Realism

The Realist Era• Typically associated with the

1850’s• Scientific method is used rather

than accept dogma• Develops the “Age of Reason”• Industrial Revolution takes shape

as factories produce goods cheaper and faster

• Migration from rural areas into cities (urbanization), economies change from agrarian to industrial

• Major inventions are the train and photography

What is Realism?• Enlightenment put focus on

scientific method and observation

• Empiricism – knowledge based on what can be measured and directly experienced

• What can actually be seen/experienced in the world

• Realists only painted subjects they themselves could experience (personal experience)

Realism

• context: cultural– role of artist:

• no longer to simply reveal beautiful & sublime

• aimed to tell the truth • not beholden to higher,

idealized reality (i.e., God)

– subjects:• ordinary events and objects • working class & broad

panorama of society• psychological motivation of

characters

Realism and Positivism• Developed by philosopher

Auguste Comte (1798-1857)• All knowledge could be derived

from objectivity of scientific observation

• (Ahem…anyone ever hear of Aristotle??!!)

• Social scientists would deduce laws of human culture

• Metaphysical and theological speculation was out

• Positivism stressed emphasis on objectivity

Realism: Exploring human evolution & social equality

• political context: Marxism• Communist Manifesto (c. 1850)

– thesis: all history was history of class struggles– determined by humanity’s relationship to material wealth

• Darwin: theory of evolution• Comte: positivism…all knowledge comes from tested

scientific proof

Realism in France: Courbet

• style: self-educated; copied Spanish, Dutch & Venetian masters @ Louvre

• Baroque lighting (e.g., Caravaggio, Rembrandt)

• objective record of customs &

appearances of contemporary society

• fight against official art (salon REJECT)

• subjects: “Show me an angel, and I’ll paint one”

• No exotic locales, no gods and goddesses, no heroes of history.. Only wht you can see or touch.

The Stonebreakers, 1850Young & old working at miserable job; socialist ideals

Monmentality of everyday life

10GUSTAVE COURBET, The Stone Breakers, 1849.

11GUSTAVE COURBET, Burial at Ornans, 1849.

14JEAN-FRANÇOIS MILLET, The Gleaners, 1857.

16

HONORÉ DAUMIER, Rue Transnonain, 1834.

19

HONORÉ DAUMIER, Third-Class Carriage, ca. 1862.

American Realism- Eakins the Anatomist

• Thomas Eakins (1844-1916)– teacher: Philadelphia

Academy of Fine Arts• taught anatomy to medical

students & figure drawing to art students

• disapproved of academic technique of drawing from plaster casts

– used nude model– allowed female

students to study male nude

• Critics called him a “butcher” and “degrading”

23

THOMAS EAKINS, The Gross Clinic, 1875.

Eakins vs. Rembrandt…

29

JOHN SINGER SARGENT, The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit, 1882.

John Singer Sargent’s Madame X

•American portrait artist much sought after in US and Europe

•This portrait caused a scandal in the Paris salon of 1888

•Sargent moved to England and painted quasi impressionist

•Captured personality of his subjects

•Painterly brushwork, outstanding capture of clothing/fashions

36

HONORÉ DAUMIER, Nadar Raising Photography to the

Height of Art, 1862.

37JOSIAH JOHNSON HAWES and ALBERT SANDS SOUTHWORTH, Early Operation under Ether,

Massachusetts General Hospital, ca. 1847.

38

TIMOTHY O’SULLIVAN, A Harvest of Death, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, July 1863.

39EADWEARD MUYBRIDGE, Horse Galloping, 1878.

The Problem of PhotographyWhat is the purpose of art in the face of photography?Vermeer used the camera obscuraSome artists reacted against photographySome embraced it – much like VermeerFirst surviving photograph dates to 1826, by 1880s portable cameras available

43

NADAR, Eugène Delacroix, ca. 1855.

Reaction: Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood

• Not everyone was enjoying the world produced by industrialization

• In England, Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood departed from subject matter of French Realists

• Tired of classical themes, focused on medieval stories and spirituality

45

DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI, Beata Beatrix, ca. 1863.

46JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS, Ophelia.

Symbolism• A loosely organized movement

that flourished in the late 1800’s and was closely related to the Symbolist movement in literature. In reaction against both Realism and Impressionism, Symbolist painters stressed art's subjective, symbolic, and decorative functions and turned to the mystical and occult in an attempt to evoke subjective states of mind by visual means.

Gustave Moreau, THE SUITORS, 1852.

Gustave Moreau, THE DAUGHTERS OF TESPIO, 1882/83.

Gustave Moreau, OEDUPUS THE WAYFARER, 1888.

Edvard Munch, MADONNA, 1894-95.

Odilin Redon

62ÉDOUARD MANET, Le Déjeuner sur l’Herbe (Luncheon on the Grass), 1863.

63ÉDOUARD MANET, Olympia, 1863.

64

ADOLPHE-WILLIAM BOUGUEREAU, Nymphs and Satyr, 1873.

William Bouguereau, THE NYPMHAEUM, 1878.