Realism in France during the XIX century , the paintings made by DAUMIER and MILLET,New subjects and new themes, Nature and life in the coutryside, the changes with industrialisation, the new working class

1. Jean-François Millet
(October 4, 1814 – January 20, 1875)
Millet was a French painter and one of the
founders of the Barbizon school , was a school of
painters specialized in depicting detailed forest and
countryside (Barbizon is a village near the forest of
Fontainbleau.)In rural France.
Millet is noted for his scenes of peasant farmers;
he belongs to the movements of Realism.
In his works despite the subjects that are depicted
we find a sense of solemnity and spiritulaity,
given by the feature of the light and the
contemplation of the nature

2. -Jean Millet, The Gleaners
notice the
foreground
midground
background

3. The Gleaners spigolatrici, 1857, oil on canvas, Louvre
It features three peasant women, (members of the lowest level in peasant
society)in the foreground, stooping to glean the last scraps of a wheat harvest.
Their gaze does not meet the viewer, and their faces are obscured.
In the midground, great amounts of wheat are being stacked while a landlord
overseer stands watch on the right.
Millet conveys the message that while the lowest-class women occupy the same canvas
as the abundance depicted in the background, they will never be a part of that actual
physical abundance—they occupy their own space in both the painting and in real life.
Feature- caratteristica, To Feature- distinguere, dare risalto, caratterizzare
Foreground- primo piano
Stoop- chinarsi, curvarsi
to glean- ( to pick up the remainders left in the field after the harvest) spigolare
scraps- rottami, avanzi
wheat-grano, frumento
harvest. - raccolto
gaze- sguardo fisso
viewer- chi osserva
Midground- piano intermedio
stacked – ammucchiato, ammassato
Overseer- sorvegliante

4. Realism
http://arthistory.about.com/library/bl101.htm
Skill Objectives
a. Students will compare and describe artwork of various eras and
cultures .
b. Students will describe historical and cultural themes, trends, and
styles in various works of art
c. Students will identify key aspects of individual art genres
d. Students will create art that reflects a particular period within a
specific culture

5. Honoré Daumier, 1808, Marseille
1879, Valmondois- France),
Prolific French caricaturist, painter, and sculptor
especially renowned for his cartoons and drawings
satirizing 19th-century French politics and
society. His paintings, though hardly known during
his lifetime, helped introduce techniques of
Impressionism into modern art.
Born in Marseilles, Daumier grew up in Paris where
he (briefly) studied drawing and afterwards
lithography: the latter being the latest technique of
the time for the replication of drawn images.
The Revolution of 1830 gave him the opportunity
to express his republican sentiments in his
caricature which he supplied to a variety of Parisian
journals. During the 1830s these political cartoons -
published in the newspapers La Caricature and Le
Charivari - included Gargantua (1831), an earthy
caricature of Louis-Philippe's corrupt government, .
(earned him a spell in prison)
To Earn – guadagnare, procurare
spell - a short period of time

6. The protests in Rue Transnonain on 15 April The title refers to a street in
Lyon where a police officer trying to repress a worker demonstration, was
shot by a sniper. As the shot came from a building the police stormed
that building and retaliated by massacring all men, women and children
These particular protests were due to the passage of a new law designed to
restrict the formation of unions, the government allowing for exploitative
working conditions.
This protest was part of a wave dubbed by historians as "the April 1834 Insurrections.
Unions- sindacati
to allow – permettere
Exploitative- di
sfruttamento
sniper.-A person who
shoot at sb. from a
hidden position
retaliated
To storm- to attack a
building, a town,..
violently in order to take
the control of it

7. Composition:
The viewer's gaze is immediately drawn to the center of the painting. We are confronted
with what appears to be a straightforward image of a man in nightclothes but then we
notice that he is in fact tangled up in the bed linen. Although it is not immediately
apparent, the dead man lies atop a dead baby.
Use of space:
The foreground is dominated by blank space. It is almost as if the viewer were on the
threshold of the room.
with a dead man lying directly over a baby, one feels more horror at the things that
cannot be seen.
It is the shadows that draw the viewer in, the stark black that warns what is underneath
the bed, the retreat into shadows of the corner room.
Mood:
This lithograph is distinct from many of Daumier's other lithographs because its calm
strokes denote stillness. The central figure does not look dead, but almost
peacefully at rest, an image reinforced by the fact that the whiteness of the bed sheet
covers him as if he were wearing a nightshirt and cap.
The longer we stay with the stillness of the painting, the more our mind overreacts to
compensate for such a neat, matter-of-fact representation of these horrors. The bed
provides the illusion of tranquility where in fact, there is none.
straightforward – easy,simple to do/ understand,
tangled up- in a confused mass
threshold – soglia
stark – very empty
warns avvisare
Retreat- ritirare
Stroke –pennellate
Stillness-immobilità
Neat -precisa, pulita

8. In the mid 1840, Daumier became increasingly interested in fine art
painting, while still producing lithographs for his livelihood. and everyday
scenes, such as Third Class Carriage (1863-5; National Gallery of
Canada, Ottawa)

9. Third Class Carriage,
Daumier

10. His paintings were not given the degree of finish expected by his
contemporaries, but they have an evocative quality resulting from this
sketchiness which gives them a particular appeal today. Daumier uses a
tentative and broken line, so that the contours are made indefinite by the
surrounding light, in an Impressionistic manner.
In his final years his eyesight failed and he was only saved from destitution by
the generosity of friends, notably Corot.
The Third-Class Carriage evidences Daumier's interest,
as also seen in his graphic works, in the lives of
working-class Parisians. Third-class railway carriages
were cramped, dirty, open compartments with hard
benches, filled with those who could not afford
second or first-class tickets. In the bench facing the
viewer are seated, from left, a woman holding her
baby, an older woman with her hands clasped atop
a basket, and a young boy asleep. Seated behind
them are anonymous rows of women and men.
It was William Thomas Walters who
commissioned Daumier to paint The Third-
Class Carriage. It is one part of a three-part
series which also includes The First Class
Carriage and The Second Class Carriage.