and history inside.
• 
  Sara

  Este libro fue lectura obligatoria en Historia del arte y lo leí en conjunto con el de Eisenman, así que es medio difícil hacer una reseña y no caer en la comparación, pero voy a intentar no hacerlo. En un principio se me hizo algo lenta la lectura, sentía que tiraba datos muy variados de pintores diversos y que no llegaba a ningún punto más que a datos curiosos. Sin embargo, una vez pasada toda la época de David se me hizo mucho más ligera la lectura y ya hacia el final creo que empezaba lo interesante, o será que me llama más la atención el siglo XX.
• 
  Avis Black

  19th Century Art was a textbook I had in college, and it was pretty respectable.