Richard Wagner and the Art of the Avant-Garde, 1860-1910

(Hardback)

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This book explores the responses of leading European avant-garde painters to the operas of Richard Wagner, the most influential composer of the late nineteenth century. The term avant-garde represents a twenty-first century evaluation of certain nineteenth-century artists working in a variety of advanced styles, rather than a phrase the artists applied to themselves.

Chapters are on individual artists or groups, rather than an attempt to survey all of nineteenth-century Wagnerian visual art. They deal with paintings and drawings inspired by Wagner and his operas, not with the composers larger cultural influence through his writings and personal example. Thus artists such as Vincent
Van Gogh and Paul Gauguin, who knew of Wagners music and writings but did not depict scenes from his operas, are not discussed in detail.

The emphasis is on the diverse effects Wagner had on the works of leading avant-garde artists, varying according to their personalities and stylistic interests. The period beginning in the 1880s, often associated with post-Impressionism, was characterized by a movement away from realist subject matter to more personal or imaginary themes, a general intellectual trend of the fin-de-sicle. Wagners remote quasi-historical or mythological subjects fit well with this escapist tendency in the art and culture of the time, in part a return to the Romantic sensibility that was dominant in Wagners youth. Wagners influence peaked in the period between his death in 1883 and 1900, though a few long-lived artists continued their Wagnerian explorations from this era well into the early twentieth century. There is no Wagner style in art, yet Wagners pervasive influence is immediately evident in these works. Artists whose works are discussed include Eugne Delacroix, Henri Fantin-Latour, Odilon Redon, Max Klinger, James Ensor, Fernand Khnopff, John Singer Sargent and Aubrey Beardsley, among others.

The book features 60 art reproductions, half of them in color.

Reviews

In this insightful, carefully researched and abundantly illustrated book, art historian Donald Rosenthal shows the extraordinary influence of Richard Wagners operas on the visual arts, especially on the major avant-garde artists of the nineteenth century. No other music had such a strong attraction for some of the most the adventuresome artists of that century, who used their artistic skills to present, in their different personal styles, revelatory interpretations of the staging of Wagners operas. For lovers of opera, and especially those with a serious interest in Wagners works, Donald Rosenthals survey of the correspondences between the composers music and the visual arts will be richly rewarding. -- David M. Kleinberg-Levin, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Northwestern University.
Weaving a discussion of Wagners life, operas, reputation, and posthumous influence with an analysis of artistic responses by the most advanced artists from 1860 to 1910 to the composers work, Rosenthal has made a significant contribution to scholarship on modern art. The very readable style will delight the specialist and general reader alike. -- John P Lambertson, Professor and Edith M. Kelso Chair of Art History, Washington and Jefferson College.
This engaging and well-researched book explores the artistic reception and response to the German composer Richard Wagner in the later nineteenth century. Dr. Rosenthals cogent analysis combines a well-informed discussion of Wagners operas, musical scores, and writings with insightful consideration of works by artists from Belgium, England, France and elsewhere to offer a fresh perspective on art practice in the fin de sicle. -- Susan Canning, Ph.D. Art Historian, Independent Scholar.

Author Bio

Donald A. Rosenthal is the author of Orientalism: The Near East in French Painting, 1800 - 1880 and British Watercolors from the West Foundation. His articles have appeared in the Art Bulletin,Burlington Magazine, and Gazette des Beaux-Arts.