Welfley 1 NINETEENTH-CENTURY REALISM AS SHOWN THROUGH THE ART OF GUSTAVE COURBET Matthew Welfley Art History 112 Ilene Rosenberg June 22, 2010
Welfley 2 Like many other periods of time throughout history, the nineteenth-century proved to be a capstone moment for the world of art; so many significant art movements took place during this time, such as Neoclassicism (with Jacques-Louis David s heroic depiction of Napolean), Romanticism (with Francisco Goya s emotionally and politically-driven paintings), Orientalism (with exotic-inspired artworks created by artists like David Roberts and Jean-Leon Gerome), and Photography (which was a realistic-based artform that began with the invention of the daguerreotype). All of these new styles of art paved the way for future artists by either repeating that of which was old in new ways or creating new types of art entirely. Either way, it is certain that many of the artworks during these movements spoke for their time and culture. There is one movement, however, that I think puts the most emphasis on literally and realistically speaking for its time that movement is called Realism. But what is Realism, exactly? I think in order to truly understand what it means for its time and art as a whole, its historical context should first be examined, as well as the works of the landmark Realist artist Gustave Courbet: The Stone Breakers and A Burial at Ornans. Throughout the eighteenth-century, it was the tradition of the Salon (which is Paris main exhibition of art) to simply present familiar works based on history, mythology, or picturesque genre that were catered to the taste of most Salon visitors, who looked to art for the reassur-
Welfley 3 ance of a comforting subject well painted (Stokstad 1017). Basically, the same idealistic stories and figures seemed to be merely recreated and illustrated over and over again by artists to appease the general public; this therefore limited the creation of innovative material and somewhat slowed the evolution of art. It was in the mid nineteenth-century, however, that things began to change, especially in France; groups of workers, socialists, and radicals revolted against the corrupt government and overthrew the July Monarchy (France s monarchial period at the time), leading to the ruling of Napoleon III and creating what is now known as the Revolution of 1848. As a result of this social upheaval, significant attention was given to the urban lower class, not only by writers (such as Charles Dickens and Emile Zola), but by artists and their artworks as well. In particular, the Revolution caused many artists to reject the precepts of the Salon in favor of a belief that art should faithfully record ordinary life and inspired them to create artworks which focused on subjects that would normally be seen as unimportant to Salon viewers, but ones that nevertheless revealed the unvarnished truth (Stokstad 1017). This time period of objectivity gave birth to the art movement known as Realism, and it is through the work of Gustave Courbet that we can see what artists were doing at the time. Inspired by the Revolution of 1848 (in which the street fighting radicalized him), Courbet sought to create works of art that gave attention to poor and ordinary people, depicting those who have been touched by poverty; he made it a point to present his art as faithful and objective recordings of subjects and scenes he had seen in reality (ten-doesschate 4). There is no better example to show this practice than through his work The Stone Breakers (Stokstad, Fig. 30-37). One day, Courbet had stopped somewhere within the vicinity of Ornans to observe two men breaking stones along the highway. Believing this instance to be a complete expression of poverty, he did not pass up the opportunity to illustrate what he had seen. The end result
Welfley 4 was a 5 3 by 8 6 oil painting of the two laboring workers. On the right is a seventy-year-old man who wields a small sledgehammer, and on the left is a younger man, perhaps a teenager, who is attempting to lift a seemingly very heavy stone. Both of the figures are wearing very tattered, worn clothes which have been dirtied and loosened by the intense labor. The overall scene takes place at the base of a hill that is mundanely blanketed by weeds, rocks, and dirt, which helps to create a composition that is not mystical or fantastical in any way. If anything, Courbet makes it a point to imply the opposite that the viewer is seeing an everyday occurrence that is meant to be ordinary (the faces of the figures are not even directly shown, as their heads are realistically turned away and shadowed). In addition, these very literal elements in the painting work really well to create a sense of hardship and labor experienced by those on the lowest social level (Stokstad 1018). At the same time, however, the painting s formal elements, flow, and style creates a composition that seems to dignify the revolutionaries of 1848 (Stokstad 1018). The stances and overall flow of the two figures, for example, show just how much effort is being put into this low-class scenario. The younger man bends his left leg in mid-step as his right leg heavily braces to the ground in an effort to support the considerable weight, all while holding the rock with tightened arms in an effort to both walk and keep a steady balance. The old man kneels on the hard, dry ground, bending at the back with outstretched swinging arms, attempting to carry out his simple (but tiring) act of hitting the stones. I believe this aspect of the painting reflects on a much larger scale the burdens that were overcome in France at the time of the Revolution, for they had too required much work and toil. To add to this dignified notion is the actual size of the canvas. At the time, most people were accustomed to seeing very large canvases reserved for portraying heroic, mythological, or real (but often exaggerated) iconic figures, so the fact that
Welfley 5 The Stone Breakers showed the most simplistic and casual figures as being life size testified in a provocative way to the painter s respect for ordinary people, and further helped to give complete importance to subject matter that would normally not be seen as significant or worthy of praise, which was one of the main characteristics of Realism (Stokstad 1018). There are also many specific elements in the painting that help it to make its overall point. The clothing, for example, uses effects such as intricate shading and color tones to create something that looks very real, almost as if it does not belong in a painting. Meyer Shapiro, a renowned twentieth-century art historian, has even drawn attention to the way in which the torn and battered garments thus painstakingly depicted not only fail to reveal but actually mask the underlying construction of the human body ( Courbet s Realism 101). Something such as this would have never been seen in Neoclassical or Romantic paintings, in which the focus was often put on the strength and prowess of the human physique; therefore, this aspect of The Stone Breakers supports the objectivity brought on by Realism. Courbet even includes colors that would usually not be deemed acceptable in paintings that were commonly triumphant many earth-based tones are used, especially browns, greys, and dull greens, creating an environment that does not particularly jump out at the viewers eye as much as that of a painting with classical elements. Even the tones of the skin supports this notion of Realism in that the figures skin is not glistening or gleaming in the sunlight instead, its grimy, dark look (specifically in the hands of the older man) imply that much work has been done and, like real people, these figures are realistically getting dirty and sweaty from all of the hard work. These elements are but a few contained in The Stone Breakers that mirror the goals of Realism (to show subjects how they are actually seen) and reflect Courbet s desire to present as directly and inescapably as possible the
Welfley 6 human and material reality of his subject, which further supports his representations of the struggling lower class as inspired by the Revolution of 1848 and the birth of Realism. Realism can also be understood through even a brief analysis of Courbet s other popular painting, A Burial at Ornans (Stokstad, Fig. 30-38). A little over ten feet high and twenty feet long, this painting shows a mundane funeral taking place and a very ordinary crowd standing about, seemingly discussing matters with each other. What is very interesting about this painting, however, is how the composition is laid out many artworks before the nineteenth century put a heroic or important emphasis on the arrangement of the figures (often arranged in a pyramid that would indicate a hierarchy of importance ) (Stokstad 1018). But A Burial and Ornans has a very lateral flow, which meshes the people together in a dull way to somewhat dampen the importance of the entire piece. More specifically, the people who are standing around seem to be taking part in different conversations or giving their attention to different events this characteristic, at the time, would have been deemed completely unacceptable to the average viewer (after all, it portrayed a funeral, which was supposed to be an event of exceptional significance). Critics have even noted that the work contains no suggestion of an afterlife; rather it presents death and burial as mere physical facts, as a positivist might regard them (Stokstad 1018). However, because Realism influenced Courbet to create artworks that were meant to take away from heroism or importance, such characteristics were used in A Burial at Ornans, (along with very dark, dull colors) to create a painting that has held to mark both his accession to full artistic maturity and the advent of a distinct phase in his career associated with the concept of Realism (Critical Inquiry 635). In the end, both Courbet s The Stonebreakers and A Burial at Ornans are great examples of how Realism reflected what was going on at the time (mostly in France). With their dark,
Welfley 7 earthy tones, ordinary composition, and mundane subject matter that would normally be considered unacceptable to Salon viewer, these paintings represent the true goal of this art movement, which was to depict situations in life in a realistic or non-heroic manner. Even though works created by Realism-inspired artists often caused much controversy and obtained bad critical reception, they nevertheless served as an exceptionally important step in the development of art, especially in the nineteenth-century.
Welfley 8 Bibliography Chu, Petra ten-doesschate. Courbet in Perspective. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1977. Fried, Michael. Courbet's Realism. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1990. *Fried, Michael. The Structure of Beholding in Courbet s Burial at Ornans. Critical Inquiry 9.4 (1983): 635-683. <http://www.jstor.org.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/stable/1343377?seq=1&search=yes&ter m=ornans&term=burial&list=hide&searchuri=%2faction%2fdoadvancedsearch%3fq0 %3Dburial%2Bat%2Bornans%26f0%3Dall%26c0%3DAND%26q1%3D%26f1%3Dall% 26c1%3DAND%26q2%3D%26f2%3Dall%26c2%3DAND%26q3%3D%26f3%3Dall%2 6wc%3Don%26Search%3DSearch%26sd%3D%26ed%3D%26la%3D%26jo%3D&item =2&ttl=152&returnArticleService=showArticle&resultsServiceName=doAdvancedResul tsfromarticle> Stokstad, Marilyn. Art History, Vol. Two, Third Ed. Upper Saddle River: Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2008.