The Realist Movement

Lecture on the French Realist Movement

1. Art 109: Renaissance to Modern Westchester Community College Prof. M. Hall Spring 2015 The Realist Movement

2. The Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution was the major social force of the 19th century Currier & Ives, The Progress of the Century , 1876 Image source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pingnews/2941008151/

3. Image source: http://dl.lib.brown.edu/paris/ Population shift from the country to the city

4. Jean- Auguste -Dominique Ingres, Louis -François Bertin , 1882 Louvre Jean- Auguste -Dominique Ingres, Mme . Moitessier , 1856 National Gallery, London Bourgeoisie replaces the aristocracy

5. Edmund Texier , cross section of a Parisian house about 1850 showing the economic status by various floors. (Edmund Texier , Tableau de Paris , Paris, 1852 Honor é Daumier, J’ai trois cents!” (I have three cents) From the series Parisian Emotions , 1863 Cleveland Art Museum Creation of a new class system

6. Honoré Daumier, The Uprising, 1860 Phillips Collection, Washington DC The Realist movement took the plight of the working classes as their subject matter

7. Horace Vernet , Barricades Rue Soufflot , c . 1848 Wikipedia But images of poor peasants and workers became frightening to the French middle classes after 1948

8. Horace Vernet , Barricades Rue Soufflot , c . 1848 Wikipedia But images of poor peasants and workers became frightening to the French middle classes after 1948

9. Realism Jean- Auguste -Dominique Ingres, Apotheosis of Homer , 1827 Eugene Delacroix, The Death of Sardanapalus , 1827 William- Adolphe Bouguereau , Birth of Venus , 1879 The Realists rejected the historical and mythological subjects of the Academy, as well as its idealizing style

10. Bertall (Charles Albert d'Arnoux ), The Two Schools Face to Face 
In Le Journal Amusant , no. 595 (May 25, 1867)
 The Getty Research Institute “The Realists argued that only the things of one’s own time – what people could see for themselves – were ‘real’.” Accordingly, the Realists . . . disapproved of historical and fictional subjects on the grounds that they were neither real and visible nor of the present.”

11. Etienne Carjat , ‘Portrait of Courbet’, 1861, Musée d'Orsay, Paris Show me an angel and I will paint one! William Adolphe Bouguereau , Cupid, 1875

12. Jean -François Millet, Self Portrait , Musée du Louvre Image source: http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/artists/jean-francois-millet Jean François Millet was a member of the Barbizon school, a group of artists that worked in the French countryside

13. Photograph of Daumier by Nadar Wikipedia Honor é Daumier made his living as an illustrator and political cartoonist for popular papers like Le Charivari and La Caricature

14. Honoré Daumier, The Legislative Belly , 1834 Lithograph, Metropolitan Museum His political cartoons lampooned politicians, lawyers, doctors, and the bourgeoisie

15. Honoré Daumier, Gargantua , published in La Caricature , 16 December, 1831 This caricature of King Louis Philippe as Gargantua earned him 6 months in prison, and was censored by the government

16. Honor é Daumier, Laundress, c . 1863 Museé d'Orsay Daumier’s paintings focused on the plight of the urban poor

17. Adolphe -William Bouguereau , Breton Brother and Sister, 1871 Metropolitan Museum Is this painting “realist”?

18. What is Realism? Realist paintings do not idealize – instead, they confront us with harsh social realities Adolphe -William Bouguereau , Breton Brother and Sister, 1871 Metropolitan Museum

19. Portrait of Gustave Courbet by Nadar Wikimedia André Gill (André Gosset de Guine)
In La Lune, no. 66 (June 9, 1867) Getty Research Institute Gustave Courbet: leading figure of the Realist movement

20. Portrait of Gustave Courbet by Nadar Wikimedia André Gill (André Gosset de Guine)
In La Lune, no. 66 (June 9, 1867) Getty Research Institute Regarded as “uncouth” by his Parisian audiences

21. Gustave Courbet, The Stonebreakers, 1849 (destroyed 1945) 5’ 3” X 8’ 6”

22. Gustave Courbet, The Stonebreakers, 1849 (destroyed 1945) 5’ 3” X 8’ 6” The subject matter and style was considered vulgar – unworthy of “fine art”

23. Jean- Auguste -Dominique Ingres, Mme . Moitessier , 1856 National Gallery, London Poor people are not appropriate subject matter for “Fine Art”

24. The Industrial Revolution Jean- Auguste -Dominique Ingres, Louis -François Bertin , 1882 Louvre How dare you portray common laborers on the heroic scale of history painting!

25. François Auguste Biard , Four Hours at the Salon, 1847 Louvre Adolphe -William Bouguereau , Breton Brother and Sister, 1871 Metropolitan Museum Parisian audiences preferred to see poor people looking clean and content -- and painted on a smaller scale

26. Gustave Courbet, Burial at Orans , 1849 Museé d’Orsay

27. Jacques Louis David, Coronation of Napoleon and Josephine, 1806-7

28. Gustave Courbet, Burial at Orans , 1849 Museé d’Orsay

29. Jacques Louis David, Death of Marat (63” X 49”), 1793. Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique , Brussels

30. Benjamin West, The Death of General Wolfe (5’ X 7’), c . 1770. National Gallery of Canada

31. Gustave Courbet, Young Women of the Village, 1852

32. Gustave Courbet In 1855 the Salon jury rejected two of Courbet’s works from that year’s exhibitions on the grounds that they were too large and too coarse François Joseph Heim, Charles X Distributing Awards to Artists Exhibiting at the Salon of 1824, 1827 Museé de Louvre Wikimedia

33. Gustave Courbet The artist withdrew all of his paintings and set up his own “Pavilion of Realism” on the grounds of the of the Exposition Universelle (a kind of “World’s Fair”)

34. Modernizing the Academic Nude Ever since the rediscovery of Classical art, the nude represented the pinnacle of classical art Honore Daumier, “- Still more Venuses this year... always Venuses!... as if there were any women built like that!,” plate 2 from Croquis Pris Au Salon par Daumier, 1864 Art Institute of Chicago

35. Modernizing the Academic Nude The academic nude was not realistic Artists were trained to idealize the body by studying classical sculptures and old master paintings Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, The Source (The Spring), 1820 Museé d'Orsay

36. Modernizing the Academic Nude Gustave Courbet, The Bathers , 1853 Metropolitan Museum

37. “ The painter Eugène Delacroix, a member of the Salon jury, deplored "the vulgarity of the forms," which did not conform to the idealized nudes of Academic art. Critics expressed their disgust at the dirty feet of the models as well as the fallen stocking of the seated model, seen as emblematic of physical as well as moral squalor. When Napoleon III saw the painting at the Salon, he allegedly feigned whipping the buttocks of the standing nude with his riding crop.” Metropolitan Museum

38. Edouard Manet Edouard Manet was the successor to Courbet He played a key role in the development of Impressionism Felix Nadar , Portrait of Edouard Manet , c . 1867 Wikimedia

39. Edouard Manet On a trip to Spain he discovered the work of Velasquez and Goya Diego Velasquez, Water Carrier of Seville , 1619 Velasquez, The Dwarf Sebastian de Morra , 1645 Prado Web Gallery of Art

40. Edouard Manet Their dark lighting and realist style influenced his early work Eduard Manet , The Spanish Singer, 1860 Metropolitan Museum

41. The Salon des Refuses In 1863 the Salon des Refuses was held in Paris It was an exhibition of all the works that had been rejected from the official Salon It made Manet famous François Joseph Heim, Charles X Distributing Awards to Artists Exhibiting at the Salon of 1824, 1827 Museé de Louvre Wikimedia

42. The Salon des Refuses The work he submitted was a picnic scene It was was an update of Giorgione’s Pastoral Symphony which Manet had admired in the Louvre Edouard Manet , Luncheon on the Grass , 1863 Museé d'Orsay

43. Alexandre Cabanel , Birth of Venus, 1863 Museé d'Orsay “ The Birth of Venus was one of the great successes of the 1863 Salon, where it was bought by Napoleon III” Museé d'Orsay

44. Edouard Manet , Luncheon on the Grass , 1863 Museé d’Orsay Image source: http://www.roberthouse.com/other/france/images/paris/manet.jpg Manet’s picture was not “mythical” – it portrayed men in contemporary dress with a naked woman in a Parisian park !

45. http://shepelavy.com/blog/?tag=bill-blass

46. Cynthia Vesser , The Picnic in Central Park, 2008 Image source: http://images.crackberry.com/files/kevin/stormquilthomecoming.jpg “ The area of the Park that we were in was not covered by permits, and because of the partial nudity we had to pack up the shoot and go before we were able to finalize the scene. We did manage to convince the park police for one shot before leaving . . . . Every time I see the picture, I can still visualize the two park police, standing just out of the frame of the photo on the left – and especially their surprise when the girls started disrobing for the shot” http://www.populationstatistic.com/archives/2008/12/20/remaking-manet-for-the-crackberry-crowd/

47. The Rock band Bow Wow Wow’s take on Manet’s painting Wikipedia Bow Wow Wow’s Wild in the Country Album cover http://bowwowwow.org/Photo%20Gallery/AlbumL/imagepages/image5.html

48. Olympia Manet created an even bigger scandal with his Olympia, exhibited at the Salon of 1865 This time the source was Titian’s Venus of Urbino Honore Daumier, Looking at the Painting of Manet . “- Why the devil is this fat, red-faced woman in her nightdress called Olympia? - But my dear, perhaps that's the name of the black cat," plate 9 from Croquis Paris Au Salon par Daumier, 1865 Art Institute of Chicago

49. “Venus has become a prostitute, challenging the viewer with her calculating look. This profanation of the idealized nude, the very foundation of academic tradition, provoked a violent reaction.” Museé d'Orsay

50. Audiences found the style of the picture as shocking as the subject matter Edouard Manet , Olympia, at the Museé d’Orsay Image source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/16312689@N03/1809388327/ Francois Courboin , Picture Exhibition at the Salon; Looking at Manet's 'Olympia’ 1865

51. Alexandre Cabanel , Birth of Venus, 1863 Museé d'Orsay

52. “a courtesan with dirty hands and wrinkled feet . . . Her body has the livid tint of a cadaver . . . Her outlines are drawn in charcoal and her greenish, bloodshot eyes appear to be provoking the public . . . .”

53. The crude style and subject made Manet’s picture seem more like pornography than “fine art” Edouard Manet , Olympia, 1863 Museé d'Orsay