courbet and realism
TRANSCRIPT
Realisman artistic and literary movement that devoloped in
France from around mid to late 19th century
REALISM IN ARTThe Term “REALISM” was coined by the French novelist Champfleury in the 1850s
Subjects include scenes of:Peasant and working class life, ordinary people and their activities , lower classes Poverty, brutality, passion
MannerPortrays of the way things and people appear every day without any idealizationPhotographic representations of subjects, art does’ t have to be uplifting, edifyingImages of the middle and lower classes depicted also in large canvas, once reserved for important subjects (very shocking to the upper class!)Everyday situations are portrayed, for ex. people eating, having a nap,..
AimTo get people aware of the social condition of the lower class
TechniqueUse of unconventional medium as knife, palette to put the color on the canvas
This movement grew out of:-Reaction against ROMANTICISM that dealt with love, heroism, feeling of devoutness. Technological advances (photography, train/travel)Scientific advances and theories (Darwin) and the growing up of secularism
Historical background • In France in 1848 workers rebelled against the bourgeois leaders of the
newly formed Second Republic and against the rest of he nation demanding better working conditions and redistribution of property.
• The army quelled the revolution in three days with significant lost of life and long lasting trauma.
• The revolution of 1848 thus raised the issue of labor as a national concern and placed workers on center stage , both literally and simbolically.
• Courbet’s depiction of Stone breakers in 1849 was very timely and populist.
To quell - reprimere , domare, soffocareDemanding – impegnativo, che esigeTo raise the issue- sollevare il problemaConcern - affare, faccenda , preoccupazioneTo depict - rappresentareTimely- a tempo opportuno, provvidenziale
Glossary:
Realism – the representation in art or literature of objects, actions, or social- realistic conditions as they actually are, without idealization or presentation in abstract form.Gritty _ audace Commonality- gente comuneBold – confident and not afraid; bright coloursuproar – chiassoStir – agitazione easel- cavalletto Canvas Tela Palette- tavolozza di coloriTurpentine- trementinaRags -stracciTrail -seguire
Gustave Courbet (1819 –1877) The self-proclaimed "proudest and most arrogant man in France”
He was a French painter who led the Realist movement in 19th-century born in Ornans, a village in the Franche-Comté in eastern France (close to Switzerland.)
Though he came from a prosperous farming family, Courbet preach equality and became a rather rough-looking firebrand, willing to make bold social statements through his work.
Courbet created a sensation at the Paris Salon of 1850–51 when he exhibited a group of paintings set in his native village
These works, including The Stonebreakers (Gli Spaccapietre)
(1849–50; now lost) and A Burial at Ornans (1849–50; Musèe d'Orsay, Paris) challenged convention by rendering scenes from daily life on the large scale previously reserved for history painting and in an emphatically realistic style
Proud – orgogliosoTo lead, led,led- dirigereTo Preach- predicareRough –asproFirebrand- tizzone,agitatoreBold- franco, ardito, spavaldoStatements-dichiarazioneBurial – funerale to Challenge-sfidare
In 1855, Courbet's monumental canvas, The Painter's Studio (Musée d'Orsay, Paris Oil on canvas, Dimensions 361 cm × 598 cm), was rejected by the jury of the Exposition Universelle. Courbet retaliated by mounting his own exhibition in his Pavilion of Realism, built within sight of the official venue, where he displayed more than forty other worksThe exhibition catalogue included Courbet's seminal "Realist Manifesto," in which he proclaimed his fidelity to subjects drawn from modern life.
After his "Realism" show in 1855, he gained more financial backing, but continued to be faithful to his own moral.
He did even some prison time for his politics. Courbet died on December 31, 1877 at age 58 in La Tour-de-Peilz , Switzerland.
To reject –rifiutareTo retaliate-ripagare con al stessa moneta, rendere pan per focacciaVenue- luogo del convegnoTo display – mostrareSeminal- embrionaleFaithful- fedele
The Stone Breakers,1849–50 A work of social realism, depicting two peasants, a young man and an old man, breaking rocks. The painting was first exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1850. It was destroyed during World War II, (along with 154 other pictures, when a transport vehicle moving the pictures to the castle of Königstein near Dresden, was bombed by Allied forces in February 1945.)
Bonjour, Monsieur Courbet 1854.
In this canvas of 1854, Courbet has painted himself on the right side. This self-portrait offers a number of significant clues as to how the artist thought of himself or perhaps how he wished to be seen. easel- cavalletto Canvas Tela Palette- tavolozza di coloriTurpentine- trementinaRags -stracciTrail -seguire
Courbet is self-sufficient, and carries on his back a folding easel that contains everything he needs (paint, canvas, palette, oil, turpentine, and rags) to paint directly from nature. Bruyas, on the other hand, must be trailed by a servant and carries only a small cane. One can imagine that Bruyas and his servant had been transported by the carriage in the background,while Courbet had evidently been making his way on foot.The meeting between the two men represents the vitality of the countryside in contrast to the mannered style of the city
The man in the green jacket beside the dog is very well dressed he is the son of a banker, an industrialist named Alfred Bruyas who is one of Courbet's patrons and had himself been a painter. the man in brown next to him wears a suit, but it is worn and ill-fitting he serves the man beside him. The rich man in the center is flanked by both his servant Calas and his dog.
Every day you respond to body language, types and styles of clothing, facial expression, hand gesture, and environmental context. Those judgments are based upon your quick, and quite sophisticated assessment of these sorts of clues. So look at these figures as actors on a stage or, as Courbet has suggested, people that you've run across as you stroll a country road. What do the costumes, the props, and the interactions express?
Even the different treatment of Bruyas and Courbet's beards, though related to each man's true likeness, further underscores the contrast of the stuffy aesthete to the "worker-artist”
assessment – valutazione, stimaUnderscore- sottolineareStuffy-presuntuoso, boriosoStroll-passeggiare senza metaStroll about – gironzolareProp- sostegno
The painter Castagnary in 1884 said on his work:
"It was as if a whirlwind had roared through the gallery rattling the windows and shattering the glass”…It was with "an unshakeable self-confidence and indomitable tenacityWhirlwind- turbine To Roar- ruggire rattle- sbattere shatter- tapparella unshakeable –che non puo’ essere scosso, imperturbabile
Important Works:•The Stone Breakers, 1849•Burial at Ornans, 1849•The Meeting (Bonjour, Monsieur Courbet), 1854•The Painter's Studio 1854-55•Young Ladies on the Banks of the Seine, 1857•The Origin of the World (L'Origine du monde), 1866
The most mysterious composition. However, Courbet himself provides several clues to its interpretation: "It's the whole world coming to me to be painted", he declared, "on the right, all the shareholders, by that I mean friends, fellow workers, art lovers. On the left is the other world of everyday life, the masses, wretchedness, poverty, wealth, the exploited and the exploiters, people who make a living from death".
Shareholders-azionistiWretchedness- squallore, miseriaWealth- benessereExploited-sfruttatiExploiters-sfruttatori
This is the side of "everyday life", we find a priest, a merchant, a an unemployed worker and a beggar girl symbolizing poverty. We can also see the guitar, the dagger and the hat, which, together with the male model, condemn traditional academic art.In this vast allegory, truly a manifesto painting, each figure has a different meaning.
These figures on the left suggest the various social types that appear in Courbet's canvases
unemployed -disoccupatoBeggar - mendicanteDagger-stiletto, obelisco
In those on the right, Courbet portrays his friends and supporters We can recognize the bearded profile of the art collector Alfred Bruyas, and behind him, facing us, the philosopher Proudhon. The critic Champfleury is seated on a stool, while Baudelaire is absorbed in a book. The couple in the foreground personify art lovers.
To Portray- ritrarre supporters- sostenitori
Bearded - barbutofacing -che sta di fronteStool-sgabello
In the middle of all this stands Courbet himself, flanked by benevolent figures: a female muse, naked like the Truth, a child and a cat.
In the centre, the painter presents himself as a mediator. The artist painted himself at the center of this universe, paradoxically painting a landscape within the confines of his studio.
When faced with the rejection of his painting, intended for the 1855 Universal Exhibition, Courbet built a "Pavilion of Realism" at his own expense
Flanked - affiancatoNaked -nudaTruth- Veritàlandscape - Paesaggio
The Stonebreakers , 1849, Oil on canvas, 165 x 257 cm was painted only one year after Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels wrote their influential pamphlet, The Communist Manifesto
the artist's concern for the plight of the poor is evident. Here, two figures labor to break and remove stone from a road that is being built.
The men breaking the stones are ordinary road workers, presented almost life-size. Courbet does not idealize the struggle for existence; he simply says, "Look at this." Courbet's detractors were sure that he was causing artistic and moral decline by painting what they considered unpleasant and trivial subjects on a grand scale. They accused him of raising a "cult of ugliness" against cherished concepts of Beauty .Realism was perceived as nothing less than the enemy of art, and many believed that photography was the source and the sponsor of this disaster. When this canvas was exhibited in Paris at the Salon of 1850 was attacked as unartistic, crude, and socialistic.
the colors used are monotonous, which reflects the languishing tone, the man has the same color of the earth, the posture suggests the mechanical monotony of the workHis pant tattered and his dress ragged, his shoes old and brokenThe wide brimmed hat hides his face expressing the namelessness of the worker, and the problem of anonymity brought by industrialization Courbet depicts the man, who is too old to continue breaking stones to express the hardship that peasants had to overcome
The Stonebreakers realizes Courbet’s aim of informing the masses about the harsh existence of peasant workers during his time by revealing the trying conditions they had to face.
This painting shows two peasants, a boy and a grown man, in tatters. the manner in which Courbet depicts the boy, reveals us that he is too young to carry stones, he can hardly hold the basket full of stones, he looks to be unbalanced, Courbet’s aim being our reflection on underage children exploitation During the Industrial Revolution Most peasants were forced into industries, where underage children and women were exploited by being given treacherous jobs, with miniscule wages.
Courbet’s works inspired future impressionists and modernists to focus their themes more on modern events.
Underage- sotto l’età, troppo giovaniExploitation- sfruttamento treacherous –pericoloso, infimo, traditore wages – paghe to focus - concentrarsi
A Burial at Ornans (1849–50; 315 cm × 668 cm , oil on canvas, Musèe d'Orsay, Paris)
Exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1850–51 challenged convention by rendering scenes from daily life on the large scale previously reserved for history painting and in an emphatically realistic style http://youtu.be/zRuLkyLx3Nowww.khanacademy.org/video/courbet -a-burial-
SUBJECT At the end of summer 1849, Courbet started work on his first monumental painting. He wanted to make it his "statement of principle" and made this clear by calling the work Painting of Human Figures, the History of a Burial at Ornans. This painting is like a memorial, the funeral of Gustave Courbet's great-uncle which was held in 1848 in Ornans, the birth place of the artist. An ordinary rural funeral had been captured in this painting with unbelievable realism.
SEIZE many people were offended that an unheard-of-before great-uncle was given such honor and fame to his death through Courbet's painting, because he used a canvas of dimensions usually reserved for history painting, a "noble" genre, to present an ordinary subject, with no trace of idealization, which cannot pretend to be a genre scene either.
COLOR AND TECHNIQUE The nuances ( gradazioni)of color in the dark greens and dull grays produces an austere tone, the thick, robust technique gives the people and the natural elements density and weight.
MEANING The rigorous frieze( fregio)-like composition and the gaping grave strewn with bones invite us to think about the human condition.
CRITIC At the Salon in 1850-1851, many people decried ( condannarono)"the ugliness" of the people, and the ordinariness of the whole scene. Among the few admirers of the painting, one critic prophesied that it would remain "the Herculean pillars of realism in modern history .
Young Ladies on the Banks of the Seine, 1857These young women have come out from the city one hot summer's day to cool off by the waterside. The realism of this very sensual scene is manifest in the frankness( schiettezza) of the faces and postures.
This very modern subject prefigures the future popularity of the banks of the Seine, celebrated by the Impressionists a generation later.This work, unusually large format for a genre scene, broke away from the conventions of the day. Courbet unleashed (scatenò)a critical scandal by exhibiting the Young Ladies at the Salon in 1857
Lazyness of the two girlsLack of any idealization They don’t assume a proper pose preferring to rest Unconventional gait Lack of a real perspectiveBackground brushes not complete
From the beginning of his career, he identified himself with the topography of his native Ornans .The distinctive limestone cliffs of the surrounding Jura Mountains provide the backdrop for Young Women from the Village He used both palette knife and brush to render the rock formations and foaming surface of the rushing water.
Young Women from the Village