Realism was an artistic movement that developed in France in the mid to late 19th century. It aimed to portray everyday subjects and scenes of ordinary people in a realistic way, focusing on their actual conditions rather than idealizing them. Gustave Courbet was a leading French painter of the Realist movement. Some of his most famous works included The Stone Breakers, A Burial at Ornans, and The Painter's Studio, which depicted scenes of peasants and working classes in a realistic style through use of color, technique, and scale that had previously been reserved for historical paintings. Courbet sought to bring awareness to the harsh social conditions of the lower classes through his gritty and unconventional representations.

1. Realism
an artistic and literary movement that devoloped in
France from around mid to late 19th century

2. REALISM IN ARTThe Term “REALISM” was coined by the French novelist Champfleury in the 1850s
Subjects include scenes of:
Peasant and working class life, ordinary people and their activities , lower classes
Poverty, brutality, passion
Manner
Portrays of the way things and people appear every day without any idealization
Photographic representations of subjects, art does’ t have to be uplifting, edifying
Images of the middle and lower classes depicted also in large canvas, once reserved for important subjects
(very shocking to the upper class!)
Everyday situations are portrayed, for ex. people eating, having a nap,..
Aim
To get people aware of the social condition of the lower class
Technique
Use of unconventional medium as knife, palette to put the color on the canvas
This movement grew out of:
-Reaction against ROMANTICISM that dealt with love, heroism, feeling of devoutness.
Technological advances (photography, train/travel)
Scientific advances and theories (Darwin) and the growing up of secularism

3. Historical background
• In France in 1848 workers rebelled against the bourgeois leaders of the
newly formed Second Republic and against the rest of he nation
demanding better working conditions and redistribution of property.
• The army quelled the revolution in three days with significant lost of life
and long lasting trauma.
• The revolution of 1848 thus raised the issue of labor as a national concern
and placed workers on center stage , both literally and simbolically.
• Courbet’s depiction of Stone breakers in 1849 was very timely and
populist.
To quell - reprimere , domare, soffocare
Demanding – impegnativo, che esige
To raise the issue- sollevare il problema
Concern - affare, faccenda , preoccupazione
To depict - rappresentare
Timely- a tempo opportuno, provvidenziale

4. Glossary:
Realism – the representation in art or literature of objects, actions, or social- realistic
conditions as they actually are, without idealization or presentation in abstract form.
Gritty _ audace
Commonality- gente comune
Bold – confident and not afraid; bright colours
uproar – chiasso
Stir – agitazione
easel- cavalletto
Canvas Tela
Palette- tavolozza di colori
Turpentine- trementina
Rags -stracci
Trail -seguire

5. Gustave Courbet (1819 –1877)
The self-proclaimed "proudest and most arrogant man in
France”
He was a French painter who led the Realist movement in 19th-
century born in Ornans, a village in the Franche-Comté in
eastern France (close to Switzerland.)
Though he came from a prosperous farming family, Courbet
preach equality and became a rather rough-looking firebrand,
willing to make bold social statements through his work.
Courbet created a sensation at the Paris Salon of 1850–51
when he exhibited a group of paintings set in his native village
These works, including The Stonebreakers (Gli Spaccapietre)
(1849–50; now lost) and A Burial at Ornans (1849–50; Musèe
d'Orsay, Paris) challenged convention by rendering scenes from
daily life on the large scale previously reserved for history
painting and in an emphatically realistic style
Proud – orgoglioso
To lead, led,led- dirigere
To Preach- predicare
Rough –aspro
Firebrand-
tizzone,agitatore
Bold- franco, ardito,
spavaldo
Statements-dichiarazione
Burial – funerale
to Challenge-sfidare

6. Self-portrait
(The Desperate Man),
c. 1843–1845

7. In 1855, Courbet's monumental canvas, The Painter's Studio (Musée d'Orsay, Paris
Oil on canvas, Dimensions 361 cm × 598 cm), was rejected by the jury of the
Exposition Universelle.
Courbet retaliated by mounting his own exhibition in his Pavilion of Realism, built
within sight of the official venue, where he displayed more than forty other works
The exhibition catalogue included Courbet's seminal "Realist Manifesto," in which he
proclaimed his fidelity to subjects drawn from modern life.
After his "Realism" show in 1855, he gained more financial backing, but continued to
be faithful to his own moral.
He did even some prison time for his politics.
Courbet died on December 31, 1877 at age 58 in La Tour-de-Peilz , Switzerland.
To reject –rifiutare
To retaliate-ripagare con al stessa moneta, rendere pan per focaccia
Venue- luogo del convegno
To display – mostrare
Seminal- embrionale
Faithful- fedele

8. The Stone Breakers,1849–50
A work of social realism, depicting two peasants, a young man and an old man,
breaking rocks.
The painting was first exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1850. It was destroyed during
World War II, (along with 154 other pictures, when a transport vehicle moving the pictures to the castle of
Königstein near Dresden, was bombed by Allied forces in February 1945.)

9. Bonjour, Monsieur Courbet 1854.
In this canvas of 1854, Courbet has painted
himself on the right side. This self-
portrait offers a number of significant
clues as to how the artist thought of
himself or perhaps how he wished to be
seen.
easel- cavalletto
Canvas Tela
Palette- tavolozza di colori
Turpentine- trementina
Rags -stracci
Trail -seguire
Courbet is self-sufficient, and carries on
his back a folding easel that contains
everything he needs (paint, canvas,
palette, oil, turpentine, and rags) to paint
directly from nature. Bruyas, on the other
hand, must be trailed by a servant and
carries only a small cane. One can imagine
that Bruyas and his servant had been
transported by the carriage in the
background,while Courbet had evidently
been making his way on foot.
The meeting between the two men
represents the vitality of the countryside in
contrast to the mannered style of the city
The man in the green jacket beside the dog is
very well dressed he is the son of a banker,
an industrialist named Alfred Bruyas who is
one of Courbet's patrons and had himself been
a painter.
the man in brown next to him wears a suit, but
it is worn and ill-fitting he serves the man
beside him. The rich man in the center is
flanked by both his servant Calas and his dog.

10. Every day you respond to body
language, types and styles of
clothing, facial expression, hand
gesture, and environmental
context. Those judgments are
based upon your quick, and
quite sophisticated assessment
of these sorts of clues.
So look at these figures as
actors on a stage or, as Courbet
has suggested, people that
you've run across as you stroll a
country road. What do the
costumes, the props,
and the interactions
express?
Even the different treatment of
Bruyas and Courbet's beards,
though related to each man's true
likeness, further underscores the
contrast of the stuffy aesthete to
the "worker-artist”
assessment – valutazione, stima
Underscore- sottolineare
Stuffy-presuntuoso, borioso
Stroll-passeggiare senza meta
Stroll about – gironzolare
Prop- sostegno

11. The painter Castagnary in 1884 said on his work:
"It was as if a whirlwind had roared through the gallery rattling the
windows and shattering the glass”…
It was with "an unshakeable self-confidence and indomitable tenacity
Whirlwind- turbine
To Roar- ruggire
rattle- sbattere
shatter- tapparella
unshakeable –che non puo’ essere scosso, imperturbabile
Important Works:
•The Stone Breakers, 1849
•Burial at Ornans, 1849
•The Meeting (Bonjour, Monsieur Courbet), 1854
•The Painter's Studio 1854-55
•Young Ladies on the Banks of the Seine, 1857
•The Origin of the World (L'Origine du monde), 1866

12. The most mysterious composition. However, Courbet
himself provides several clues to its interpretation:
"It's the whole world coming to me to be painted", he
declared, "on the right, all the shareholders, by that I
mean friends, fellow workers, art lovers. On the left is
the other world of everyday life, the masses,
wretchedness, poverty, wealth, the exploited and the
exploiters, people who make a living from death".
Shareholders-azionisti
Wretchedness-
squallore, miseria
Wealth- benessere
Exploited-sfruttati
Exploiters-sfruttatori

13. This is the side of "everyday life", we find a priest, a merchant, a an
unemployed worker and a beggar girl symbolizing poverty.
We can also see the guitar, the dagger and the hat, which, together with the
male model, condemn traditional academic art.
In this vast allegory, truly a manifesto painting, each figure has a different
meaning.
These figures on the
left suggest the
various social types
that appear in
Courbet's canvases
unemployed -disoccupato
Beggar - mendicante
Dagger-stiletto, obelisco

14. In those on the right, Courbet
portrays his friends and
supporters
We can recognize
the bearded profile of the art
collector Alfred Bruyas, and
behind him, facing us, the
philosopher Proudhon.
The critic Champfleury is seated
on a stool, while Baudelaire is
absorbed in a book.
The couple in the foreground
personify art lovers.
To Portray- ritrarre
supporters- sostenitori
Bearded - barbuto
facing -che sta di fronte
Stool-sgabello

15. In the middle of all this stands
Courbet himself, flanked by
benevolent figures: a female
muse, naked like the Truth, a
child and a cat.
In the centre, the painter
presents himself as a
mediator.
The artist painted himself at
the center of this universe,
paradoxically painting a
landscape within the confines
of his studio.
When faced with the rejection
of his painting, intended for the
1855 Universal Exhibition,
Courbet built a "Pavilion of
Realism" at his own expense
Flanked - affiancato
Naked -nuda
Truth- Verità
landscape - Paesaggio

16. The Stonebreakers , 1849, Oil on canvas, 165 x 257 cm
was painted only one year after Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels wrote their influential
pamphlet, The Communist Manifesto
the artist's concern for the plight of the poor is evident.
Here, two figures labor to break and remove stone from a road that is being built.

17. The men breaking the stones are ordinary road workers,
presented almost life-size.
Courbet does not idealize the struggle for existence;
he simply says, "Look at this."
Courbet's detractors were sure that he was causing
artistic and moral decline by painting what they
considered unpleasant and trivial subjects on a grand
scale.
They accused him of raising a "cult of ugliness"
against cherished concepts of Beauty .
Realism was perceived as nothing less than the
enemy of art, and many believed that photography was
the source and the sponsor of this disaster.
When this canvas was exhibited in Paris at the Salon of
1850 was attacked as unartistic, crude, and socialistic.
the colors used are monotonous, which reflects the languishing tone, the
man has the same color of the earth, the posture suggests the mechanical
monotony of the work
His pant tattered and his dress ragged, his shoes old and broken
The wide brimmed hat hides his face expressing the namelessness of the
worker, and the problem of anonymity brought by industrialization
Courbet depicts the man, who is too old to continue breaking stones to express
the hardship that peasants had to overcome

18. The Stonebreakers realizes Courbet’s aim of
informing the masses about the harsh existence
of peasant workers during his time by revealing
the trying conditions they had to face.
This painting shows two peasants, a boy and a
grown man, in tatters.
the manner in which Courbet depicts the boy,
reveals us that he is too young to carry stones, he
can hardly hold the basket full of stones, he looks
to be unbalanced, Courbet’s aim being our
reflection on underage children exploitation
During the Industrial Revolution Most peasants
were forced into industries, where underage
children and women were exploited by being
given treacherous jobs, with miniscule wages.
Courbet’s works inspired future
impressionists and modernists to focus their
themes more on modern events.
Underage- sotto l’età, troppo giovani
Exploitation- sfruttamento
treacherous –pericoloso, infimo,
traditore
wages – paghe
to focus - concentrarsi

19. A Burial at Ornans (1849–50; 315 cm × 668 cm , oil on canvas, Musèe d'Orsay, Paris)
Exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1850–51 challenged convention by rendering
scenes from daily life on the large scale previously reserved for history painting
and in an emphatically realistic style http://youtu.be/zRuLkyLx3No
www.khanacademy.org/video/courbet -a-burial-

20. SUBJECT At the end of summer 1849, Courbet started work on his first monumental
painting.
He wanted to make it his "statement of principle" and made this clear by calling the work
Painting of Human Figures, the History of a Burial at Ornans.
This painting is like a memorial, the funeral of Gustave Courbet's great-uncle which
was held in 1848 in Ornans, the birth place of the artist. An ordinary rural funeral had
been captured in this painting with unbelievable realism.
SEIZE many people were offended that an unheard-of-before great-uncle was given
such honor and fame to his death through Courbet's painting, because he used a
canvas of dimensions usually reserved for history painting, a "noble" genre, to
present an ordinary subject, with no trace of idealization, which cannot pretend to
be a genre scene either.
COLOR AND TECHNIQUE The nuances ( gradazioni)of color in the dark greens
and dull grays produces an austere tone, the thick, robust technique gives the
people and the natural elements density and weight.
MEANING The rigorous frieze( fregio)-like composition and the gaping grave
strewn with bones invite us to think about the human condition.
CRITIC At the Salon in 1850-1851, many people decried ( condannarono)"the ugliness"
of the people, and the ordinariness of the whole scene. Among the few admirers of the
painting, one critic prophesied that it would remain "the Herculean pillars of realism in
modern history .

21. Young Ladies on the Banks of the Seine, 1857
These young women have come
out from the city one hot
summer's day to cool off by the
waterside. The realism of this
very sensual scene is manifest
in the frankness
( schiettezza) of the faces and
postures.
This very modern subject
prefigures the future popularity
of the banks of the Seine,
celebrated by the Impressionists
a generation later.
This work, unusually large
format for a genre scene, broke
away from the conventions of
the day. Courbet unleashed
(scatenò)a critical scandal by
exhibiting the Young Ladies at
the Salon in 1857
Lazyness of the two girls
Lack of any idealization They don’t assume
a proper pose preferring to rest
Unconventional gait
Lack of a real perspective
Background brushes not complete

22. From the beginning of his career, he identified himself with the topography of
his native Ornans .The distinctive limestone cliffs of the surrounding Jura
Mountains provide the backdrop for Young Women from the Village
He used both palette knife and brush to render the rock formations and
foaming surface of the rushing water.
Young Women from
the Village