Realism And Painting Of Modern Life

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Realism and Painting of Modern Life Realism- next major movement in France after Romanticism realism was seen as the modern movement in opposition to neoclassicism 2 schools are art: idealist figure (academic figure; figure of art academy; pose of neoclassical history painting; shown as an old man-- figure that represents history of painting; holding a stick that was used to steady a brush-- painting with a fine brush) and figure of realism (thick brush alludes to ruoughness of brush strokes; working class figure) 2. C. was the leading realism artist C. was raised in a town called Ornans specificity of space and familiarity of subjects is a governing theme in his works started off at a Romantic painter, but in 1848 leaves behind Romanticism In 1848 leaves Paris and starts producing large scale works of ordinary people In Feb 1848 there was an uprising in Paris and monarchy was abolished and second republic was in power (more democratic government)-- Louis Napoleon (nephew of Napoleon) was elected president, but a few years later declared himself empire stone breakers are people are the lowest economic status-- C. was driving by and saw stone breakers on the rode and asked them to come to his studio to paint them-- brought ordinary real life figures into his studio-- did not use models, used real people-- not adhering to convention to academy emphasizes their poverty and physical labor does not appeal to emotion or sentimentality-- hides their faces so we cannot see emption conveys hardship by matter of fact treatment of the brute materiality of world-- rough texture of clothes they wear, holes in clothing, roughness in landscape odd stiffness thick, heavy brush work-- painting itself is a brute raw materialistic object-- makes himself a kind of laborer landscape fills the canvass and closes in around the figures-- create a sense of

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