Realism

Realism is an art movement, lasted around forty years from 1840-1880. The artists tried to depict from the real world. Realism originated in France. They painted everyday subjects and people.They did not try to interpret they add emotional meaning to the scene. Realism portrayed real people carrying out unglamorous, everyday activities.

Gustave Courbet

Gustave Courbet was born in June 10th 1819 in Ornans, France. He was the leader of French Realism and he gave name to this movement when he opened his one-man show in Paris. He chooses a large scale subjects such as life,death,destiny, the ocean, the forest and often produced physically large paintings. Brilliant, technique with thick, physical paint. Courbet use to carry on his back a folding easel  that contained everything he needs to use paint,canvas, palette, oil, turpentine and rags to paint outside nature. All the activities, people and place he painted and valued down to earth, provincial life more than highly  fashionable Parisian glamour. His work was a range most brilliantly inspired and executed .

Gustave Courbet - Self portrait

The Meeting

This painting started in 1854. On the right hand side he painted himself a self portrait, the man in the green jacket beside the dog was well dressed indeed. but the man wearing a brown suit his name is Calas and serves the man besides him.The man in the centre is rich and flacked by both of his servants Calas and his dog.

Courbet head is looking to the angle of the servant. The gentleman in green is the son of a banker and an industrialist his name was Alfred Bruyas who is Courbet's patrons and himself is a painter. Bruyas removed his right glove to shake Courbet hand but Courbet did not returned the gesture.

A Burial at Ornans

     

The stone breakers

These paintings show the misery of peasant life A Burial at Ornans depicts his great uncle's country funeral. 

 The second painting depicts two dirt-poor labourers busy at grindingly hard work.

His inspiration came from group portraits of Dutch Civic guards in the17th century while the sumptuous blacks recall Spanish art. The colours in the dark greens and dull grey produces an austere tone, robust technique gives the people and the natural elements and weight.

The stone breakers painting are shown two men, On the right side there is an old man and on the left is a younger man. Courbet expresses  the feelings of hardship.

He painted the merciless soil and harsh working conditions of the stone breakers. Courbet use colours palette of greys, whites and browns effectively conveys the dreary, monotonous and mechanical nature of their work.   

 

Jean Francois Millet

Jean francois Millet was born October 4th ,1814. He is a French painter in the late 19th century. His paintings depicted scenes of peasants and rural life. He was a founder of the Barbizon school.

Jean Francois Millet

 The Gleaners by Jean-Francois millet

This is an oil painting by Millet.  It was first exhibited in 1857. In this painting shows three women picking wheat from a field after a harvest.  The three women are in a  stark and barren foreground, there faces are hidden under the shadow of red,blue and yellow bonnets. The three are depicted as folded from the waist as if carrying a heavy and crushing load. one of the ladies rest her arms across her back, to keep her balance or to support exhausted muscles.

The sun is shining but not on the Gleaners. Behind the in the background are hired workers, people fortunate enough to have jobs, and healthy enough to work these jobs. They are bathed in sunlight there clothes are pure white. The darker tones are in the foreground while the brighter colours are in the background. This gives a feeling or mood of lack of harmony in the painting. 

Website

no author. 2015. khan academy. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/becoming-modern/avant-garde-france/realism/a/courbet-the-sto

nebreakers.

[Accessed 24 February 15].

no author. 2015. Khan Academy. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/becoming-modern/avant-garde-france/realism/a/courbet-bonjour-monsieur-courbet.[Accessed 24 February 15].

El Conquistador. 2010. Les Glaneuses, a painting by Jean-François Millet. [ONLINE] Available at:http://elconquistador.org/?page_id=6692. [Accessed 27 February 15].

Books

Cumming,R (2005). Art. London: Dorling Kindersley. 

Farthing,S (2008). Great Artist. 2nd ed. united states : Tristan de lancey. 

Janes, K. I. a. Z., 2011. Great Paintings. London