Louvre Museum in a snowy day Paris
Art, Architecture, Painting

Impressionism is the most famous French school of painting. Led by Claude Monet, impressionists tried to capture the shimmering quality of light in their paintings. Although impressionism lasted only a few years in the late nineteenth century, it left an enormous legacy of paintings, which now grace the walls of museums all over the world.


Painting

The first paintings in France are more than fifteen thousand years old wall paintings in the caves of Lascaux. During the Middle Ages, manuscript illumination flourished. The first real school of painting emerged in the baroque period (late sixteenth to eighteenth centuries). Nicolas Poussin and Claude Lorrain painted landscapes, while Georges de la Tour and the Le Nain brothers observed family life in intimate detail. In the eighteenth century Jacques Louis David was named official state painter by Napoleon. He generally produced vast paintings. The nineteenth century impressionist period was followed by post impressionism, led by Paul Cezanne and Vincent van Gogh, as well as Henri de Toulouse Lautrec, who painted music hall scenes. Two different styles emerged in the early twentieth century: Fauvism, which was characterized by the use of strong colors; and cubism, painting with geometric shapes. Next came the dadaists, who reacted to the negativity of World War I by challenging the concept of art and using objects in unexpected ways. Marcel "Dada" Duchamp exhibited various objects, including a urinal he titled Fountain and signed.

Music and Film

The early nineteenth century witnessed the musical genius of Hector Berlioz and Chopin. The inventor of modern orchestration, Berlioz's works sparked a musical rebirth in France. Although Polish by birth, Chopin lived in Paris and influenced later French composers. His music is marked by his unique sense of lyricism and unparalleled melodic genius. Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel represented Impressionism in music. Their contemporaries include Georges Bizet and Camille Saint Saens. Frenchmen Louis and Auguste Lumiere share credit with American Thomas Edison for the invention of cinema in the late nineteenth century. The Lumiere brothers manufactured a portable camera projector called the Cinematographe, based on Edison's inventions. Film today are renowned for their artistic content and strong emphasis on individuals and moods.

Architecture

Emerging from the Dark Ages in the eleventh century French witnessed a blossoming of architecture. The Romanesque style, with thick walls, rounded arches, and heavy vaults, was based on buildings common in Roman times. The first distinctly architecture was the Gothic style. Originating in the twelfth century in northern France, it used pointed arches and flying buttresses as supports, which allowed for taller buildings with larger windows. During the Renaissance, buildings were largely based on the Italian model, stressing harmony and symmetry. The baroque style that followed used the same style of building, but introduced elaborate gardens with fountains, hedges, and clipped trees. The Versailles Palace, built by Louis XIV is a famous example.
French Rural architecture is the product of local materials and varies with climate and topography. Roofs in the north are steeply sloped and covered with flat tiles to allow rain water to run off easily. In the south, where there are strong winds, roofs are broad and covered with rounded tiles. French farmhouses fall into three categories: the maison bloc (may-zohn BLOC), where house and outbuildings share the same roof; the high house, with living quarters upstairs and livestock or wine cellars below; and courtyard farmsteads where the buildings are set around a central court.

Extract from “Countries Of The World France”, Written by Roseline Ngcheong-Lum. Times Edition Pte Ltd. Singapore, 1999.

eBay: early medieval, romanesque, & gothic france has been called home by man since the beginning of humankind. prehistoric people roamed what is now modern-day france from before 30,000 bc, leaving evidence of their existence in the cave paintings of lascaux and chevaux at that date and later. the people who established themselves during historical times in the territory that is now france were a varied group. the celts (or gauls, as the romans called them) were the principal inhabitants; but there were also the greeks, who founded marseilles (greek: massilia), and the parissi, who occupied the area of modern-day paris, and even the basques, whose language and culture are still strong in southern france. it wasn't until the roman invasion in 50 bc that most of what is now france was unified under one government. the french language of today has a thoroughly latin base. the fall of the roman empire was followed by the middle ages (476-1453). during this period, barbarians, as the romans called germanic invaders such as the franks (who gave france its name), burgundians, visigoths, and norse, jockeyed for control of roman gaul. the catholic church, the official religious body of the romans from the time of emperor constantine (ruled 307-331), replaced the roman state as the unifying and stabilizing force. the first frankish ruler, clovis (ca. 466-511, ruled from 481), recognized the church's power and converted to catholicism, beginning a relationship between church and state that would endure until the french revolution in 1789. nearly three hundred years after clovis and his merovingian dynasty, charlemagne (747-814) was crowned emperor by the pope in rome in 800. charlemagne continued the work of his frankish forebears. he insisted that his people convert to catholicism, as had clovis, and he battled the moorish invaders and their islamic religion in spain. in addition, charlemagne formed a centralized government, supported monasteries, and created schools. at his death, charlemagne's empire (called the carolingian empire) encompassed what is now france, northern spain, germany, and part of italy. french territory would not be as large again until the height of the napoleonic empire at the beginning of the 19th century. after charlemagne's death, the carolingian empire began to dissolve into a feudal society ruled by landowning lords. isolated towns grew up around the lords' castles, and once again the catholic church became the uniting force of a fragmented land. slowly, the capetian dynasty (hugh capet, ca. 938-996, and his descendents) rose to power, ruling from 987 to 1328. under the reigns of philip ii (1180-1223), louis viii (1223- 26), and saint louis ix (1226-70), french lands were once again united under a centralized government and loyal to one crown. the center of the capetian dynasty, the île de france and the city of paris, remain the heart of france to this day.

 
 
 
 
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