The View from Notre Dame

Since I was little, I'd always love to draw, whether it's my family members, the animals, trees, flowers, and even streets. However, when I went back to my old drawings after I've grown up, I realized that there is always something missing in my sketches: some ugly things I didn't want to have in my paintings. That was my very first notion of art, to draw only the beautiful things, things I like to see in my sketch book. Later as I studies more about art, I realized that art can be a very powerful tool for religious, politics, and even revolutions. Art can raise all different kinds of social issues; through art, people may understand these issues faster and clearer instead of learning them from newspapers and books.

This article started with the historical event of Haussamann's rebuilding of Paris, who was hired by Napoleon III. It was amazing how a single man was able to do so much, to change the city of Paris and bring the moderniality into it at the same time. As the city rebuild itself in order to modernize, paintings also tend to be more realistic. The technologies were getting more advanced, people from the society wanted to have the most realistic information about everything. Therefore, the artists of that time were attempted to create more realistic art works. One of the most common form of art is paintings, which was served like the photograph due to their more detailed and accurate captions. The article also shows the transformation of paintings, from idealistic to more realistic and accurately depict Parisans and the society. By viewing more realistic paintings with images of community and area, people become more aware of the realistic scene they live in. They see and learn more about the truth of their society through these paintings. However, the enemies of Hassamannization argued that it had turned Paris into a classless place; it destroyed the old city's inhabitants.

Overall I think this article is pretty challenging. However, after finished reading it, it raised the question that would propaganda art will be as powerful as it is if they all turn into realistic art form? In my personal opinion, it would not.