” It is perhaps enough to say that British paintings remained pictures in a relatively traditional sense (Paul Wood, Book 4, p.44) In what ways did the European avant-garde in the nineteenth century depart from this relatively traditional sense of the picture associated here with British art? Your answer should compare nineteenth century British painting with work produced in France during the same period.”

Avant-garde was initially the name for advance guard of an army but, in normal usage now, the term suggests important characteristics of modern art. The positive connotations of avant-gardism are of breaking down barriers, being innovative, challenging convention, but the term has a negative side as well because of its association with difficulty and incomprehensibility.

The term avant-garde came into use in connection with art as early as the 1820s, in the writings of the French socialist Henri de Saint-Simon. Originally, the meaning of the word emphasized the emancipatory role art could play with respect to society at large….(short extract)