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By Root 1440 0

This created a labor glut that drove wages down. There was also the new boom and bust cycles created by the new economies. Market crashes affected more people, and downturns became a problem for the rich and poor alike. Governments themselves became concerned with these cycles, as market troubles put people out of work and increased stress on societies and their ability to address the problems created by hunger and homelessness. Some of the panics were long and harsh. Luckily, most of these panic cycles were short, lasting only 1 to 2 years, and the cities and governments endured without much change. However, far-reaching new philosophies came forth dealing with these new environments created by cities and the working class poor. In 1848, Marx and Engels published the Communist Manifesto that decried the conditions of the working classes and predicted a revolution would overthrow the capitalist system. Other reformers working to change the lives of the poor, such as the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), thought alcohol was the root cause of urban evils and lobbied to ban liquor sales.

As the new cities continued to grow, the new underclass also grew. The problems of the urban poor would not abate in spite of the actions of social welfare agencies and special interests groups such as the WCTU. Crime was rampant in the crumbling areas of the cities where poverty reigned supreme. Theft, molestation, rape, prostitution, murder, beatings, and gang activity were ordinary events. Whores were everywhere in these areas, drunkenness was common, drug abuse relentless, and all manner of low behavior was ensconced in these eroding neighborhoods of the new urban scene. None of this was new; nevertheless, the scale of the problems had expanded greatly (except perhaps in ancient Rome). Ancient civilizations could not solve the problems, and the new urban centered civilizations likewise found no solutions.

Art and the Future of Europe

1874

Art was taking a new turn as the French Impressionist began exhibiting in 1874 (Monet, Manet, Renoir et al). These artists refused to paint glorious scenes from the past; rather, they painted scenes from the glorious, and not so glorious, present. Prior to the Impressionist, painting in France was confined to scenes from antiquity showing great moments in history such as the birth of Venus or a celebrated battle scene. The Impressionist broke this pattern by painting everyday scenes such as railway stations, a person sitting at a bar, or a crowded city street scene complete with balloon vendors. No longer did a painting have to show something noteworthy. The common person was now a good subject for immortality in paint. The Impressionist changed the methods of painting. The Impressionist avoided the insides of studios where a painting’s completion took weeks or months; instead, they went outside, and by using modern tube paints and canvas painted scenes rather quickly. Light was their subject, and the play of light across the scene was all important. Catching the fleeting light was hard; consequently, the faster one painted the better one could seize the ever-changing rays and convert them into a picture. The application of paint to the canvas was unlike the smooth style employed by accomplished French salon painters. Impressionist applied paint in dips and dabs that, if looked at closely, appeared to be a mess of colors; yet, upon standing back the colors, dips, and dabs fused to form a brilliant and glimmering recital of light and substance. In precise hands the effect was light and life dancing on the canvas.

Figure 33 Monet, Hotel de Roches Noires, Trouville, 1870.

The Impressionist displayed a new world of speed and commotion which was chaos up close, but from a distance became beautiful and seductive. As art “progressed,” this beauty fell into a deep ugliness without form or reason. The “splatter paintings” of the 1950s by Jason Pollock were foretold by Van Gogh (usually considered Impressionist), Gauguin, Seurat, Matisse (Fauvism 1909), Max Ernst (1923 early surrealism), Picasso