Book excerpt: From the Classicism of Jacques-Louis David to the Realism of Courbet and the Early Impressionism of Renoir, this book outlines the course taken by painting and sculpture in Europe during the 19th century. Faced with the untidy sprawl of individualism which followed the French Revolution and threw up isolated geniuses like Goya, the author nevertheless charts the currents in what was predominantly a century of Naturalism and also - whilst artists were increasingly preoccupied with the inner man - of great landscape-painting when Friedrich, Corot and the Impressionists proper added light and atmosphere to the former achievements of the great Dutch masters.