Paintings by Turner and Monet depict trends in 19th century air pollution.

ABSTRACT: Individual paintings by artists including Vincent van Gogh and Edvard Munch have been shown to depict specific atmospheric phenomena, raising the question of whether longer-term environmental change influences stylistic trends in painting. Anthropogenic aerosol emissions increased to unprecedented levels during the 19th century as a consequence of the Industrial Revolution, particularly in Western European cities, leading to an optical environment having less contrast and more intensity. Here, we show that trends from more figurative to impressionistic representations in J.M.W. Turner and Claude Monet's paintings in London and Paris over the 19th century accurately render physical changes in their local optical environment. In particular, we demonstrate that changes in local sulfur dioxide

SUBMITTER: Albright AL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9963082 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature