Realism
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REALISM
“SHOW ME AN ANGEL AND I WILL PAINT ONE”
I.
Introduction
A. The times are changing again!
B. Five Revolutions
i. Scientific: Faraday, Ohm, Avogadro, Darwin
ii. Industrial/: Telegraph, Telephone, Plastic, Elevator,
Vulcanized Rubber, sewing machine, washing machine, Steam
Locomotive, Suez Canal
iii. Technological: Bicycle, Pasteurization, Antiseptics, Anesthesia,
Photography,
iv. Social: End of Slavery, Revolutions of 1830 and 1848,
American Civil War, Rise of Nationalism, Communist
Manifesto, Manifest Destiny
v. Artistic: See Below
C. Artistic Revolution
i. Out with the Old!
1. The Neoclassicists tried to recall the glory of Rome.
Who cares? Ancient history was just that—Ancient. It
had no relevance
2. The Romanticists were concerned with nature and with
imagining great things. That’s nice, but imagination is
for dreamers
ii. New Subjects
1. gods, goddesses, heroes of antiquity, angels are out. As
Courbet said, “Show me an angel and I will paint you
one”
2. Realist artists focus upon the facts of the modern world
as they personally experienced them
3. Peasants, working class, struggles of life, satires of the
bourgeoisie are all in
iii. New Artistic Heroes
1. Pieter Bruegel (1528-1569)
2. He was a Northern Renaissance artist who was among
the first in Western Art to depict peasants.
iv. Louis Le Nain Brothers (1593-1648)
1. depict the hardship of peasant life
2. Gardeners page 694
3. Sample Question:
The paintings of Louis Le Nain are most similar to
A.
Angelica Kauffman
B. David
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C. Delacroix
D. Bruegel
v. Jean Baptist Chardin (1699-1779)
1. Rococo period
2. dismissed the frivolities of Rococo and instead depicted
quiet middle class scenes praising simple goodness
3. Gardeners page 760
II.
Gustave Courbet (1819-1877)
A. Brief biography
i. Son of a well to do farmer, born in Ornans
ii. Proud of his Assyrian beard
iii. Moved to Paris at 20, struggled for years as an artist
iv. His break came after the 1848 Revolution, he was the leader of
the Realist school
B. Realist Manifesto: “To create a living art”
i. Realism was committed to contemporary social issues
ii. Focused on people and subjects that the artists could see for
themselves
iii. “to be able to translate the customs, ideas, and appearances of
my time as I see them—in a word, to create a living art—this
has been my aim…Show me an angel and I’ll paint one.”
C. Key works
i. The Stone Breakers (Gardener 856)
1. nothing outwardly offensive
2. the painting depicts a youth assisting an older man in
breaking stones
3. the painting shocked and angered critics and the
French public alike
4. Why? Courbet broke the rules
a. No idealized figures
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b. Commonplace figures seem trite and even vulgar
c. Courbet focuses on the drudgery of the labor
5. Nonetheless a timely piece. In 1848, workers rebelled
against the bourgeoisie leaders for better working
conditions. VERY TIMELY
ii. A Burial at Ornans (Gardner 892) 10’ by 20’
1. nearly 60 lifesize figures
2. depicts the townspeople of Ornans, gathered for the
funeral of Courbet’s grandfather, Oudot.
3. Male and female mourners are separated in Catholic
fashion
4. Critics hated the painting:
a. Focus on common people
b. Too large, should have been reserved for
historical events
c. Participants were lined up and not in pyramidal
composition to give a better understanding of
importance
iii. The Painter’s Studio: A Real Allegory Summing up Seven
Year’s of my Artistic and Moral Life, 1855
1. its big- 11’10” by 19’ 7”
2. was Courbet’s centerpiece of the Pavilion of Reason
3. It is complex, however we know a great deal from
Courbet’s writing
a. Left: “the people” they are drawn largely from
his home environment of Ornans & include
hunters, peasant workers, a priest, a young
mother, and her baby.
b. Right: portraits of friends, members of
Courbet’s own artistic and literary group, an art
collector and his fashionable wife, and a pair of
lovers. Many are recognizable.
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i. Courbet’s patron- JL Alfred Bruyas
ii. Charles Baudelaire- seated on far right
reading a book
iii. Young boy on floor sketching- Courbet as
a boy
c. Central: Courbet’s conception of himself as an
artist and his place in the history of western art.
i. Note the similarities and differences with
Las Meninas and Family of Charles IV.
Courbet places himself as the centerpiece
ii.
Courbet is enthroned before his canvas
iii. note the life size wooden doll behind the
canvas. Conventional artists would spend
hours copying the doll. It symbolizes
conventional art, which Courbet is
rejecting
iv. A nude woman inspires the painter/king.
She is behind him, and he is NOT
painting her portrait. He turns his back
on her, thus rejecting the academic
tradition in the form of the classical nude.
v. A small boy stands at Courbet’s knee and
stares at his work. Perhaps personifying
the untrained, child-like admiration that
Courbet hoped to arouse in the public.
vi. Courbet is painting a realistic landscape.
4. Eleven of Courbet’s paintings were accepted by the
1855 Paris World’s Fair but The Studio was rejected by
the jury. Courbet then rented an exhibition space
nearby, where he hung 40 of his paintings, the first one
man show in art history (a forerunner of the Salon des
Refusés). However, the public ignored the show, and
the critics derided it. Delacroix supported the work
Influenced Manet’s work.
III.
Jean Francois Millet (1814-1878)
A. Brief facts
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i. Son of a farm laborer
ii. Member of the BARBIZON SCHOOL. A group of artists who
worked in Barbizon, a small village outside of Paris.
B. Key Paintings
i. The Gleaners —depicts 3 peasant women performing the back
breaking task of gleaning the last scraps of wheat. The
impoverished women were permitted to pick up the
remainders left in the field after the harvest.
IV.
Rosa Bonheur (1822-1899)
A. Brief facts
i. Daughter of an artist
ii. Specialized in painting animals
iii. Most successful female artist of her time. She was named the
first woman artist of the Legion of Honor.
B. The Horse Fair (MET) Gardner 898
i. She attended the Paris horse fair dressed as a man to avoid
attention.
ii. She observed the fair twice a week for a year
iii. The painting was a huge success in both Europe and America
V.
Honore Daumier (1808-1879)
A. Brief facts
i. Bold political satirist. Cartoons and prints appeared in “ La
Caricature”
ii. Also a skilled artist
B. Key works
i. Louis Phillipe as Gargantua- a never satisfied king exploits his
subjects and grows fat at their expense. He was sentenced t 6
months in jail for inciting contempt and hatred for the French
government
ii. Rue Transnonain 1834…
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1. April 5, 1834 workers rioted in Paris to demonstrate
against harsh working conditions.
2. on April 14-15 a sniper in Paris killed an officer
3. In retaliation, a number of people in the sniper’s
building were killed, including the father and son in
Daumier’s lithograph.
4. This is not a caricature… it is a blood stained page in
the history of our days, traced by a vigorous hand and
inspired by noble indignation… he has created a picture
which will never lose its worth or duration, even if it
consists of only black lines on a sheet of paper. --Charles Philipon
iii. First Class Carriage
iv. Third Class Carriage (MET)
1. A glimpse into the cramped and grimy railway carriage
of the 1860’s
2. 3rd class passengers were crammed together on hard
benches that filled the carriage
VI.
Edouard Manet (1832-1883)
A. Introduction
i. Came from a bourgeoise family. Father was a high ranking
official in the Ministry of Justice and his mother came from a
long line of diplomats
ii. He was the prodigal son. Although the family wanted him to
study law, he failed the entrance exam
iii. He was sent to sea as a cadet. Life at sea did not agree with
him and he could not tie typical nautical knots.
iv. He announces plans to be an artist, despite the families
objections
v. Not since Giotto in the 14th century had an artist so truly
deserved the epithet revolutionary.
B. Luncheon on the Grass (7’ by 8’ 10”)
i.
What are we looking at? Figures and composition
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1. figures
a. the foreground figures are all portraits of
contemporary people. The seated nude is
Victorine Meurend, Manet’s favorite model at
the time. The gentlemen are his brother Eugene
(cane) and the sculptor Ferdiand Leehof.
Victorine looks directly at the viewer without
shame. A second woman is bathing in the
background.
2. Composition
a. The composition is based upon painting by
Giorgione.
ii. The Salon
1. held every 2 years in Paris
2. Out of 5000 works submitted in 1863, 2800 were
rejected by the jury.
3. This was an artists only contact with critics
4. One young painter learning that his painting was
rejected, committed suicide.
5. Luncheon on the Grass was REJECTED. BUT WAIT,
THE STORY DOES NOT END HERE, THERE IS
MORE
iii. The Salon des Refuses – 1863
1. Napoleon III, responding to criticisms, decided to allow
those rejected to show at a different exhibition
2. The Salon des Refuses, as the counter salon came to be
called marks a watershed date in history of modern
painting: henceforth the body artistic split into the
“academics” and the independents.
3. In 1863 the Ecole’s (school) undisputed authority ended
and the AVANT-GARDE was born. AVANT-GARDE
refers to art that was innovative and experimental
iv. Reactions to Luncheon on the Grass
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1. Indecent! Shocking! Shows ordinary men and
promiscuous women in a Paris park.
2. The way it was painted was new: Loosely painted
background with sharp foreground figures. Strong
contrasts created with only a few gradations of value
which flattens the forms and makes them pop out of the
painting.
3. Manet said the principle actor in the painting is light.
C. More Scandal
i. Olympia, 1863
1. What is painted
a. Young, white prostitute.
b. Completely nude except for mules, neck ribbon,
bracelet and orchid in her hair: Makes her seem
even MORE naked.
c. Looks viewer indifferently in the eye. Hand
over crotch: Closed for business?
d. A black maid offers her a gift from a client to
which she seems completely indifferent.
e. Black and white together was even more
depraved: reference to racial divisions
2. How it is painted
a. A critic: a courtesan with dirty hands and
wrinkled feet …her body has the livid tint of a
cadaver…her outline is drawn in charcoal and
her greenish, bloodshot eyes appear to be
provoking the public, protected all the while by a
hideous Negress.
b. Negative response was not just to the subject but
how it was painted as well. Manet’s brush
strokes are rougher and the shifts in tonality are
more abrupt than traditional academic painting.
c. See Bouguereau, Nymphs and Satyr, for
comparison.
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VII.
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Germany and the U.S.
A. WILLIAM LEIBL, Three Women in a Village Church, 1878-1882. Oil
on canvas, 2’ 5” x 2’ 1”. Kunsthalle, Hamburg.
i. Expression of compassionate view of subjects. A character
study without sentimentality.
ii. Three generations of women with virtues of simplicity, honesty,
and patience.
iii. Captures details like rough hands.
B. WINSLOW HOMER, Veteran in a New Field, 1865. Oil on canvas, 2’
1/8” x 3’ 2 1/8”. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (bequest of
Miss Adelaide Milton de Groot, 1967).
i. About the transition from a nation at civil war to a nation at
peace (link to Washington/Cincinnatus).
ii. U.S. smooth transition from war to peace a testament to
greatness of nation.
C. THOMAS EAKINS, The Gross Clinic, 1875. Oil on canvas, 8’ x 6’ 6”.
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia.
i. Showed realities of human experience with need for accurate
depiction of truth. Knowledge is a prerequisite for art.
Corresponds to late 19th century faith in empiricism:
knowledge through the senses and experience.
1. Used photography and other technology (see
Muybridge, later) to study anatomy and motion.
ii. Public’s increasing faith in progress with science and medicine.
iii. Mother covering her face in
iv. Compare to Rembrandt’s Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Tulp
1. Technology: Anesthesia (live subject not a cadaver)
2. Everyone is “in” the scene. All involved in the action.
D. JOHN SINGER SARGENT, The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit,
1882. Oil on canvas, 7’ 3 3/8” x 7’ 3 5/8”. Museum of Fine Arts,
Boston (gift of Mary Louisa Boit, Florence D. Boit, Jane Hubbard
Boit, and Julia Overing Boit, in memory of their father, Edward
Darley Boit).
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i. American ex-patriot contemporary of Eakins settled in London
ii. Looser brush work than Eakins.
iii. Studied paint application of Velazquez (thin layers).
iv. He knew subjects of painting and they are at ease posing for
him. Gets individual personalities and sense of the different
ages of the girls.
v. Realist belief: record modern people in modern times.
E. HENRY OSSAWA TANNER, The Thankful Poor, 1894. Oil on
canvas, 2’ 11 1/2” x 3’ 8 1/4”. Collection of William H. and Camille
Cosby.
i. Studied with Eakins and then moved to Paris where he
painted scenes of life of ordinary people he was raised with in
Pennsylvania.
ii. Quiet dignity like Millet. Lighting expresses reverent spirit.
F. EDMONIA LEWIS, Forever Free, 1867. Marble, 3’ 5 1/4” high.
James A. Porter Gallery of Afro-American Art, Howard University,
Washington, D.C.
i. Neoclassical in style but depicted contemporary scenes.
ii. Women had more access to art training in 19th C.
VIII. Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood

England. Realism did not appeal to PRB.

Wanted to represent fictional, historical, and fanciful subjects with
convincing illusion.

Organized in 1848 around desire to create art free from the artificial
manner propagated by academies formed by successors of Raphael.

Distaste for ugliness of contemporary industrialized world.

Wanted to express idealism and spirituality of Middle Ages and Early
Renaissance.
A. JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS, Ophelia, 1852. Oil on canvas, 2’ 6” x 3’
8”. Tate Gallery, London
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i. “The poet of meticulous detail.” Unswerving attention to
visual fact.
B. DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI, Beata Beatrix, ca. 1863. Oil on
canvas, 2’ 10” x 2’ 2”. Tate Gallery, London.
i. Produced portraits of women with ethereal beauty and sensual
allure.
ii. Portrait of his wife who had recently died of an overdose of
opium – note red dove (symbol of love and death) depositing a
poppy (symbol of sleep and death) in her hands.
IX.
Architecture

Nations used past as evidence of their greatness.

Chateaubriand, Genius of Christianity, (see fig. 30 – 6, Burial of Atala):
Defended religion because of its beauty and mystery not truth.
o Gothic cathedrals were like Gallic sacred groves and are
manifestations of France’s holy history.
o New respect for Gothic style.
A. CHARLES BARRY and A. W. N. PUGIN, Houses of Parliament,
London, England, designed 1835.
a. England also celebrated its medieval heritage with Neo-Gothic
movement.
b. Pugin believed in the moral purity and spiritual authenticity of
religious architecture of Middle Ages.
c. He also thought that inferior machine-made works (products
of the Industrial Revolution) were replacing hand-made items
that had honesty and quality.
d. He described design for Parliament as “All Grecian…Tudor
[late English Gothic] details on a classical body.”
B. JOHN NASH, Royal Pavilion, Brighton, England, 1815–1818.
a. “Indian Gothic”: fantasy exterior mixing Islamic domes,
minarets, and screens.
b. Cast-iron skeleton: Early but hidden use of iron in noncommercial building.
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c. Prototype of playful architectural exaggerations still found in
resorts.
C. CHARLES GARNIER, the Opera, Paris, France, 1861-1874
a. Neo-Baroque front and wings like a Baroque central-domed
church.
b. Baroque layout and ornaments characteristic of Beaux-Arts
style that flourished in 19 – 20 C. France
i. Based on ideas taught at Ecole des Beaux-Arts
1. Classic principles:
a. symmetric design
b. interior space extending radially from
central axis
c. extensive exterior ornamentation.
D. HENRI LABROUSTE, reading room of the Bibliotheque SainteGenevieve, Paris, France, 1843-1850.
a. Cast –Iron Construction: Tensile strength of iron permitted
creation of huge interior spaces: railroad stations, exposition
halls.
b. Labrouste highlighted new material giving new forms yet was
reluctant to give up traditional forms. Tradition of putting
classical drapery of steel and concrete forms lasted for years.
E. JOSEPH PAXTON, Crystal Palace, London, England, 1850-1851;
enlarged and relocated at Sydenham, England, 1852-1854. Detail of a
color lithograph by ACHILLE-LOUIS MARTINET, ca. 1862. Private
collection.
a. Undraped construction popular with greenhouses. Used this
method to create gigantic exposition hall for “works of
industry.”
b. Design still based on basilica, central flat roof “nave” and
barrel-vaulted “transept.”
X.
Photography

Invented in 1839 by Daguerre and Talbot
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
Sped tendency of art patronage to masses and away from elite few.
A. LOUIS-JACQUES-MANDÉ DAGUERRE, Still Life in Studio, 1837. 6
1/4” x 8 1/4”. Daguerreotype. Collection Société Française de
Photographie, Paris.
a. French government released technology for free to everyone.
b. Still Life in Studio modeled on Dutch vanitas still-lifes
B. JOSIAH JOHNSON HAWES and ALBERT SANDS
SOUTHWORTH, Early Operation under Ether, Massachusetts
General Hospital, ca. 1847. Daguerreotype. Massachusetts General
Hospital Archives and Special Collections, Boston.
a. Predates Gross Clinic by 30 years.
b. Taken from position of a medical student.
c. High vantage point flattens space and intrigued Impressionists
(later).
C. HONORÉ DAUMIER, Nadar Raising Photography to the Height of
Art, 1862. Lithograph, 10 3/4” x 8 3/4”. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
a. Nadar used improved technology (wet-plate = calotype) which
allowed him greater detail and value (light/dark) contrast.
b. Nadar took first aerial photo of Paris from a balloon.
D. NADAR, Eugène Delacroix, ca. 1855. Modern print, 8 1/2”x 6 2/3”
from original negative in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris.
E. JULIA MARGARET CAMERON, Ophelia, Study no. 2, 1867.
Albumen print, 1' 1" x 10 2/3". George Eastman House, Rochester
(gift of Eastman Kodak Company; formerly Gabriel Cromer
Collection)
a. “Art” photographs intentionally soft focus to portray sitters as
fictional characters. Similar intent to Pre-Raphaelites.
F. TIMOTHY O’SULLIVAN, A Harvest of Death, Gettysburg,
Pennsylvania, July 1863. Negative by Timothy O’Sullivan. Original
print by ALEXANDER GARDNER, 6 3/4" x 8 3/4". New York Public
Library (Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations, Rare Books and
Manuscript Division), New York.
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a. Documentary photos: U.S. Civil War. Unsparing, truthful
detail of war. Vividly shows high price of war in a way an
engraving or drawing cannot.
G. EADWEARD MUYBRIDGE, Horse Galloping, 1878. Collotype print,
9” x 12”. George Eastman House, Rochester, New York.
a. Created technology to settle a bet whether a galloping horses
hooves all left the ground at a point in the stride.
b. Muybridge settled bet but continued to use technology to study
motion. Compiled in Animal Locomotion.
c. Created a zoopraxiscope to project images sequentially.
Forerunner of motion pictures.
i. Persistence of vision.
X.
BRIEF REVIEW- SAMPE ETS QUESTIONS
1. Hudson River School artists were famous for their
a. Still lifes
b. Landscapes
c. Portraits
d. Genre scenes
2. Francisco Goya is known for all the following EXCEPT
a. Graphic series based on war
b. Depictions of nightmarish figures
c. Royal portraits
d. Pure landscapes
3. Most of Honore Daumier’s graphic works were
intended for
a. Aristocratic collections
b. Religious tracts
c. Print dealers
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d. Popular press
4. The work of Delacroix exemplifies
a. Expressionism
b. Impressionism
c. Romanticism
d. Realism
5. In his painting, the French 18th century artist Chardin
frequently represented
a. Ideal landscapes
b. Middle-class domestic life
c. Historical and literary themes
d. The life of the aristocracy and monarchy
6. the concept of a divinely sanctioned Manifest Destiny
was reinforced by the majestic landscapes of
a. West and Copely
b. Cole and Church
c. Sargent and Eakins
d. Bonheur and Manet
7. All of the following are associated with 19th century
Realism except
a. Courbet
b. Friedrich
c. Millet
d. Daumier
8. Rosa Bonheur is most celebrated for painting which of
the following?
a. Historical scenes
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b. Animals
c. Neoclassical subjects
d. Still lifes
9. The statement “I cannot paint an angel because I have
never seen one” was made by which of the following
artists?
a. David
b. Ingres
c. Delacroix
d. Courbet
10. French romantic sculptor who specialized in portraying
animals
a. Rude
b. Canova
c. Houdon
d. Barye
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