Grand Tour

(noun)

The traditional tour of Europe undertaken by mainly upper-class European young men of means. The custom flourished from about 1660 until the advent of large-scale rail transit in the 1840s.

Related Terms

Examples of Grand Tour in the following topics:

  • The Grand Tour and Its Portraits

    • The Grand Tour was a customary trip to Europe undertaken by wealthy Europeans and some Americans.
    • The Grand Tour was a customary trip to Europe undertaken by wealthy Europeans and some Americans that flourished as a tradition from about 1660 to 1840.
    • The pilgrimage was popularized further by the advent of tour guides, such as Thomas Cook, which became synonymous with the Grand Tour.
    • It became an absolute necessity for people of means to spend time in Rome as part of their "Grand Tour," or educational pilgrimage.
    • It became a symbol of wealth and freedom to go on the Grand Tour and to have something to show for it displayed in your home.A popular souvenir of the Grand Tour was a portrait of the tourist themselves, often painted amidst the architecture, or famous art works of a particular European location.

  • Rome

    • It became an absolute necessity for people of means to spend time in Rome as part of their "Grand Tour," or educational pilgrimage.
    • Artists including Pompeo Batoni and Giovanni Piranesi essentially based their entire careers upon catering to tourists.The increasing popularity of the Grand Tour, and the related desire for visitors to collect "classical" souvenirs, quickly spread the Neoclassical style throughout Europe.
    • It became a symbol of wealth and freedom to go on the Grand Tour and to have something to show for it displayed in your home.

  • Neoclassicism

    • With the increasing popularity of the Grand Tour, it became fashionable to collect antiquities as souvenirs.

  • The Eruption of Mount Vesuvius

    • Excavations continued on and off over the next two centuries, and the sites of Pompeii and Herculaneum became major tourists attractions for visiting royalty, members of the Grand Tour, and even tourists today.

  • Artistic Conventions in Painting

    • With the advent of the Grand Tour—a much enjoyed trip around Europe intended to introduce young men to the extended culture and people of their world—it became fashionable to collect antiquities as souvenirs.

  • Museums and Private Collections

    • The Grand Tour, which became very popular during this time, solidified the habit of collecting works for display from these trips abroad.

  • Painting

    • Postmodern painting rejects modernism's grand narratives of artistic direction and eradicates the boundaries between high and low forms of art.
    • One compact definition is that postmodernism rejects modernism's grand narratives of artistic direction, eradicating the boundaries between high and low forms of art, and disrupting genre's conventions with collision, collage, and fragmentation.
    • Clement Greenberg became the voice of Post-painterly abstraction by curating an influential exhibition of new painting that toured important art museums throughout the United States in 1964.

  • French Painting in the Baroque Period

    • Important painters of 17th century France include Simon Vouet, Charles Le Brun, Nicolas Poussin, Claude Lorrain, and Georges de la Tour. 17th century painting in France was divided: on one hand there was influence from the Italian Baroque style as seen in the work of de la Tour; on the other was a distinctive turn towards a rigid, Classical style that was favored by the monarchy, and exemplified by the works of Le Brun, Poussin, and Lorrain.
    • Georges de la Tour was a French Baroque painter known for painting religious chiaroscuro scenes lit by candlelight.

  • French Architecture in the Baroque Period: Versailles

    • In 1682, Versailles was transformed into the official residence of the king, and such notable features of the palace as the Hall of Mirrors and the Grande Canal were built.
    • The Grande Canal is a notable feature of the gardens, with an impressive length of 1,500 x 62 meters.
    • King Louis XIV ordered the construction of "little Venice" on the Grand Canal, which housed yachts, gondolas, and gondoliers received from Venice.
    • The Grande Commande is a series of 24 statues that were commissioned by Louis XIV to decorate the gardens.

  • Academic Architecture

    • Though the Beaux-Arts style embodies an approach to a regenerated spirit within the grand traditions rather than a set of motifs, principal characteristics of Beaux-Arts architecture included: rusticated and raised first stories, a hierarchy of spaces (from "noble spaces"—grand entrances and staircases— to utilitarian ones) arched windows, arched and pedimented doors, classical details, references to a synthesis of historicist styles, and tendency to eclecticism.