The Industrial Revolution

Lets go back to the beginning of the 18th Century.
a great big revolution was going on, no not against the government but INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
All of this was started in Britain where it was getting changed in and industry urbanised country.There was a political and social elite going on and people were generating new ideas and new technology inventions where this gave the opportunity to new roads, railways and canals to be built and it gave even the opportunity for new factories where the landscapes were ruined yet the country and people were doing huge businesses and profits.
Yet, Britain became the most powerful and wealthiest country on planet earth and ruled the largest empire in history.



People used to use wood to generate energy, yet it was bulky, difficult and expensive to transport it. So they discovered ... COAL!
Coal gave the experience to kick start the revolution, as Britain could transport coal to any place with cheaper transport as they had coal mines next to the shores. And again, coal gave three times as much energy than wood did and it was in an abundant amount and even easily mined. While mining for coal, they found difficulties too, as mining for coal had to go deep under earth and had to keep water off the mines so no material would be ruined with water.
Such people with great minds invented the horse powered water pumps to eliminate water but it only went down till a certain depth. So people were experimenting and yet who'd will invent another machine to eliminate water deeper down had to get rich.
it was back in 1712 when the first steam powered engine got designed and had to be the first successful steam engine which let people to pump water from 100's of feet below ground where it did the work of 20 horses. After time, Britain was exporting coal to 2/3rd's of the world.




These experimentations by geniuses let new scientific ideas run where people discovered forces of gravity, and properties of air and gas

Birmingham .. Birmingham City, the place where it had to be one of the most places to get factories to work on small goods which were called 'Birmingham Toys' and a land with intelligent people designing and improving the steam engine which worked with less coal and more efficient. Birmingham was the birthplace of the first steam powered manufacturing factory and a place where success was held following by Mr.Harvey selling the finest swords, Mr.Harris with telescopes, Mr.Betts with saws, weighing machines were born and even a factory which produced tortoise shell mother of pearl buttons for the leaders of society and even mass producing textiles. The so called Birmingham toys were actually little delicate objects such a snuff box and vinaigrette which one carries around with him and other personal adornment. 
Back in those days there was a political liberty which gave power to people to invest and open new business with encouragement for a lot of profit 


-Birmingham toy (used to quickly smell perfume from, when sitting next to a person with bad odour)

France - was the opposite of Britain where the government ruled everything. Two designers, the Pariee Bros tried to edit the steam machine and failed, continued by ordering 2 steam engines from Birmingham in 1779 to be installed with the bank of a river.


All of this resulted that Britain now became the greatest trading empire in the world where they imported goods from west Indies  rice from Georgia, Tobacco from N.America, spices from India and Tea from China. All this businesses let for slavery, where millions of slaves were traded trough the Atlantic after some African rulers traded his people for money as they used to do the hard work and making business men with maximum profit. They used to live in unbearable conditions which a lot of them only survived life for only 3 years after being forced in working out sugar canes, this was done because in the 1790's sugar was the British leading import



As I was saying before in this article, Britain opened the doors for business and new institutions were established and many people had extra money to spend and there was an expenditure in the middle class. This resulted that the middle class had money to spend so gross domestic products exploded on sale. Hence, there was this businessman named Wedgwood opened a company with Bentley which was about pottery. Their works ranged in tea products which consisted in a: teapot burner, tea caddy, sugar bowls, tea spoons, hot water jug and sloth bowl to put used leaves in. They even produced high standard pottery set for the Queen where a new technique was invented, the gold guilt glaze.



During these years as I have wrote above, there wasn't only good sides about this, but even bad sides and one of this situation was .. bad road system (16th-17th century). This problem caused difficulty in transport where 1/3rd of fragile ceramics used to be broken on the way and raw materials were getting hard to get and difficulties to get finished products to market, so back in 1706 the government passed an act for business men where they had to build their own permanent roads, this even led the people to pay for using private roads which costs were used to maintenance roads. This act got trough Britain and in 70 years (1706-1776)from 300 miles of streets it turned to 15,000 miles of road works. This act even gave the permission to businessman to build canals, which made transportation cheaper by 50% 



This revolution clearly shows how design got started to invent new things such as the steam engine that changed the world completely from top to bottom. 

Reference: Industrial Revolution - YouTube. 2013. Industrial Revolution - YouTube. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhF_zVrZ3RQ. 

Realism

This movement started in the late 1840's, their art was all about latest artistic trends, politics and social issues. This all happened when in France happened the 3rd revolution situated in Paris 1848 when social hardship and political difficulties raised. So back then artists, writers and intellectuals were meeting together and talking all about the situations going around in a Parisian bar called 'Temple du Realisme' and there where this movement got it's name REALISM! 



During those days, there was this artist ... called Gustave Courbet. His art caused much controversary at the State-Sponsored Salon as it went all the way against standard academic practice. This is because Courbet's art was done as the picture is (eg. a woman is fat/thin she'd be painted that way), and he even painted nothing but the truth and was considered vulgar when he even drew peasants and working conditions of the poor back then.

 
- The stone breakers - Gustave      - The Sleepers - Gustave

Reference - Class notes converted in own words + 
Realism (arts) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 2013. Realism (arts) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. [ONLINE] Available at:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Realism_(arts).

Romanticism

Romanticism (late 18th Century – early 19th Century)
... I actually feel like this subject slips through my fingers when I try to explain about it. Why? This is because romanticism fall in different categories, as all the artists draw a lot of different paintings, not like other movement like the Impressionists. Romanticism was about people expressing their expression; I mean that in this movement people used to paint or draw anything that show an expression so artists used to focus on whatever turned them on. Romanticism wasn't only based on visual arts; it even included poetry, and music as one of the most famous musician was Beethoven himself producing music through that era.

One asks about how really paintings were during the Romanticism era. This movement wasn’t about romantic scenes at all so.. No, it doesn't refer to romance at all. Romanticism was about being an individualist and believing in rights of others such as deep expressions, intense feelings, and even uplifting emotions. For others it even meant having spiritual relationship with nature.

During the Romantic period, artists for the first time were focusing on teaching people to care about each other which this shows that it was a really such art with a heart. Their paintings used to show and promote different subjects simple as liberty, end of slavery, and even promote politics that were right for their country, just like Delacroix who was a French painter where he painted  ‘The Massacre at Chios’ to show support for the Greeks as they struggled for independence from the Turkish empire.

Painting #1 - The massacre at chios (Delacroix)
Painting #2 - Wanderer above the mist (Fredrich)
Painting #3 - Starry night over the rhone (Van Gogh)
  

Reference : Class notes translated in my own words