Galleries in Motion 2015
MODERN LIFE: REALIST ART IN
NINETEENTH-CENTURY FRANCE
Presented by Joy M. Pepe
French poet and critic Charles Baudelaire issued the call for the
Painting of Modern Life in 1846. Soon thereafter, circulating
around the events of the 1848 Revolution on the streets of Paris,
painter Gustave Courbet began to depict the working, rural poor of
contemporary France in large scale paintings reminiscent of the
grandeur of past history works, while also eschewing the
imaginative and exotic subjects of the previous generation of
Romantic artists. Similarly, with his politically socialist
sympathies, Jean-Francois Millet’s work threatened the values and
tastes of the expanding middle class in Paris. Inspired by Courbet,
Édouard Manet and Edgar Degas responded with their own form of
realism with subjects of the urban leisure activities and
entertainments of contemporary Paris. The art-going general public
responded with outrage at what they saw as offensive and
scandalous images. This series of talks will explore the various
approaches to the art of modern life by Courbet, Millet, Manet, and
Degas.
TUESDAY, JANUARY 20, 2 PM, GUILFORD FREE LIBRARY
The Revolutionary: GUSTAVE COURBET (1819-1877)
At the forefront of the new “avant-garde” Realist movement,
Courbet was a committed revolutionary in both his art and politics.
His works are the very definition of Realism as he returned to his
rural roots on the Swiss border to depict the working poor and
simple village life.
TUESDAY, JANUARY 27, 2 PM, GUILFORD FREE LIBRARY
The Socialist: JEAN-FRANCOIS MILLET (1814-1875)
A political radical like Courbet, Millet’s roots were in farming in
the French countryside. He was sympathetic to the rural poor, and
painted their hard working lives on the land around the village of
Barbizon near the Forest of Fontainebleau where he lived.
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2 PM, SCRANTON LIBRARY,
MADISON
The Flâneur: ÉDOUARD MANET (1832-1883)
Sophisticated and urbane, Manet embraced the modern world of
the city of Paris and its constant change and renewal. Deeply
imbued in art history, Manet’s work nonetheless managed to cause
scandal and outcry from the art-going public when they were first
exhibited in the early 1860s, as deliberate attacks on bourgeois
taste both in their risqué content and deliberate unfinished
qualities.
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2 PM, SCRANTON LIBRARY,
MADISON
The Observer: EDGAR DEGAS (1834-1917)
Subjects of urban life also attracted Degas and his direct portrayal
of cafés, music halls, dancers, racetracks and brothels associate his
work closely with Realism. Degas used innovative compositional
and spatial devices, inspired by Japanese prints, and a technique
that retained a strong linear approach, whether in oil or pastel.
LIST OF IMAGES:
Courbet: The Stone Breakers, 1849. Oil on canvas; 5’3” x 8’6”.
Formerly Gemäldegalerie, Dresden; destroyed in World War II.
Millet: The Gleaners, 1857. Oil on canvas; 33 x 44”. Musée
d’Orsay, Paris
Manet: A Bar at the Folies-Bergère, 1881-82. Oil on canvas;
37 ¾ x 51 ¼”. The Samuel Courtauld Trust, The Courtauld
Gallery, London
Degas: Absinthe Drinkers, 1876. Oil on canvas; 36 x 29”. Musée
d’Orsay, Paris