AP Art History : Identifying artists, works, or schools of nineteenth-century 2D art

Study concepts, example questions & explanations for AP Art History

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Example Questions

Example Question #107 : Nineteenth Century 2 D Art

Slave ship

This work in particular and JMW Turner's style in general were precursors to which later, significant artistic movement?

Possible Answers:

Cubism

Impressionism

Neo-Classicalism

Realism

Correct answer:

Impressionism

Explanation:

JMW Turner often used quick brushstrokes, lighter colors, and a loose representation of objects in order to convey natural elements, especially movement and light. These techniques and their ability to shape outdoor scenes were hugely influential on the French Impressionists of the later nineteenth century.

Image is in the public domain, accessed through Wikipedia Media Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Slave-ship.jpg

Example Question #108 : Nineteenth Century 2 D Art

An American Impressionist known for her paintings of mothers with their children is _________________.

Possible Answers:

Dorothea Lange

Mary Cassatt

Georgia O'Keefe

Berthe Morisot

Correct answer:

Mary Cassatt

Explanation:

Dorothea Lange was a 20th century photographer. Georgia O'Keefe was a Precisionist known for her paintings of flowers and bones. Berthe Morisot is a French Impressionist. Mary Cassatt was born in Pennsylvania and moved to Europe to study art, where she met Degas and other Impressionists.

Example Question #109 : Nineteenth Century 2 D Art

Cassatt coiffure

The Coiffure, by Mary Cassatt, is related to the artistic movement _____________________.

Possible Answers:

Surrealism

Impressionism

Fauvism

Neo-Classicalism

Correct answer:

Impressionism

Explanation:

Mary Cassatt was the only American woman to be actively involved as an artist in the late nineteenth century French avant-garde art movements. While this work is not traditionally impressionistic, especially as it is a drypoint print rather than a painting, it shares many similarities in tone and style to the works of the Impressionists Cassatt worked so closely with in France. Most notably, the influence of Japanese art, the everyday subject, and the free lines are hallmarks of Impressionism as an artistic movement.

Image is in the public domain, accessed through Wikipedia Media Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mary_Cassatt_-_The_Coiffure_-_NGC_29882.jpg

Example Question #110 : Nineteenth Century 2 D Art

Temeraire

This work is by which British painter?

Possible Answers:

Thomas Gainsborough

George Romney

John Constable

J.M.W. Turner

Joshua Reynolds

Correct answer:

J.M.W. Turner

Explanation:

All are famous British painters of the 18th and 19th centuries, however the distinctive use of light, the focus on sea and sky, and the fact of its distinct popularity mean this must be the work of J.M.W. Turner.

Image is in the public domain, accessed through WikiArt: http://www.wikiart.org/en/william-turner/the-fighting-temeraire-tugged-to-her-last-berth-to-be-broken-up-1839

Example Question #231 : Renaissance To Contemporary 2 D Art

Monet and Manet were part of the ___________ movement in the 19th century.

Possible Answers:

Cubist

Expressionist

Dada

Impressionist

Romantic

Correct answer:

Impressionist

Explanation:

Both Monet and Manet are known to be part of the Impressionist movement of the 19th century.

Though their works share characteristics of the Romanticism such as a preference for broad colored stroked over contours, the time period does not match (in fact, Impressionism followed from Romanticism).

Cubism, Expressionism, and Dadaism followed from the impressionist movement and are characterized by different artists. These movements began to gain traction in the beginning of the 20th century.

Example Question #232 : Renaissance To Contemporary 2 D Art

Identify the artist who created this painting.

File:The Scream.jpg

Possible Answers:

Édouard Manet

Edvard Munch

Berthe Morisot

Eugène Delacroix

Vincent Van Gogh

Correct answer:

Edvard Munch

Explanation:

This painting, The Scream, was created by Munch between 1893 and 1910. It is of the impressionist style that heavily influenced the expressionist movement that followed.

Though Manet and Van Gogh share similar styles to this painting, they both died before the turn of the 20th century. Morisot also died before the 1900s.

Image is in the public domain, accessed through Wikipedia Media Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Scream.jpg

Example Question #233 : Renaissance To Contemporary 2 D Art

Identify the artist who created this painting.

Possible Answers:

Eugène Delacroix

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres

Sandro Botticelli

Francisco de Goya

Rembrandt

Correct answer:

Francisco de Goya

Explanation:

This painting, Saturn Devouring His Son, was part of Goya's "Black Paintings" Collection, which was inspired by his disillusionment following the Spanish Inquisition.

The only painters to have a similar style would be Rembrandt and Botticelli, however they do not meet the period of this piece.

Though Delacroix and Ingres created paintings during the early 1800s, they did not create works relating to Greek/Roman mythology, nor did they employ this brushstroke style.

Image is in the public domain, accessed through Wikipedia Media Commons: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturn_Devouring_His_Son#/media/File:Francisco_de_Goya,_Saturno_devorando_a_su_hijo_%281819-1823%29.jpg

Example Question #234 : Renaissance To Contemporary 2 D Art

Liberty Leading the People, shown below, was created in 1830 by _____________.

 File:Eugène Delacroix - La liberté guidant le peuple.jpg

Possible Answers:

Eugène Delacroix

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres

Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Paul Cézanne

Édouard Manet

Correct answer:

Eugène Delacroix

Explanation:

Delacroix is responsible for this piece, and can be identified by the Romantic style employed.

Though Ingres was a contemporary of Delacroix, the two were nemesis and Ingres followed a Neoclassical approach.

Manet, Cézanne, and Renoir were impressionist painters and do not fit the period or the style of this painting.

Image is in the public domain, accessed through Wikipedia Media Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Eug%C3%A8ne_Delacroix_-_La_libert%C3%A9_guidant_le_peuple.jpg

Example Question #235 : Renaissance To Contemporary 2 D Art

Cole thomas the oxbow  the connecticut river near northampton 1836

Based on style and composition, the work shown here was composed by a member of the artistic group known as _______________.

Possible Answers:

the Realists

the Impressionists

the Hudson River School

the Norwich School

Correct answer:

the Hudson River School

Explanation:

This work, The Oxbow (View From Mount Holyoke, Northampton, Massachusetts, after a Thunderstorm), was painted by Thomas Cole, the founder of the artistic movement known as The Hudson River School. The Hudson River School was the first art movement prevalent in the United States of America, flourishing from 1830-1860. The Hudson River School focused on large scale landscapes, usually of scenes in and around the Hudson River Valley in New York, with a focus on scenes of natural beauty and wonder, oftentimes featuring ominous weather or hazardous wild features.

Artwork from Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cole_Thomas_The_Oxbow_(The_Connecticut_River_near_Northampton_1836).jpg

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