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Art MovementsIntroduction
Renaissance14th–17th century
Baroque1600s–1750s
Romanticism1780s–1850s
Impressionism1860s–1880s
Post-Impressionism1880s–1905
Expressionism1905–1930s
Surrealism1920s–1950s
Abstract Expressionism1940s–1960s

Art
Movements

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Renaissance

01

Renaissance

14th–17th century  ·  Florence, Italy

A rebirth of classical learning that transformed art through perspective, humanism, and scientific observation.

  • Linear perspective and mathematical space
  • Anatomical accuracy and naturalism
  • Humanist themes alongside religious subjects
  • Classical architectural settings

01 / 08

Early Renaissance

SB

Sandro Botticelli

1445–1510

Patronised by the Medici, Botticelli created mythological masterpieces of lyrical grace. His flowing line and rhythmic composition place him among the finest draughtsmen of the era.

The Birth of Venusc. 1484–1486

High Renaissance

LdV

Leonardo da Vinci

1452–1519

Painter, sculptor, architect, musician, mathematician, engineer, inventor — da Vinci embodied the Renaissance ideal of the universal man. His sfumato technique revolutionised oil painting.

Mona Lisac. 1503–1519

M

Michelangelo

1475–1564

Sculptor and painter of superhuman ambition, Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel ceiling remains the greatest individual artistic achievement in Western history.

Sistine Chapel Ceiling1508–1512

R

Raphael

1483–1520

The youngest of the High Renaissance triumvirate, Raphael synthesised the achievements of Leonardo and Michelangelo into compositions of serenity and grace.

The School of Athens1509–1511

Baroque & Rococo

02

Baroque

1600s–1750s  ·  Rome, Italy

A dramatic style of grandeur, motion, and intense emotion that swept Europe following the Counter-Reformation.

  • Dramatic use of light and shadow (chiaroscuro)
  • Intense emotion and psychological depth
  • Dynamic, diagonal compositions
  • Rich, warm colour palettes

02 / 08

Italian Baroque

C

Caravaggio

1571–1610

The most revolutionary painter of the Baroque era. Caravaggio's tenebrist lighting — sharp beams against deep shadow — and gritty, street-level realism transformed European painting.

The Calling of Saint Matthew1599–1600

Dutch & Flemish Baroque

RvR

Rembrandt van Rijn

1606–1669

The supreme portraitist of the Dutch Golden Age. Rembrandt's luminous handling of paint and extraordinary insight into human psychology remain unmatched.

The Night Watch1642

JV

Johannes Vermeer

1632–1675

Celebrated for serene domestic interiors suffused with cool northern light. Vermeer's meticulous technique and mastery of light quality made him a legend rediscovered in the 19th century.

Girl with a Pearl Earringc. 1665

Neoclassical & Romantic

03

Romanticism

1780s–1850s  ·  Germany and Britain

A sweeping cultural movement that placed emotion, imagination, and the sublime at the centre of art, in direct reaction to Enlightenment rationalism.

  • Emotion, imagination, and individual experience over reason
  • Nature portrayed as sublime, powerful, and spiritually charged
  • Heroic and nationalist historical subjects
  • Dramatic, theatrical lighting and composition

03 / 08

Landscape and the Sublime

CDF

Caspar David Friedrich

1774–1840

The central figure of German Romantic landscape painting. Friedrich placed solitary human figures against vast natural panoramas, using landscape to explore themes of mortality, faith, and the relationship between humanity and the infinite.

Wanderer above the Sea of Fog1818

JT

J.M.W. Turner

1775–1851

Britain's most celebrated landscape painter, Turner pushed toward abstraction decades before it was named. His late canvases dissolved ships, storms, and steam trains into vortices of light and atmosphere.

The Fighting Temeraire1839

History and Drama

ED

Eugène Delacroix

1798–1863

The pre-eminent French Romantic painter, Delacroix brought turbulent colour, dynamic composition, and raw emotion to historical, mythological, and literary subjects. His expressive brushwork and colour theory were closely studied by Cézanne and the Impressionists.

Liberty Leading the People1830

TG

Théodore Géricault

1791–1824

Short-lived but hugely influential, Géricault brought unflinching realism to heroic subjects. His Raft of the Medusa depicted a real maritime disaster at the full scale of history painting, scandalising the French Salon.

The Raft of the Medusa1818–1819

Modern

04

Impressionism

1860s–1880s  ·  Paris, France

A 19th-century movement that captured fleeting moments through loose brushwork and an emphasis on light and colour.

  • En plein air (outdoor) painting
  • Loose, visible brushwork
  • Emphasis on natural light and its changing qualities
  • Everyday modern subjects

04 / 08

Landscape & Nature

CM

Claude Monet

1840–1926

The central figure of Impressionism, Monet devoted his career to capturing the effects of light and atmosphere across his famous series paintings — haystacks, Rouen Cathedral, and the iconic Water Lilies.

Impression, Sunrise1872

CP

Camille Pissarro

1830–1903

The eldest of the Impressionists and the only one to exhibit in all eight Impressionist exhibitions. A mentor to both Cézanne and Gauguin.

Boulevard Montmartre at Night1897

Figures & Leisure

PR

Pierre-Auguste Renoir

1841–1919

Celebrated for his sensuous, light-filled depictions of people — particularly women and children — in settings of leisure and pleasure.

Luncheon of the Boating Party1880–1881

ED

Edgar Degas

1834–1917

Though aligned with the Impressionists, Degas preferred studio work and drew from classical influences. Famous for his ballet dancers, racehorses, and café scenes.

The Dance Class1874

Modern

05

Post-Impressionism

1880s–1905  ·  France

A broad term for artists who built on Impressionism but pushed toward structure, symbolism, and emotional expression.

  • Bold, expressive colour beyond naturalistic observation
  • Geometric simplification of form
  • Personal and symbolic content
  • Rejection of Impressionist "snapshot" approach

05 / 08

Structure & Form

PC

Paul Cézanne

1839–1906

Called the "father of modern art," Cézanne reduced landscapes, still lifes, and portraits to their geometric essentials — a foundation that directly inspired Cubism.

The Large Bathers1906

Colour & Expression

VvG

Vincent van Gogh

1853–1890

Dutch painter who transformed Impressionist colour into a vehicle for raw emotion and spiritual longing. His swirling, impastoed surfaces prefigure Expressionism.

The Starry Night1889

PG

Paul Gauguin

1848–1903

Abandoned his career as a stockbroker to pursue painting, eventually settling in Tahiti. Developed Synthetism — bold outlines, flat colour areas, and symbolic content.

Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?1897–1898

Modern

06

Expressionism

1905–1930s  ·  Germany

A German-led movement that distorted form and colour to convey raw emotion, anxiety, and the turmoil of the modern world.

  • Distortion of form and space to convey emotion
  • Bold, non-naturalistic colour as psychological language
  • Angular, jagged line and flattened perspective
  • Themes of anxiety, alienation, and urban modernity

06 / 08

Die Brücke

ELK

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner

1880–1938

Co-founder and driving force of Die Brücke. Kirchner's urban scenes — jagged Berlin street figures, crowded cafés, and prostitutes — crackle with nervous energy and angular colour. He later retreated to the Swiss Alps, where psychological illness and Nazi persecution eventually drove him to suicide.

Street, Berlin1913

ES

Egon Schiele

1890–1918

Viennese artist whose contorted, emaciated figures express raw sexuality, vulnerability, and existential anguish. Schiele's searing line and deliberately unfinished surfaces made him one of the most intense draftsmen of the century. He died at 28 in the influenza pandemic.

Self-Portrait with Physalis1912

Der Blaue Reiter

WK

Wassily Kandinsky

1866–1944

Russian-born painter who is widely credited with producing the first purely abstract works in Western art. Kandinsky believed colour and form could communicate spiritual truths directly, without reference to the visible world — a conviction he articulated in his treatise Concerning the Spiritual in Art (1911).

Composition VII1913

FM

Franz Marc

1880–1916

Co-founder of Der Blaue Reiter whose paintings of animals — horses, deer, foxes — pulsate with spiritual intensity through non-naturalistic colour. Killed at Verdun at 36, cutting short one of the most promising careers in German modernism.

The Large Blue Horses1911

Modern

07

Surrealism

1920s–1950s  ·  Paris, France

A revolutionary movement that plumbed the unconscious mind, dreams, and irrational imagery to liberate human experience from rational constraints.

  • Dream imagery and the unconscious as artistic sources
  • Juxtaposition of incongruous or impossible elements
  • Automatism — spontaneous mark-making without rational control
  • Influence of Freudian psychoanalysis and Jungian archetypes

07 / 08

Illusionist Surrealism

SD

Salvador Dalí

1904–1989

The most flamboyant personality of the Surrealist movement, Dalí developed his "paranoiac-critical method" — a self-induced hallucinatory state — to produce images of extraordinary precision and disturbing strangeness. His showmanship made Surrealism a household word.

The Persistence of Memory1931

RM

René Magritte

1898–1967

Belgian painter who quietly subverted everyday reality through visual paradoxes and witty philosophical puzzles. His bowler-hatted men, floating rocks, and pipes that are not pipes challenged the relationship between images and words.

The Treachery of Images1929

Automatism & Biomorphism

JM

Joan Miró

1893–1983

Catalan painter who developed a joyful, playful visual language of biomorphic shapes, primary colours, and cryptic signs. Miró's work hovers between abstraction and figuration, always grounded in poetic imagination.

The Harlequin's Carnival1924–1925

Modern

08

Abstract Expressionism

1940s–1960s  ·  New York, USA

New York's post-war avant-garde that made the act of painting itself the subject, through gestural marks and raw emotion.

  • Non-representational, non-objective imagery
  • Large-scale canvases meant to envelop the viewer
  • Emphasis on process and spontaneous gesture
  • Raw, unmediated emotional expression

08 / 08

Action Painting

JP

Jackson Pollock

1912–1956

Developed his signature "drip technique" by placing canvases on the floor and pouring or flicking paint across them. His work shifted focus from the image to the act of creation.

No. 311950

WdK

Willem de Kooning

1904–1997

Combined fierce gestural energy with the human figure — particularly the Female series — in works of violent, erotic ambiguity.

Woman I1950–1952

Colour Field

MR

Mark Rothko

1903–1970

Reduced painting to soft-edged rectangles of luminous colour, seeking a direct emotional and spiritual impact on the viewer. He described his work as tragedy, ecstasy, and doom.

No. 61 (Rust and Blue)1953

End of movements