Painting 1820-1875

Delacroix, David and Manet played crucial roles in the development of French painting in the first half of the 19th century. The Glyptotek owns a number of major works from this period.

Here you can see works by artists as mutually different as Millet, Rousseau, Daumier, Courbet and Corot – each one important in the story of art before it became “modern”. In the first half of the 19th century, painting can be divided into two major currents: a Neo-Classical tradition with strict lines and meticulous draughtsmanship (J.-L. David ) – and an expressive “Romantic” use of colour (Eugène Delacroix).

Three pictures by Manet demonstrate his unique way of depicting his contemporaries and their actions. Daumier’s caricatures of politicians are a commentary on the period’s political unrest and its frequently dramatic effects on society. Several artistic tendencies emerged in parallel in the search for a new way of looking at the world and representing it in paint: Naturalism, the Barbizon School and Realism. In the course of the 1860s these trends helped to shape the development of Impressionism.

The collection of French paintings is closed to the public at the moment due to the museum's preparations for this summer's major exhibition, Degas' Method.