Lecture on the French Realist Movement

1. Art 109: Renaissance to Modern
Westchester Community College
Prof. M. Hall
Spring 2015
The Realist Movement

2. The Industrial
Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was the
major social force of the 19th
century
Currier & Ives, The Progress of the Century, 1876
Image source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pingnews/2941008151/

4. Image source: http://dl.lib.brown.edu/paris/
Population shift from the country to the city

5. Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, Louis-François Bertin, 1882
Louvre
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, Mme. Moitessier, 1856
National Gallery, London
Bourgeoisie replaces the aristocracy

6. Edmund Texier, cross section of a Parisian house about 1850
showing the economic status by various floors. (Edmund Texier,
Tableau de Paris, Paris, 1852
Honoré Daumier, J’ai trois cents!” (I have three cents)
From the series Parisian Emotions, 1863
Cleveland Art Museum
Creation of a new class system

7. Honoré Daumier,The Uprising, 1860
Phillips Collection, Washington DC
The Realist movement took the plight of the working classes as their subject
matter

8. Horace Vernet, Barricades Rue Soufflot, c. 1848
Wikipedia
But images of poor peasants and workers became frightening to the French
middle classes after 1948

9. Horace Vernet, Barricades Rue Soufflot, c. 1848
Wikipedia
But images of poor peasants and workers became frightening to the French
middle classes after 1948

10. Realism
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, Apotheosis of Homer, 1827
Eugene Delacroix, The Death of Sardanapalus, 1827
William-Adolphe Bouguereau, Birth of Venus, 1879
The Realists rejected the historical and mythological subjects of the
Academy, as well as its idealizing style

11. Bertall (Charles Albert d'Arnoux), The
Two Schools Face to Face In Le
Journal Amusant, no. 595 (May 25,
1867) The Getty Research Institute
“The Realists argued that only the things of one’s own time – what people
could see for themselves – were ‘real’.” Accordingly, the Realists . . .
disapproved of historical and fictional subjects on the grounds that they
were neither real and visible nor of the present.”

12. Etienne Carjat, ‘Portrait of Courbet’, 1861, Musée d'Orsay, Paris
Show me an angel
and I will paint
one!
William Adolphe Bouguereau, Cupid, 1875

13. Jean-François Millet, Self Portrait, Musée du Louvre
Image source: http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/artists/jean-francois-millet
Jean François Millet was a member of the Barbizon school, a group of
artists that worked in the French countryside

15. Photograph of Daumier by Nadar
Wikipedia
Honoré Daumier made his living as an illustrator and political cartoonist for
popular papers like Le Charivari and La Caricature

16. Honoré Daumier, The Legislative Belly, 1834
Lithograph, Metropolitan Museum
His political cartoons lampooned politicians, lawyers, doctors, and the
bourgeoisie

17. Honoré Daumier, Gargantua, published in La Caricature, 16 December, 1831
This caricature of King Louis Philippe as Gargantua earned him 6 months in
prison, and was censored by the government

18. Honoré Daumier, Laundress, c. 1863
Museé d'Orsay
Daumier’s paintings focused on the plight of the urban poor

20. Adolphe-William Bouguereau, Breton Brother and Sister, 1871
Metropolitan Museum
Is this painting “realist”?

22. What is Realism?
Realist paintings do not idealize –
instead, they confront us with harsh
social realities
Adolphe-William Bouguereau, Breton Brother and Sister, 1871
Metropolitan Museum

23. Portrait of Gustave Courbet by Nadar
Wikimedia
André Gill (André Gosset de Guine) In La Lune, no. 66 (June 9, 1867)
Getty Research Institute
Gustave Courbet: leading figure of the Realist movement

24. Portrait of Gustave Courbet by Nadar
Wikimedia
André Gill (André Gosset de Guine) In La Lune, no. 66 (June 9, 1867)
Getty Research Institute
Regarded as “uncouth” by his Parisian audiences

25. Gustave Courbet, The Stonebreakers, 1849
(destroyed 1945)
5’ 3” X 8’ 6”

26. Gustave Courbet, The Stonebreakers, 1849
(destroyed 1945)
5’ 3” X 8’ 6”
The subject matter and style was considered vulgar – unworthy of “fine art”

27. Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, Mme.
Moitessier, 1856
National Gallery, London
Poor people are
not appropriate
subject matter for
“Fine Art”

28. The Industrial
Revolution
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, Louis-François Bertin, 1882
Louvre
How dare you
portray common
laborers on the
heroic scale of
history painting!

29. François Auguste Biard, Four Hours at the Salon, 1847
Louvre
Adolphe-William Bouguereau, Breton Brother and Sister,
1871
Metropolitan Museum
Parisian audiences preferred to see poor people looking clean and content -
- and painted on a smaller scale

30. Gustave Courbet, Burial at Orans, 1849
Museé d’Orsay

31. Jacques Louis David, Coronation of Napoleon and Josephine, 1806-7

32. Gustave Courbet, Burial at Orans, 1849
Museé d’Orsay

33. Jacques Louis David, Death of Marat (63” X 49”), 1793. Musées Royaux
des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Brussels

34. Benjamin West, The Death of General Wolfe (5’ X 7’), c. 1770. National Gallery of Canada

35. Gustave Courbet, Young Women of the Village, 1852

37. Gustave Courbet
In 1855 the Salon jury rejected two
of Courbet’s works from that year’s
exhibitions on the grounds that they
were too large and too coarse
François Joseph Heim, Charles X Distributing Awards to Artists Exhibiting at the Salon of 1824, 1827
Museé de Louvre
Wikimedia

38. Gustave Courbet
The artist withdrew all of his
paintings and set up his own
“Pavilion of Realism” on the
grounds of the of the Exposition
Universelle (a kind of “World’s
Fair”)

39. Modernizing the
Academic Nude
Ever since the rediscovery of
Classical art, the nude represented
the pinnacle of classical art
Honore Daumier, “- Still more Venuses this year... always Venuses!... as if there were any women built
like that!,” plate 2 from Croquis Pris Au Salon par Daumier, 1864
Art Institute of Chicago

40. Modernizing the
Academic Nude
The academic nude was not
realistic
Artists were trained to idealize the
body by studying classical
sculptures and old master paintings
Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, The Source (The Spring), 1820
Museé d'Orsay

41. Modernizing the
Academic Nude
Gustave Courbet, The Bathers, 1853
Metropolitan Museum

43. “The painter Eugène Delacroix, a member of the Salon jury, deplored
"the vulgarity of the forms," which did not conform to the idealized nudes
of Academic art. Critics expressed their disgust at the dirty feet of the
models as well as the fallen stocking of the seated model, seen as
emblematic of physical as well as moral squalor. When Napoleon III saw
the painting at the Salon, he allegedly feigned whipping the buttocks of
the standing nude with his riding crop.”
Metropolitan Museum

44. Edouard Manet
Edouard Manet was the successor
to Courbet
He played a key role in the
development of Impressionism
Felix Nadar, Portrait of Edouard Manet, c. 1867
Wikimedia

45. Edouard Manet
On a trip to Spain he discovered
the work of Velasquez and Goya
Diego Velasquez, Water Carrier of Seville, 1619
Velasquez, The Dwarf Sebastian de Morra, 1645
Prado
Web Gallery of Art

46. Edouard Manet
Their dark lighting and realist style
influenced his early work
Eduard Manet, The Spanish Singer, 1860
Metropolitan Museum

47. The Salon des Refuses
In 1863 the Salon des Refuses was
held in Paris
It was an exhibition of all the works
that had been rejected from the
official Salon
It made Manet famous
François Joseph Heim, Charles X Distributing Awards to Artists Exhibiting at the Salon of 1824, 1827
Museé de Louvre
Wikimedia

48. The Salon des Refuses
The work he submitted was a picnic
scene
It was was an update of Giorgione’s
Pastoral Symphony which Manet
had admired in the Louvre
Edouard Manet, Luncheon on the Grass, 1863
Museé d'Orsay

51. Alexandre Cabanel, Birth of Venus, 1863
Museé d'Orsay
“The Birth of Venus was one of the great successes of the 1863 Salon,
where it was bought by Napoleon III”
Museé d'Orsay

52. Edouard Manet, Luncheon on the Grass, 1863
Museé d’Orsay
Image source: http://www.roberthouse.com/other/france/images/paris/manet.jpg
Manet’s picture was not “mythical” – it portrayed men in contemporary dress
with a naked woman in a Parisian park!

53. http://shepelavy.com/blog/?tag=bill-blass

54. Cynthia Vesser, The Picnic in Central Park, 2008
Image source: http://images.crackberry.com/files/kevin/stormquilthomecoming.jpg
“The area of the Park that we
were in was not covered by
permits, and because of the partial
nudity we had to pack up the shoot
and go before we were able to
finalize the scene. We did manage
to convince the park police for one
shot before leaving . . . . Every
time I see the picture, I can still
visualize the two park police,
standing just out of the frame of
the photo on the left – and
especially their surprise when the
girls started disrobing for the shot”
http://www.populationstatistic.com/
archives/2008/12/20/remaking-
manet-for-the-crackberry-crowd/

55. The Rock band Bow Wow Wow’s take on Manet’s painting
Wikipedia
Bow Wow Wow’s Wild in the Country Album cover
http://bowwowwow.org/Photo%20Gallery/AlbumL/imagepages/imag
e5.html

56. Olympia
Manet created an even bigger
scandal with his Olympia, exhibited
at the Salon of 1865
This time the source was Titian’s
Venus of Urbino
Honore Daumier, Looking at the Painting of Manet. “- Why the devil is this fat, red-faced
woman in her nightdress called Olympia? - But my dear, perhaps that's the name of the black
cat," plate 9 from Croquis Paris Au Salon par Daumier, 1865
Art Institute of Chicago

60. “Venus has become a prostitute, challenging the viewer with her calculating
look. This profanation of the idealized nude, the very foundation of academic
tradition, provoked a violent reaction.”
Museé d'Orsay

61. Audiences found the style of the
picture as shocking as the subject
matter
Edouard Manet, Olympia, at the Museé d’Orsay
Image source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/16312689@N03/1809388327/
Francois Courboin, Picture Exhibition at the
Salon; Looking at Manet's 'Olympia’
1865

62. Alexandre Cabanel, Birth of Venus, 1863
Museé d'Orsay

63. “a courtesan with dirty hands and wrinkled feet . . . Her body has the livid tint of a
cadaver . . . Her outlines are drawn in charcoal and her greenish, bloodshot eyes
appear to be provoking the public . . . .”

65. The crude style and subject made
Manet’s picture seem more like
pornography than “fine art”
Edouard Manet, Olympia, 1863
Museé d'Orsay