The first Romantic paintings were landscapes. Artists such as J. M. W. Turner and John Constable captures scenes of storms, as well as Gothic architecture, which is itself highly expressive and emotional in nature. Human subjects were included heavily in Romantic paintings later on.

"En plein air" was a technique favored by Impressionists such as Claude Monet. In this painting from 1877, The Saint Lazare Station, Monet's choice of painting outdoors allowed him to capture the steam coming off of the trains and the general haze that surrounded the station. Painting outdoors was so common that many Impressionists would create works which showed their fellow artists working "en plein air."

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In order to achieve the visible, overlapping brushstrokes that give The Slave Ship its sense of movement and action, JMW Turner worked extremely quickly. Turner was able both to apply wet paint on wet paint, building up a texture, and create actual motion with his paint application. For these reasons, Turner always worked fast in an attempt to capture what he considered the "sublime" aspect of nature.

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Jacques-Louis David, before becoming Napoleon's official painter during the Empire, was noted as a painter of history works, which usually focused on stories from Ancient Greece and Rome. In creating these works in the late eighteenth century, David was the preeminent neo-classicist in France, using the clean lines and bright colors notable of the genre. These aspects are present as well in his Napoleon Crossing the Alps, especially the Roman tablet crushed in the bottom left corner of the painting.

Figure 3: Napoleon Crossing the Alps by Jaques-Louis David (1801)

Figure 4: Portrait of Sir Arthur Wellesley, First Duke of Wellington by Sir Thomas Lawrence (1814)

Drypoint is highly related to etching, in that to create art with the medium, an artist must carve the desired image into a piece of metal that is then printed onto a piece of paper by a printing press. Mary Cassatt made The Coiffure a color print by adding aquatint, a chemical ink that could both attach to the metal print, but also leave a lasting image. This very European style of printing was favored by Cassatt because of its resulting images similarity to Japanese woodblock printing.

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Divisionism, also associated with Pointillism, creates a larger image from many smaller dots of color, dots that the eye mixes when standing at a distance from the painting. The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood sought to emulate works from the Renaissance. Realism was a mid-19th century movement in which painters rejected Romanticism; symbolism drew on mythology and dreams as its defining feature; and pictorialism was a movement in photography emphasizing beauty rather than reality.

Jacques-Louis David was Napoleon Bonaparte's official painter, and made both a famous portrait of an enthroned Napoleon and a large painting of Napoleon's coronation as Emperor. David came to prominence before the French Revolution, however, as a history painter depicting scenes from Ancient Rome on a grand scale. No matter his subject, David's work was well known for creating large pieces of art with extemely bold colors.

The discipline of photography was brand new when the American Civil War began in 1861, and saw increased usage during the conflict. The pioneer in this shift was Matthew Brady, who was already a notable photographer of portraits, but who during the war began spending time on the battlefields. The slow shutter speeds of nineteenth century cameras did not allow him to take action shots, but Brady did manage to make many image's of the carnage of the war in the aftermath of battles.

Expressionism flourished in Northern Europe, particularly Germany, in the 1890s, after Vincent van Gogh had killed himself in 1890. Nonetheless, van Gogh was an important progenitor for Expressionism, which sought a completely subjective approach to representation in art. Many Expressionists picked up on van Gogh's brushwork, as well as his vivid use of color.

Figure 1: The Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh (1889)

Figure 2: Portrait of Père Tanguy by Vincent van Gogh (1887-8)

Each of these paintings, in different ways, demonstrate key elements of the style of Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890). Van Gogh was a post-impressionist who used impressionism's painting techniques in his own peculiar manner. Both of these paintings show Van Gogh's thick use of paint and obvious brushwork, while the painting shown in Figure 1, The Starry Night (1889), is indicative of Van Gogh's angular landscapes, and the painting shown in Figure 2, Portrait of Père Tanguy (1887-8), is indicative of his unique approach to portraits.

Figure 1: The Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh (1889)

Figure 2: Portrait of Père Tanguy by Vincent van Gogh (1887-8)