1. ART HISTORY 132 Realism

2. context: political –King Napoleon III nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte; tried to overthrow Louis Philippe (2x) –sentenced to life in prison; escaped in 1846 to England –returned to FR w/ onset of [February] Revolution of 1848 elected President of new Second Republic (1848); dismantled it (1852) ; replaced it w/ Second Empire context: political –Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto (1848) argument: history determined by material wealth & class struggle (proletariat vs. bourgeoisie/capitalists) context: cultural –Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867) significance: father of modern criticism subjects: commonplace, ordinary event no longer to simply reveal beauty & sublime; nor beholden to God “He shall be the true painter who can pull out of everyday life its epic side….”

3. Gustave Courbet (1819-1877) biography: rural upper-bourgeoisie training: self-educated –copied Spanish, Dutch & Venetian masters @ Louvre –Baroque lighting (e.g., Caravaggio, Rembrandt) politics: traditional Republican family –C  recently converted to Socialism –also held pacifist views mature work: –benefited from Second Republic’s liberalization of Salon –built his own break-away pavilion next to Exposition Universelle (1855) mixed reviews; dismissed as joke approached bankruptcy before closing subjects: “Show me an angel, and I’ll paint one” –to record customs & appearances of contemporary society –rejects historical painting of grand events –no exotic locales –numerous self-portraits, hunting scenes, landscapes, genre paintings

4. Courbet The Stonebreakers (1849) –narrative: Socialist ideology –setting: rural France –figures: anonymous elderly road mender young assistant depicted as faceless working animals –scale: monumental –composition: frieze-like –color: muted natural tonalities –light/shadow: modified tenebrism –perspective: aerial

5. Courbet’s The Stonebreakers (1849)

6. Courbet’s The Burial (c. 1850)

7. (Left) COURBET’s French Realist Courbet’s The Burial (c. 1850) vs. (right) Early Roman Empire “Spoils of Jerusalem” from the Arch of Titus (c. 75 CE)

8. Jean-François Millet (1814-75) The Sower (c. 1850) –theme: class distinction in aftermath of Revolution of 1848 –subject: laboring tasks of peasantry vs.urban middle class –narrative: NT (Mark 4: 1–9,13-20)Mark 4: 1–9,13-20 –figure: heroic/allegorical monumental scale dramatic foreshortening –portrayal of nature: atmospheric qualities golden glow of sunlight

9. Millet’s The Gleaners (c. 1850)

10. Rosa Bonheur (1822-1899) biography: oldest child in a family of artists –early adherent of Saint-Simonianism Christian-socialist sect promoted education of women alongside men prophesied coming of a female messiah training: French Academy –prohibited women from studying nude model –instead, factually depicted farm animals themes: rural scenes –virtue of toil & common life of agrarian life & peasantry –industrialization & mass migrations to cities created ready market for such images process: –zoological studies –detailed sketches in countryside & slaughterhouses

11. Bonheur’s Plowing (1849)

12. Realism: England Ford Madox Brown (1821-1893) –aim: revolution against official art of Royal Academy –style: naturalistic precise realism in smallest detail unidealized land- or cityscapes –figures: based on real model w/ real proportions –themes: invested w/ moral dignity –masterpiece: Work (c. 1850-65) subject: Irish immigrant community in post-Famine London theme: moral dilemmas associated w/ class disparity issues: emigration, labor, joblessness & crime figures: “heroic” laborers of modern life

13. Brown’s Work (c. 1850)

14. Realism: United States Thomas Eakins (1844-1916) –The Gross Clinic (1875)The Gross Clinic theme: empiricism & scientific progress –see Rembrandt’s Anatomy Lesson rejected by art jury taught anatomy & figure drawing –disapproved of drawing from plaster casts –used nude model –allowed female students to study male nude –used photographs in the classroom light/shadow: Baroque revival –chiaroscuro –tenebrism (modified)

15. EAKINS’ Realist The Gross Clinic (1875) vs. REMBRANDT’s Dutch Baroque The Anatomy Lesson (1632)

16. Realism: United States Tanner (1856-1925) –Banjo Lesson (c. 1890) training: Eakins’ student before moving to Paris subject: dignity of African- Americans figures: realistic composition: dynamic color: warm hues light/shadow: chiaroscuro brushwork: painterly

17. Realism: United States Winslow Homer (1836-1910) –biography: American –context: American Civil War  artist- reporter for Harper’s Weekly Reconstruction Era (c. 1870s) –themes: sunny, optimistic pictures »intense observation & sense of identification w/ landscape »nostalgia for a simpler, more innocent time »young women & children enjoying themselves outdoors –figures: less individual, more universal

18. Homer’s The Veteran in a New Field (1865)

19. Homer’s The Veteran in a New Field (1865) vs. O’Sullivan’s Harvest of Death (1863)

20. Homer’s Snap the Whip (c. 1875)

21. IMAGE INDEX Slide 2:Photograph of Karl Marx. Slide 5:COURBET. The Stone Breakers (c. 1850), Oil on canvas, 5’3” x 8’6” in., destroyed (1945). Slide 6:COURBET. Burial at Ornans (1849), Oil on canvas, approx. 10’ x 22’, Louvre, Paris. Slide 7:MILLET. The Sower (c. 1850), Oil on canvas, 40 x 32 ½ in., Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Slide 8:MILLET. The Gleaners (c. 1855), Oil on canvas, 2’9” x 3’8” in., Musee d'Orsay, Paris. Slide 10:BONHEUR. Plowing in the Nivernais: The Dressing of the Vines (1849), Oil on canvas, 5’9” x 8’8”, Musee d’Orsay, Paris. Slide 12:BROWN. Work (1852-65), Oil on canvas, City Art Gallery, Manchester, England.

22. IMAGE INDEX Slide 13:EAKINS. The Gross Clinic (1875), Oil on canvas, 8’ x 6’5”, Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia. Slide 14:(Left) EAKINS’ Realist The Gross Clinic (1875); and (right) REMBRANDT’s Dutch Baroque The Anatomy Lesson (1632). Slide 15:TANNER. The Banjo Lesson (1893), Oil on canvas, 49 x 35 ½ in., Hampton University Museum, Virginia. Slide 17: HOMER. The Veteran in a New Field (1865), Oil on canvas, 24 1/8 x 38 1/8 in., Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Slide 18:HOMER, Winslow. Snap the Whip (1872), Oil on canvas, 22 ¼ x 36 ½ in., The Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio.