Realism What is Realism?

List five adjectives describing this picture List five adjectives describing this picture. List three questions that you have about it.

Gustave Courbet 1819-1877 French painter “I am fifty years old and I have always lived in freedom; let me end my life free; when I am dead let this be said of me: 'He belonged to no school, to no church, to no institution, to no academy, least of all to any régime except the régime of liberty.’ ” Based on the quote, what can we determine about the artist’s life and attitude? Gustave Courbet 1819-1877 French painter

Courbet continued Believed that the only possible source for a living art is the artist's own experience Realism for Courbet dealt not with the perfection of line and form, but focused on spontaneous and rough handling of paint, suggesting direct observation by the artist while portraying the irregularities in nature. He depicted the harshness in life, and in so doing challenged contemporary academic ideas of art.

Un enterrement à Ornans ~Courbet

Why is this painting significant? *Recorded his grand uncle’s funeral *People who attended the funeral were the models for the painting *Result is a realistic presentation of them, and of life in Ornans. *The vast painting, which measures 10 x 22 ft, drew both praise and criticism. WHY? *It upset convention by depicting a prosaic ritual on a scale which previously would have been reserved for a religious or royal subject. *Courbet understood the importance of the painting. He said, "The Burial at Ornans was in reality the burial of Romanticism.”