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)

The Hudson River School is the first wide scale artistic movement to be produced in America. Developed in the early nineteenth century, the Hudson River School was spearheaded by Thomas Cole, who was British born, but who largely grew up and was trained in America. Cole's sweeping landscapes of the Hudson River Valley both proved inspirational to the movement's other artists and gave the school its name.

John Singer Sargent was the premier portrait painter in America in the late nineteenth century, largely thanks to his realistic and dramatic style of painting. This style, though, was also completely at odds with the Impressionism and then Post-Impressionism that became immensely popular in the last two decades of the nineteenth century. Sargent was unappreciated for years, with his star only rising again in the late twentieth century, decades after his death.

George Catlin was born in Pennsylvania in 1796, and first went to St. Louis and the then Western portion of the United States in 1830. For the next few years, Catlin would make the first serious paintings, rather than quick etchings or sketches, of Native Americans in traditional dress. Catlin's paintings became the indelible images of many Native American tribes throughout the nineteenth century.

"The Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog," painted in 1818, is considered one of the chief examples of Romantic visual arts, and it is the most famous painting by Caspar David Friedrich. The painting, showing a young man looking out over mountains submerged in a bank of fog, speaks to many important themes of Romanticism, like a return to nature, a focus on the individual, and an adventurous spirit.

Paul Gauguin was involved with the Impressionists in Paris during the 1880s, but visited Polynesia in the 1890s repeatedly, eventually moving there. While in Polynesia, Gauguin kept painting and kept up his ties to the French art world. Gauguin's paintings of Polynesian women, culture, and scenes were hugely influential on younger artists, like Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso, who moved towards "primitive art" in the early twentieth century.

"Arrangement in Grey and Black, No. 1" is one of the most famous paintings in the world, but few people know its name, instead referring to it by the popular title of "Whistler's Mother." While the 1871 painting is indeed a portrait of the artist's mother sitting, James McNeill Whistler was annoyed when his work was called a "portrait." Whistler preferred to think of the painting as exactly what he called, a study in shades of grey and black which showed his ability with dark colors.