Arkwright's Mill at Night

Anthony Madison
Arkwright's Mill at Night, Joseph Wright, 1782
by ANTHONY MADISON
Arkwright's Mill, owned by Richard Arkwright, was a textile mill in Derbyshire on the River Derwent. It had a water frame that made longer cotton warp threads for a textile loom. This mill was used to build house working spinning machines because it spins four spindles of cotton of threads at a time. This new mill created jobs that helped employ people, which created a new economy. 


The sky reflects on the river next to the mill on the upper half of the painting. The darker colors used on the painting give it a gloomy feeling. It seems like the feeling of having to work long, lonely hours is beaming from the dark border around the mill. In the middle of the dark background, the mill sits in a valley. The mill is brighter than the rest of the painting to show the financial hope it brings to the economy. 
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The Floor Scrapers

Gustave Caillebotte
Gustave Caillebotte, The Floor Scrapers, 1875
This Impressionist piece contains three workers on their knees working tediously to scrape the floors of a bourgeois apartment. The three shirtless men seem to represent a form of masculinity and strength as they are the workforce behind creating such an extravagant setting, but their hunched poses could be hinting at vulnerability and exhaustion instead. The 19th century was filled with wealthy people attempting to impress their snobby friends with baller houses and fancy clothes, which is cool until you realize that their are other guys doing labor jobs for some terrible pay.

The renovation occurring in the apartment also references the modernization of Paris with new technological developments. The city is getting filled with railroad stations, crowded streets, and luxury apartment buildings.

The costs for all these improvements are the hardships of manual labor. The floor scrapings are curled just like the curled men. The aren't in a comfortable position, and the rich would never understand how complex and difficult it is to create what they desire. That's probably why this painting was first rejected, as people did not enjoy how the bodies were portrayed.
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The Gleaners

Jean-François Millet
Jean-François Millet, The Gleaners, 1857
By NAYOUNG KWON

Also a feature on Animal Crossing game, The Gleaners by Jean François Millet showcases the realistic view of poverty within the society during the industrial time, but also displays a sympathetic view towards poor, low ranked peasants. However, this piece was a way to critique the unfair treatments of female laborers. The day he showcased this painting, it drew many negative comments from the French middle and upper class because it was a reminder that French society was built from the labor of working classes. On top of that, the fact that Millet created this piece in such a huge scale, depicting labor classes ended up making it worse for the public eye. 

Millet painted with oil on canvas and  divided the composition in half. the top half can be seen as a city where its clean and calm with pinkish blue skies. However, the bottom half of the painting, we can see the peasants working in an unlikeable setting. The ladies are set in a triangular composition from right arm of the women with the blue hat connecting to the women with green hat. They are also in the center as a focal point to strictly depict the poor working class within the painting. The colors are set in a neutral tone so that the women seem as if they are blended with the ground. 

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The Third Class Carriage

Carly Hofmann
Honoré Daumier, The Third Class Carriage, 1864
BY CARLY HOFMANN
One recurrent themes of  Honoré Daumier's work, was the impact of industrialization and urbanization on the working class people of Paris. Here, in The Third Class Carriage, his societal commentary turns his attention to new forms of public transport, namely, trains. His interest was not in the vehicles themselves, but instead in the ways in which they reinforced social hierarchy within such modern and allegedly democratic conveyances.

The invention and widespread use of the railroad was but one of the many changes heralded by the Industrial Revolution. The Industrial Revolution shattered societal norms throughout Europe by dramatically redefining the socio-economic standings of many working class citizens. As the factory system and mechanization of tools took over, many working class citizens found themselves forced out of the country-side and into the cities. This may be exact situation of the women in Daumier’s work here. It is quite possible that the subjects of his painting have been forced to abandon their previous jobs as artisans or farmers in the wake of industrialization.

The women in the foreground of the painting represent three generations, almost as if it were the full spectrum of life.  The figures who occupy the wooden bench in the painting's foreground are clearly of the lower class, as indicated by their disheveled and worn appearance. These third class travelers are physically separated from the more affluent passengers behind them, representing their social and economic separation. The third class family also faces away from the rest of the passengers, further emphasizing their isolation and rejection from Parisian society.

The feeling of compression that dominates the background is dispelled by the spaciousness surrounding the figures nearest the picture plane. In contrast to the irritable expressions of the wealthier passengers in the background, the nursing mother, the grandmother, and the sleeping child, who are all bathed in a golden light, seem quite serene. These features may allude to Daumier’s critique of the upper class being emotionally unfulfilled despite their apparent economic success. Daumier may be saying that it is be better to remain impoverished and content than wealthy and miserable. Though the painting is unfinished, it is still obvious that Daumier seeks to capture the plight of the working class by capturing the quiet moments of their everyday lives.
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The Absinthe Drinker

Eduard Manet
Eduard Manet, The Absinthe Drinker, 1858
By FRANCESCA MAURO

The latter part of the 19th Century brought rapid industrialization to Europe. With the rise of factory manufacturing, the population began to flock towards urban centers to work. Many people resented the moral decline that seemed to accompany the Industrial Revolution. Alcohol seemed in direct contradiction of the strict organization necessary for a successful industrial economy.

The Foundry and Engineering Works of the Royal Overseas Trading Company outlines a set of nineteen rigid rules for factory workers. These rules emphasize policies of intolerance toward drunkenness on the job.


Absinthe became popular in late 19th Century Paris, especially in bohemian artist circles. Colloquially called the "Green Fairy," absinthe became a symbol of social defiance and gained opposition from politicians and social conservatives. The alleged hallucinatory substance was eventually banned in many countries.

The sheer scale of Manet's The Absinthe Drinker forces viewers to see a mundane subject in a heroic pose at a size often reserved for portraits of royalty. The man, who is supposedly modeled after a man named Collardet, wears a dark cloak and top hat. Framed by an empty liquor bottle and a half-filled glass of absinthe, he seems to retreat into the shadows. The crumbling wall and dimly lit scene seems to hint at disorder, immorality, chaos, all of which lie in stark contrast to the period's fascination with order. This painting, with its muted and dusty colors, is the epitome of realism. It offers a glimpse of the disorder that balanced out the suffocating regulation and rote nature of factory life.
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