REALISM
-1st 1/2 of 19th century= Neoclassicism vs. Romanticism
-NeoC= Antiquity for inspiration
-Romantic= The power of passion
-2nd 1/2 of c= Academies still rule
-HOWEVER, more artists challenged/rejected=
REALISM
-"Real" art= not new, since Renaissance
-e.g., van Eycks, Vermeer, Velazquez, etc.
-Realism= imitation of REAL world, modern world, visible world
-Industrial Revolution effects, machine age
-not escapism, the ordinary, not ideal world
-increasing emphasis on science, advances in technology
-interest in democracy
-influence of socialism= power to change humanity
-ordinary subjects
-commonplace, common people, pragmatic, working class
-unadorned, humble, unexceptional
-not based on past, based on life experiences, contemporary
-rejected historical, biblical, idealization
-rejected artificiality of Classicism/Romanticism
-rural landscapes, e.g. Corot, Rosa Bonheur
-no longer preoccupied with Salons, Academies
Other contextual factors
-scientific, Darwin, social Darwinism, imperialism
-class conflict, Marxism
-imperialism, French, British, Dutch, Germans, Portuguese, Spanish, Italians
-modernism= capturing images and sensibilities of the current age
- READ Clement Greenberg quote on p 855 of Gardner text
-Challenged prevailing art scene
-art was used to expose social injustice
SEE: Courbet, The Stone Breakers; Daumier, The Third Class Carriage
-rejected current taste/conventions
-especially evident in painting
-does not produce new styles in architecture/sculpture
-Realists redefined "reality"The art of painting can consist only in the representation of objects visible and tangible
to the painter --Courbet
I have never seen angels. Show me an angel and I will paint one -Courbet
-Focus attention on one's own time, not historical subjects
-Artists' aims shifted away from illusionism
-called attention to painting as pictorial construction
-this was deemed to be a "crude" approach by some
-Courbet set up his own exhibition, the Pavilion of Realism, when his works were rejected, 1855
-He founded the realism school of painting
-Barbizon School (of painters)= group of young painters dedicated to Romantic landscape
painting near village of Barbizon, Fr. Led by Thodore Rousseau --SEE: A Meadow Bordered
by Trees, c. 1845
-English landscape painting led by John Constable. SEE: The Haywain, 1821
-Hudson River School (of painters)= American landscape painters in upper NY--infused God
into nature -- Led by Thomas Cole. SEE: View of Schroon Mountain