SIGNIFICANT EVENTS

PREHISTORY

Prehistory is the period that begins with the appearance of the human being, about five million years
ago, and finishes with the invention of writing, about 6,000 years ago.

It is a long period divided into three stages: the Palaeolithic Age, the NeolithicAge and the Metal Age.

Palaeolithic Age began with our first ancestors and finished about 10,000 years ago. During that period,
human beings used tools made of stone and lived on hunting and gathering.

Neolithic Age, which began about 10,000 years ago, human beings lived in villages. Human
communities cultivated the land and raised cattle. Agriculture and cattle raising gave rise to a productive
economy.We call the the Metal Age to the period beginning about 7000 years ago, when human beings
started to make objects out of metals

Hominization

Hominization is the evolutionary process that results in the present human being. It was a very long
process.

The first ancestors of the human beings appeared about five million years ago. We call them
Australopithecus. They were quite similar to chimpanzees.

Two million years ago a new human species called Homo Habilis appeared. They made tools of stone
and lived on hunting and gathering. Homo Habilis and Australopithecus lived in Africa.

Homo erectus appeared a million and a half years ago. They were similar to Homo habilis but they made
more perfect tools. They had a greater technological development. This species discovered and learned
how to use fire. Home erectus remains have been found out of Africa, in Europe and Asia.

Homo antecessor is an extinct human species discovered in the Atapuerca site ( Spain). He appeared
about 800,000 years ago. Most probably he is the oldest European. He is a common ancestor of Homo
neanderthalensis and Homo sapiens.
Then, about 100,000 years ago Homo sapiens appeared. This species is divided into two subtypes: Homo
Sapiens Neanderthalensis or Neanderthal man and Homo sapiens sapiens.

Neanderthal man looked like us but he was more robust and sturdy. This species became extinct.

Homo sapiens sapiens is the species we belong to. Archaeologists have found remains of Homo sapiens
in America and Australia.

The continent where human beings first appeared is Africa. Homo erectus were the first human beings
to leave Africa. Their remains have been found in Asia, Europe and Africa. In America and Australia,
there are no remains of Homo erectus.The only vestiges that archaeologists have found there belong to
Homo sapiens.

There are several characteristics that make human beings different from other similar species: they
invent tools thanks to the evolution of their intellect; they can walk on two legs (biped walk) so they can
work with their hands; they have an opposable thumb, which, for example, allows them to make tools
or write; and., finally, the fact that learning is possible because human beings develop a symbolic
language and have a long childhood

Prehistoric Venus

The Aphrodite of Willendorf, now in Vienna , has been dated between 28,000 and 25,000 BC is made of
limestone and measures about 11 cm in height. In both figurines the anatomical elements have been
exaggerated showing that they were probably used as fertility fetishes.

Venus Willendorf

They also made figurines of fertility that we call them "aphrodites". The Aphrodite of Laussel, one of the
earliest reliefs, measures 44 cm in height and can be seen now at the museum of Bordeaux in France

The Palaeolithic Age:

Hunters and gatherers:

The first human beings survived because they hunted, fished and gathered wild fruits. Mammoths,
bears, elephants, deer and bisons were some of the animals they hunted. They obtained food from their
meat and from their skins they made clothes.

How Palaeolithic human beings used stone:

Paleolithic means Old Stone. In the Palaeolithic objects were made of stone, wood and animal bones.
Most objects were made of stone and that is why this period was also called Stone Age.

The technique to make tools and objects out of stone was very simple. They knocked two stones
together until they got small pieces from one of them. These pieces became cutting objects. They used
them to hunt and cut animals’ skins and meat. Examples of objects made of wood and animal bones
are: harpoons, needles and lances

The discovery of fire:

Fire was discovered about half a million years ago. For human beings in the Paleolithic Age it was one of
the most important discoveries. The climate was extremely cold and with fire they could heat and light
their caves, cook their food and frighten wild animals away

Cave art:

Men and women led a very hard life during the Palaeolithic Age. Human beings believed that
supernatural forces helped them in hunting, stopped children from dying and women were more fertile,
had more children thanks to them.

Palaeolithic tribes decorated their caves walls with paintings and made sculptures to keep these
divinities favourable to them. Among the sculptures that they made the Venus* forms were
exceptional.

The most famous prehistorical paintings are in the caves of Altamira, in Spain, and Lascaux, in France.
This kind of art is called cave art.

The Neolithic Age:

Is the Neolithic Age the first human revolution?

Human beings discovered agriculture and cattle raising about 10,000 years ago in the Middle East
( Mesopotamia, Egypt).Hunting wild animals and gathering fruits and plants were not the only way of
getting food. They learnt to cultivate plants and domesticate animals. When human beings knew how to
produce their own food their lives changed. This process is so important that we call it revolution.

The first plants they cultivated were cereals: wheat in the Middle East and Europe, rice in Asia and corn
in America. The first domesticated animals were horses, dogs: goats, sheep and oxe

Tribes needed to live near arable land to cultivate cereals. They stopped moving from place to place to
find food and became sedentary. They built villages, usually situated next to rivers Textile fabrication
and pottery: the first craftsmen:
When men and women started to live in villages, there was a specialization of work. Some people
cultivated fields, other people looked after the animals and others made weapons, fabrics, and other
objects.There were two important technical innovations in the Neolithic Age: fabrics and pottery

They produced fabrics from animals’ wool using tools like bone spindles, and rudimentary
looms.Pottery was made by hand and baked in a bonfire. New objects were invented such as vessels to
hold the grain, bowls for eating and cooking, etc.

Neolithic means New Stone. In the Neolithic Age, people used more specialised tools that which were
made of stone such as hoes to till the soil, sicklesto collect the harvest or hand mills to grind the grain

The Metal Age :

Inventions :

Human beings made the first metal objects about 7,000 years ago. First they used copper but it was not
very strong. Then bronze and iron were used. With bronze and iron they could make different kinds of
objects: weapons, jewels, statutes, etc.

The wheel, the sail and the plough were invented in the Middle East about 5000 years ago. We still use
them today.

The wheel had different applications: for transportation being used in carts pulled by bullocks or in
pottery wheels to make better ceramic pieces.The sail was used in ships to make a better use of the
force of the wind.The plough substituted the hoe to cultivate the land. They could work faster and in
greater areas.Human beings needed raw materials to fabricate new tools. The search for these raw
materials was the beginning of trade.

The first cities :

Agriculture, cattle raising and the new technical advances, improved people’s lives. Because of this,
population increased. Some villages became small cities with hundreds of inhabitants

Cities were encircled by walls, and inside there were buildings with different functions: houses, stores,
shops or workshops. First cities’ houses were small, their walls were made of adobe or stone and
their ceilings were made of straw.

Art of the Metal Age: Megalithic monuments :

In the late Neolithic Age, human beings built what we can call the first monuments using big blocks of
stone, called megaliths (Big stones). The main monuments were menhirs, dolmens and cromlechs.
For a chronological list of important dates concerning prehistoric art and culture, from the Lower
Paleolithic era of the Pliocene Epoch, plus the Middle and Upper Paleolithic of the Pleistocene Epoch,
and the Mesolithic and Neolithic eras of the Holocene, along with the Bronze and Iron Age, see
Prehistoric Art Timeline. It includes details of the earliest civilization and features countless examples of
Stone Age art, such as petroglyphs (rock engravings), cupules (cup-shaped scourings), cave painting and
famous venus figurines. Also includes dates of ancient art from Egyptian (c.2500 BCE), Minoan (c.2000
BCE) and Mycenean (c.1000 BCE) civilizations, and charts the rise in religious art. For a synopsis of the
earliest painting and sculpture, see: Oldest Stone Age Art: Earliest 100 Artworks.

Art Periods/

Movements Characteristics Chief Artists and Major Works Historical Events

Stone Age (30,000 b.c.–2500 b.c.) Cave painting, fertility goddesses, megalithic structures Lascaux
Cave Painting, Woman of Willendorf, Stonehenge Ice Age ends (10,000 b.c.–8,000 b.c.); New
Stone Age and

first permanent settlements (8000 b.c.–2500 b.c.)

Mesopotamian (3500 b.c.–539 b.c.) Warrior art and narration in stone relief Standard of Ur, Gate of
Ishtar, Stele of Hammurabi’s Code Sumerians invent writing (3400 b.c.); Hammurabi writes his law

code (1780 b.c.); Abraham founds monotheism

Egyptian (3100 b.c.–30 b.c.) Art with an afterlife focus: pyramids and tomb painting Imhotep, Step
Pyramid, Great Pyramids, Bust of Nefertiti Narmer unites Upper/Lower Egypt

(800 BCE - 400 CE) Art of Classical Antiquity

ERA OF GREEK ART

(800 - 323 BCE)

Era of Greek Art

Era of Greek art. (Fresco murals, ancient pottery, encaustic paintings, sculpture, flourish) For a general
guide, see: Greek Sculpture Made Simple. For details, please see: Daedalic (650-600), Archaic (600 -500);
Early Classical (500-450), High Classical (450-400), Late Classical (400-323) Hellenistic Period (323-27).
For architectural designs, see Greek Architecture.

750 BCE - Foundation of ancient Rome. Etruscan Kings rule.

700 - 500 BCE -Etruscan civilization.

750 BCE - First use of Greek alphabet.

539 BCE- Ancient Persians conquer Mesopotamia and build Persepolis

535 BCE -High point of Greek black-figure style of ceramic pottery. .

500 BCE- Democracy in Athens. Celtic La Tène art style begins. Roman Republic starts.

450 BCE- Greek sculptor Polykleitos creates Doryphoros statue. Chinese painting begins.

447 BCE- Construction of the Parthenon begins. Finished 432.

450 BCE- Famous Greek bronze sculpture: Discus Thrower (by Myron).

400 BCE- Famous Etruscan works: Capitoline Wolf and Chimera of Arezzo.

350 BCE- Greek sculptor Praxiteles produces Aphrodite of Knidos and Hermes.

340 BCE-Famous Greek sculpture: Boy From Antikythera.

323 BCE- Death of Alexander the Great. Beginning of Hellenistic art (c.323-30 BCE)

300 BCE - 400 CE- Era of Roman art. Heavily influenced by Hellenistic (Greek) painting & sculpture.

246 - 208 BCE- Creation of Chinese Terracotta Army Warriors.

232 BCE- Famous Greek sculpture: Dying Gaul.

206 BCE- Start of Chinese Han Dynasty art which produced the first Chinese porcelain. Beginning of the
cave art at Ajanta, India - see Classical Indian Painting (up to 1150 CE).

166-56 BCE- Famous Greek sculpted frieze: Pergamon Altar of Zeus. Highpoint of the Pergamene school
of Hellenistic sculpture in Anatolia.

150 BCE- Famous Greek statue: Venus di Milo (by Alexandros of Antioch).

50 BCE- Beginning of the Fayum Mummy Portraits. They continued until about 250 CE.

42 BCE- Famous Greek sculpture: Laocoon (by sculptors Hagesandrus, Polydorus, Athenodorus)

27 BCE- Beginning of Roman Empire. See also: Roman Architecture.

9 BCE- Completion of Ara Pacis Augustae

79 CE- Vesuvius errupts, destroying Pompeii.

113-Famous Roman relief sculpture monument, Trajan's Column.

200-320- Christian mural paintings in catacombs of Rome; early Christian sculpture on sarcophagi; early
Christian art becomes more widespread, after 313. Period of Late Roman Art.

329- Edict of Milan legitimizes Christianity. First Biblical art seen.

395- St Peter's Basilica in Rome completed (original building). Garima Gospels made in Ethiopia.

410-450- Roman Empire officially splits into West (Rome/Ravenna) and East (Byzantium).

Fall of Rome to repeated invasions by Visigoths and Vandals.

The Period of the Dark Ages

500-1200 - Beginning of Medieval art (c.450-1450). Also the start of Byzantine art. Panel painting,
Orthodox icon painting and mosaic art flourish. See the Ravenna mosaics.

532-37- Hagia Sophia built in Constantinople. See Byzantine Architecture.

550-800- Celtic/Saxon Illuminated Gospel Manuscripts.

Cathach of Colmcille (560 CE), Book of Durrow (670), Book of Kells (c.800).

700-50- Oils (walnut, linseed) first used for oil-resin varnishes, and for painting on stone & glass.

700-900- Early forms of porcelain ceramics appear in China during the era of Tang Dynasty art. For more
details of chronology, see: Pottery Timeline.

780-900- Medieval Christian artworks appear during Pre-Romanesque Era of Carolingian Renaissance
under Charlemagne I, Otto I.

Byzantine art combines with Western Christian themes to create Illuminated Bible texts.

The European Revival( 800)

900- Carolingian Art flourishes 750-900. Charlemagne builds famous Palatine Chapel in Aachen.

1000Ottonian Art flourishes 900-1000. See also: German Medieval art (800-1250).

1017-1029- Start of Medieval manuscript illumination, featuring Romanesque art.

1050-1150- Kandariya Mahadeva Hindu Temple (Khajuraho) built in Madhya Pradesh, India.
1080- Height of Romanesque architecture. Religious murals, stained glass. Cathedrals built at
Angouleme, Essen, Mainz, Worms and Pisa, plus Cluny Abbey Church.

1115-1145 - Bayeux Tapestry, most famous piece of tapestry art commissioned by Bishop Odo.

1150-1450- Angkor Wat Khmer Temple in Cambodia. Beginning of golden age of Mosan art, Belgium.

1250-1400

Era of Gothic art and Gothic architecture. Many Gothic cathedrals designed: (eg. St. Denis (1140), Notre
Dame (1160), Chartres (1194), Reims (1211), Canterbury (1100), Westminster Abbey (1245), Cologne, w.
pointed arches, flying buttresses, huge stained glass windows. New panel paintings (tempera on wood),
and illuminated texts (opaque paint on vellum). Oil paints first used for painting on panel.

The Renaissance Age

1304-1310 - Era of Proto-Renaissance art/architecture, influenced by International Gothic style.

1333-1400- Giotto paints Scrovegni Chapel frescoes at Padua.

1346- Zen Ink-Painting dominates Japanese art.

1387 - Black Death plague kills third of European population. Era of Ming Dynasty art in China.

Medici Family Bank founded in Florence.

1400-1530

The Renaissance (North of Italy, known as the Northern Renaissance)

1426-36

• Italian Early Renaissance (1400-90);

The three main centres of the Italian Renaissance, were Florence, Rome and Venice.

The Italian Renaissance was the first major expression of classicism in world art.

Florence Cathedral, Brunelleschi and the Renaissance (1420-36). See also the new ideas of the
Florentine Renaissance in linear perspective, humanism and the male nude.

1444- Iconic bronze David made by sculptor Donatello, greatest of early Renaissance sculptors.

1485- Famous mythological painting: The Birth of Venus by Sandro Botticelli.

1490- Famous example of linear perspective: Lamentation Over the Dead Christ by Mantegna.

• Italian High Renaissance (1490-1530)

1495 - First masterpiece of High Renaissance painting: The Last Supper by Leonardo Da Vinci.

1501-4 - Highpoint of Italian Renaissance sculpture: Michelangelo creates David in Florence.

1503-6 -Leonardo paints the Mona Lisa, one of the greatest Renaissance paintings.

1506 - Vatican Museums open with a display of the sculpture, Laocoon and His Sons. Work. begins on
redesign and rebuilding of St. Peter's Basilica, Rome.

1508-12- Michelangelo paints the Genesis Old Testament Sistine Chapel frescoes.

1509-13- Raphael works on paintings for the papal apartments.

• Northern Renaissance
Differences in climate, religion, geography and culture between Italy and Northern Europe leads to
differences in how the Renaissance develops north of Italy.

1400-onwards

FLANDERS and HOLLAND (1430-1580)

Technical improvements in oil paints hasten their adoption by Dutch Old Masters. The technique then
spreads to Italy, and is taken up by Leonardo Da Vinci and others.

1432- Golden Age of Flemish painting: Jan Van Eyck paints The Ghent Altarpiece.

1433-4- Jan Van Eyck paints masterpieces: The Arnolfini Wedding; Man in a Red Turban (1433)

1435-40- Famous painting: Descent from the Cross (The Deposition) by Roger Van der Weyden.

1500-10- Moralizing fantasy paintings by Hieronymus Bosch. (eg. The Garden of Earthly Delights). See
Netherlandish Renaissance Art (1430-1580).

GERMANY (1450-1550)

Invention of the screw printing press by the German Johann Gutenberg, along with an oil-based ink,
metal prism matrices, punch-stamped typeface molds and a functional metal alloy to mold the type.
Astonishingly, only minor improvements were made to Gutenberg's press design until about 1800.
Highpoint of the Cologne School under Stefan Lochner.

1490-1520- Tilman Riemenschneider creates greatest wood sculpture of German Gothic art.
1500-20 -Albrecht Durer, greatest artist & printmaker of Northern Renaissance, flourishes.

1517 -Martin Luther starts the Reformation. See German Renaissance Art (1430-1580

1530-1600

Era of Mannerism. Golden Age of Venetian Painting with Giorgione, Titian, Tintoretto and Veronese. See:
Venetian altarpieces (1500-1600). See: Titian & Venetian colour painting. Also the era of the
Fontainebleau School in France, under Francis I (1494-1547).

1534-41- Michelangelo paints The Last Judgement biblical frescoes in the Sistine Chapel.

1545- Council of Trent: Church in Rome launches Counter-Reformation. Fine arts and architecture used
by Catholic religion to promote its authority and public appeal.

1550- The eminent Renaissance art critic Giorgio Vasari, publishes his Lives of the Artists.

1561 -Foundation of the Academy of Art in Florence (Accademia dell'Arte del Disegno) the first official
school of drawing in Europe to promote what is now called Academic Art.

1577- Greek mannerist artist El Greco establishes himself in Spain as religious painter.

1580- Foundation of the Academy of Art in Rome (Accademia di San Luca).

1581 -Foundation of the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.

1583- Mannerist sculptor Giambologna creates his famous Rape of the Sabine Women.

1600-1700

Era of Baroque Art and Baroque Architecture, noted for its grandeur. Its bold dramatic and often
colourful Baroque Painting (by Caravaggio, Rubens, Velazquez) and portraits (by Van Dyck), as well as
sculpture by Bernini, are used by secular rulers to buttress their absolutism, and by the Catholic Church
as a form of propaganda. See Bolognese School led by Annibale Carracci. See also: Classicism and
Naturalism in Italian 17th Century Painting. See: Painting in Naples (1600-1700). Baroque art in
Protestant countries takes a more down-to-earth style: see the school of 17th century Dutch painting
led by Jan Vermeer and Rembrandt. See also vanitas painting - still lifes with a moral message.

1648-French Academy of Fine Arts founded in Paris.

1654- Building of the Taj Mahal, a monument of Mughal architecture. See also Mughal painting.

1656-67 -Bernini designs the grand theatrical approaches to St Peter's to overawe visitors.

1667- Rise of French tapestry art with the foundation of Gobelin Factory under Charles Le Brun.

1670-1800
Era of American Colonial Art (c.1670-1800),
New England and the Carolinas.

1700-70 - Era of Rococo Art and interior architectural design. Light, whimsical, decorative style reflecting
the decadence of the French Kings.

1707- Ceramicist Ehrenfried von Tschirnhaus and alchemist Johann Friedrich Bottger discover a formula
(using feldspathic rock) for true porcelain ceramics in Meissen, Germany.

1744- Foundation of Sotheby's art auctioneers by Samuel Baker.

1750-1800 - Highpoint of the Grand Tour, and Era of Neoclassicism, a reaction against the frivolity of the
French court. Promoted a return to the values and steadfast nobility of Classical Greece and Rome.
Neoclassical artists included painters Goya, Ingres and Jacques-Louis David, sculptors Houdon, Canova
and Thorvaldsen. Neoclassical architecture (buildings decorated by columns of Greek-style pillars, and
topped with classical Renaissance domes) dominate Europe and spread to America.

1764- Catherine the Great establishes the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg.

1766- Foundation of Christie's art auctioneers by James Christie the Elder, in London.

1768- Foundation of the Royal Academy of Arts in London.

1789- Beginning of the French Revolution.

1793 - Opening of the Louvre Museum, one of the world's greatest art museums.

1799- Napoleon seizes power in France.

1799- Invention of lithography (using a matrix of fine-grained limestone) by the Austrian printer Alois
Senefelder.

1800- Mid-point of English Figurative Painting 18th/19th Century, soon to be followed by the influential
English School of landscape painting.

Era of Romanticism art,(1800-50)

encouraged by the heroic ideals of the French Revolution. French Romantics led by Eugene Delacroix.
Other leading artists included William Blake, Caspar David Friedrich, JMW Turner, Thomas Cole and John
Constable.

1803- Invention of machine-made paper (made from linen and cotton rags) by the Frenchman Nicholas
Louis Robert.
1810-40- German painters Friedrich Overbeck and Franz Pforr form the Nazarenes movement. For the
Biedermeier style of Romantic realism and more,

1830- Famous painting: Liberty Leading the People, by Delacroix.

1830-70- Barbizon 'School': School of French landscape painters working near Fontainebleau, led by
Theodore Rousseau; paved the way for Impressionism, the ultimate plein-air painting movement. Other
members included Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot and Honore Daumier. O

1839- Louis Daguerre takes the first photo; see also: History of Photography.

1840- Invention of the revolving perfecting press by American Richard March Hoe, (followed in 1846 by
the first rotary press) and the manufacture of paper from wood pulp. Beginning of Victorian art in
Britain.

1841- Collapsible tin paint tube invented by painter John Rand. Boosts plein air painting.

1842- Foundation of House of Fabergé, St Petersburg, famous for Fabergé Easter Eggs.

1848-Romantic Pre-Raphaelite art movement founded by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, London.

1850-67-High point of Orientalism, a painting school celebrating the exotic Near and Middle East.
Members included: Jean-Auguste Ingres, Sir David Wilkie, Eugene Fromentin.

1850-present

The emergence of Realist painting, the progressive movement in art and literature. Spurning the ideal,
Realists, such as Jean-Francois Millet and Gustave Courbet, sought to depict the truth: in particular, the
everyday social truths of the new industrial age. Realism continues to spawn variants in the 20th
century.

1855- ustave Courbet paints The Painter's Studio for display at his own exhibition: Le Réalisme.

1860s- Invention of photo-lithography by the French lithographer, Firmin Gillot, followed in 1872 by his
son's invention of zincography, combining photography with etching. Beginning of Arts and Crafts
movement (c.1862-1914) championed by William Morris.

Age Of Modern Art

Vincent van Gogh, Country Road in Provence by Night, 1889, May 1890, Kröller-Müller Museum

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, At the Moulin Rouge: Two Women Waltzing, 1892

Paul Cézanne, The Large Bathers, 1898–1905

Paul Gauguin, Spirit of the Dead Watching 1892, Albright-Knox Art Gallery

Georges Seurat, Models (Les Poseuses) 1886–88, Barnes Foundation

The Scream by Edvard Munch, 1893

Pablo Picasso, Family of Saltimbanques, 1905, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC.

Jean Metzinger, 1907, Paysage coloré aux oiseaux aquatiques, oil on canvas, 74 x 99 cm, Musée d’Art
Moderne de la Ville de Paris

Klimt in a light Blue Smock by Egon Schiele, 1913

I and the Village by Marc Chagall, 1911

Black Square by Kasimir Malevich, 1915

Marcel Duchamp, Fountain, 1917. Photograph by Alfred Stieglitz

Wassily Kandinsky, On White II, 1923

ERA OF POST IMPRESSIONISM

1872

Claude Monet, Impression, soleil levant,

1874

Louis Leroy’s scathing review of Claude Monet’s Impression, soleil levant becomes the source of the
term Impressionism

Claude Monet, Impression, soleil levant, 1872

1874

Louis Leroy’s scathing review of Claude Monet’s Impression, soleil levant becomes the source of the
term Impressionism

Georges Seurat, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, 1884

1886

The last Impressionist show is held in Paris; Seurat’s seminal pointillist composition A Sunday Afternoon
on the Island of La Grande Jatte is included in the exhibition over some members’ objections

Vincent van Gogh, The Yellow House, 1888

1887

Vincent Van Gogh and Paul Gauguin meet in Paris; the following year, they would stay together in the
famous Yellow House in Arles

Paul Sérusier, Le Bois d'Amour à Pont-Aven, 1888

1888

Les Nabis, a group of young artists of the Académie Julian in Paris, join together; members include Pierre
Bonnard, Maurice Denis and Édouard Vuillard, and their eventual manifesto would open with the
celebrated line: “Remember that a picture, before being a battle horse, a female nude or some sort of
anecdote, is essentially a flat surface covered with colors assembled in a certain order.”

Paul Gauguin, Roches Noires Drawing, 1889, exhibition catalogue frontispiece

1889

The Volpini exhibition in Paris is arranged by Gauguin; it includes work by Bernard, but Seurat is
excluded and Theo van Gogh refuses to contribute his brother’s work

Vincent van Gogh, Self-Portrait, 1887

1890

After shooting himself in the stomach, Vincent van Gogh dies on 29 July in Auvers-sur-Oise.

Paul Gauguin, Spirit of the Dead Watching, 1892

1891

Gauguin visits Tahiti for the first time

Paul Cézanne, The Basket of Apples, 1890–1894

1895

Ambrose Vollard gives Paul Cézanne his first solo exhibition

Paul Cézanne, Mont Sainte-Victoire et Château Noir, 1905

1905
Cézanne completes his famous landscape Mont Sainte-Victoire et Château Noir

Grafton Gallery Manet and the Post-Impressionists, poster for an exhibition in London

1906

The term Post-Impressionism is first used by Roger Fry as the title for an exhibition of French paintings in
London

1886

Artists

Beyond the great quadrumvirate of Cézanne, Gauguin, Seurat and Van Gogh, important artists in this
movement included Camille Pissarro, Jean Metzinger, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Odilon Redon, Henri
Rousseau, Maximilien Luce, Paul Signac, Pierre Bonnard, Édouard Vuillard, Maurice Denis, Othon Friesz
and Théo van Rysselberghe. While most artists who contributed to this movement were natives or
residents of France, the Welsh-Italian artist Llewelyn Lloyd painted landscapes and seascapes in a
divisionist style, while the Newfoundland-born Maurice Prendergast was closely associated with Vuillard
and Bonnard, and the Serbian artist Nadežda Petrović worked in both Post-Impressionist and Fauvist
modes.

1970-present

The Age of Post- modernist Art

2000s - Growth of digital art, such as Giclee Prints. General expansion of computer art. Chinese
collectors become much more active as China becomes an economic superpower.

2004- Garçon à la Pipe (1905) by Pablo Picasso sells at Sotheby's New York for $104.2 million, making it
the highest priced painting ever sold at auction.

2008- Triptych (1976) by Francis Bacon sells at Sotheby's New York for $86.3 million, becoming the most
expensive post-war work of art sold at auction, and the highest priced work by an Irish artist. In the
same year, Damien Hirst, one of the top contemporary artists, sells works worth £111 million at
Sotheby's in London.

2009- While prices for contemporary art plummet, Warhol's 1963 silkscreen print Eight Elvises,
reportedly sells for $100 million to an anonymous buyer.
2010- The sculpture Walking Man I by Alberto Giacometti, sells for $104.5 million.

2011- Rhein II (1999) a photo by Andreas Gursky, is sold for a world record $4.3 million.

2015- Picasso becomes firmly established as the most valuable of all 20th century painters when his
Cubist picture Les Femmes d'Alger (1955) sells at Christie's New York for $179 million.

1947- Eduardo Paolozzi produces what is often considered to be one of the first works of true pop art, I
was a Rich Man's Plaything. This collage even features the word “pop” itself, emerging from a gun.

ERA OF POP ART

1952

The Independent Group forms, where the first pop artists in London's art scene meet and collaborate.
This group produced many of the first exhibitions to feature pop art, and included a number of artists
that are considered to be founders of the movement. Among them were Richard Hamilton and Eduardo
Paolozzi, two extremely influential collage artists who helped to define the movement when it was in its
infancy. Art critic Lawrence Alloway was also among the members of the Independent Group, and he is
credited with coining the term “pop art,” though this is disputed. Some say it was Frank Cordell who
came up with the term.

1954- Frank Cordell may have coined the term “pop art.”

1955- The term “pop art” and the general concept that it entails is well-established among the members
of the Independent Group. It has now become a defined movement.

1956- The Independent Group is now dissolved, however many of the artists continue to meet
informally, and several of them feature in the exhibition This is Tomorrow. Notably, Richard Hamilton's
collage Just what is it that makes today's homes so different, so appealing? is displayed, a collage that
would later be considered one of the turning points of the movement and one of the earliest pieces of
true pop art.

1958- Lawrence Alloway writes an essay about pop art, called The Arts and the Mass Media, which helps
to popularize the movement and further define it.

1961- Billy Apple and others first venture to the United States and meet Andy Warhol. British and
American artists collaborate and help to bolster the style's prominence on the art scene.

1962- The term “pop art” is used for the first time in the U.S. by the Museum of Modern Art in New York
during a symposium. Andy Warhol exhibits his Campbell's Soup Cans for the first time; this is also his
first solo exhibition.
1963-Roy Lichtenstein produces one of his most famous paintings, Drowning Girl, which is an almost
exact copy of a panel from the DC comic Secret Hearts.

1964- The American Supermarket exhibition takes place.

1968- Andy Warhol is shot by radical feminist Valerie Solanas and nearly dies from his wounds. The
incident takes a toll on Warhol's career and both his work output and the movement in general begins
to slow down.

1975- Andy Warhol publishes his book The Philosophy of Andy Warhol.

1979-Warhol helps found the New York Academy of Art