Next Tuesday, 2 April -- Singapore Biennale Workshop
3 – 6pm
** Each to bring one 1L bottle & one 500ml bottle
2nd Half of the 19th Century –
REALISM
REALISM
• Unidealized and
objective representation
– Realist artists rebelled against
the idealized subjects of mythical
and historical painting and turned
to contemporary ones
Gustave Courbet (1819 – 1877)
“… painting is essentially
a concrete art and must be
applied to real and
existing things”
Gustave Courbet (1819 – 1877)
• French painter
• Father of Realism
• Rejected idealization -- Believed that
things should be painted as they exist
• Set out to paint only the life of his own times in the
costumes of the day
• Key subject matter – Peasants & workers
Gustave Courbet (1819 – 1877)
A Burial at Ornans
1849-50
Oil on canvas
315 x 668 cm
Jean-Francois Millet (1814 – 1875)
• French painter inspired by the social
issues raised by the 1848 Revolution
• Set out to glorify the humble country
folk of France by endowing them with
heroic form adapted from the art of the
past
• Key subject matter: Peasants & workers
Francois Millet (1814 – 1875)
The Gleaners
1857
Oil on canvas
Honore Daumier (1808 – 1879)
• French caricaturist & painter
• Concerned with the effects of urban
industrial civilization
• Key subject matter: Political and social unrest
and the sufferings of the working class
• Style: Involved building up broad forms from
several washes and with strong black outlines in
an almost sculptural manner
Honore Daumier (1808 – 1879)
The Third-Class Carriage
1863-65
Oil on canvas
Reporting on the Realists
• In your groups, read the brief introduction
to the work , take a close look at the
painting and discuss.
• Then, individually imagine that you are a
journalist reporting on the artist’s work,
how will your article look like.
– Plan for the headlines to your article and a
short 2 paragraph report.
Gustave Courbet (1819 – 1877)
A Burial at Ornans
1849-50
Oil on canvas
Courbet depicts a funeral in a bleak, provincial landscape, attended by commoners
of no importance. The faces are faithful portraits of the poor, each with their own
expression. Dressed in rusty black, they cluster around the excavation, while the
clergymen reads the Office of the Dead. Here, Courbet monumentalizes a theme
that was of little significance instead of anything heroic or sublime. What Courbet
now finds interesting is in his own environment; it is people – not as superhuman or
subhuman actors on a grand stage, but as themselves, moved by the ordinary
rhythms of modern life.
Gustave Courbet (1819 – 1877)
Stonebreakers
1849-50
Oil on canvas
Gustave Courbet (1819 – 1877)
Stonebreakers
1849-50
Oil on canvas
Inspired by the ‘complete expression of human misery’ in an encounter with an
old road worker in tattered clothes and his young assistant, Courbet asked
them to pose for him in his studio. Painting the road workers life size on a
large canvas, Courbet showed them absorbed in their task, faceless and
anonymous, dulled by the relentless, numbingly repetitive task of breaking
stone to build a road. Here, Courbet set every detail of his lowborn workers’
wretched state before the viewer.
Gustave Courbet (1819 – 1877)
The Desperate Man
1844-5
oil on canvas
Courbet -- Style
• Depicted ordinary scenes from
contemporary life on an epic size
normally reserved for history painting
• Used the palette knife as painting tool to
apply rich, thick paint (impasto) onto the
canvas
Francois Millet (1814 – 1875)
The Gleaners
1857
Oil on canvas
Here, Millet posed three peasants as
monumental figures against the field and sky.
They are bent over and going about their
duties in a diligent manner. The quiet
atmosphere coupled with the attention to
detail contributed to the dignity Millet gave to
the simplest rural task. The figures are
invested with a solemn grandeur and the soft,
warm tones conjure a sense of
sentimentality.
Francois Millet (1814 – 1875)
The Sower
1850
Oil on canvas
Francois Millet (1814 – 1875)
The Sower
1850
Oil on canvas
Powerful and monumental, Millet’s
sower strides across a newly
plowed field with energy and
resolution, scattering the seed for a
new crop; he serves as an emblem
of regeneration and of the elemental
relationship between man and
nature. Crude in appearance, the
work provoked commentary not only
on its subject matter but also on its
style and technique.
A critic noted that Millet “trowels on
top of his dishcloth of a canvas,
without oil or turpentine, vast
masonries of coloured paint so dry
that no varnish could quench its
thirst”
Honore Daumier (1808 – 1879)
The Uprising
c. 1860
Oil on canvas
Honore Daumier (1808 – 1879)
The Third-Class Carriage
1863-65
Oil on canvas
This unfinished work gives us
a glimpse into the railway
compartment of the 1860s, in
which sit the poor, who can
afford only third-class tickets.
The commuters are presented
in an unposed manner, just as
how they appear to Daumier.
The faces of the commuters
appear tired, impersonal and
blank.
Review of Collage Portraits
Collage Portrait
• Using the documentation that you have
collected, arrange and create a collage portrait
of yourself that shares with us your identity,
personality, your fears and dreams.
• As you explore the many possibilities in layout,
document using photography the different
arrangements that you have tried before
deciding on the final composition.
Portraits using contours
• Pair up with a friend
• Take a close look at the face & features of
your friend. Using a continuous line,
attempt to represent your observations on
your piece of paper.
– Your only constraint is that you are not
allowed to look at your drawing whilst
drawing.
Wire Portraits
• Using your
contour portrait as
a guide, create a
wire portrait of
yourself, paying
attention to how
the lines can be
used to express
your personality
• If you choose to, you can
incorporate the use of
colourful yarn into your wire
portrait for more expressive
possibilities.