What is Realism?

Well, it is a reaction to Romanticism….duh!

Romanticism, is a bit too emotional

artists were sick of idealized, pretty art

American Gothic by Grant Wood

Grant Wood adopted the precise realism of 15th-century northern European artists. American Gothic depicts a farmer and his spinster daughter posing before their house.This shows the austerity and hard work need to settle a new land.

Courbet truthfully portrayed ordinary people and places, leaving out the glamour that most French painters at that time added to their works. Because of this, Courbet became known as the leader of the Realist movement.

The Stone Breakers, painted in 1849, depicts two ordinary peasant workers. Courbet painted without any apparent sentiment; instead, he let the image of the two men, one too young for hard labor and the other too old, express the feelings of hardship and exhaustion that he was trying to portray. Courbet shows sympathy for the workers and disgust for the upper class by painting these men with a dignity all their own.

Ok, enough art

Are not movies art?

Anyway, what IS Realism?

Common Themes or Elements of Realism

1. attempts to represent real life2. Its about ordinary people--poor and middle class3. Uses ordinary speech in dialect--use of vernacular4. subject matter presented in an unidealized, unsentimentalized way5. democratic6. social criticism--effect on audience is key7. presents regular American life

Belief was you should simply reflect reality, chose everyday themes and scenes, even ugly ones.

The Clinic of Dr. Gross, is an 1875 painting by American artist Thomas Eakins

the painting is shocking for both the odd presentation of this figure and the matter-of-fact goriness of the procedure

Enough Realism

Remember it is a reaction to Romanticism

You are striving to be Educated people, you should know some of this stuff

Who was Judge Isaac Parker?

The Choctaw, Chickasaw, Cherokee, (Muscogee) Creek and Seminole Indian tribes were forcibly moved to Indian Territory on what became known as the Trail of Tears. The Arkansas River served as a water route to Fort Smith where they received supplies before crossing the river into Indian Territory.

Arkansas River and foundation remains of First Fort Smith

"I have ever had the single aim of justice in view... 'Do equal and exact justice,' is my motto, and I have often said to the grand jury, 'Permit no innocent man to be punished, but let no guilty man escape.'"-Judge Isaac C. Parker

There were two main sources of law and order on the frontier

US Marshals

Texas Rangers…..but that would mostly be in Texas, but sometimes they would wander!

The U.S. Marshals Service is the oldest law enforcement agency in the United States.

Their original duties were serving all process for the judiciary, handling the money and protecting the judges. They also served as the original census takers (until 1880), and supervised federal executions and prisoner transfers. The Marshals were not salaried, but were paid on a fee system and received a certain payment for each duty they performed.

If there were no court cases or process to serve, which was often the case in the early years of the country, they did not get paid

In the lawless frontier towns of the American west, marshals were once again the only bastion of federal law - or any kind of law and order, for that matter.

The Texas Rangers are the oldest state-level law enforcement agency in the USA.

Established by Stephen Austin in this small band of lawmen (it started with 10 men, and even today the number never exceeds 160) was expected to "range" over the wide Texas expanse and protect Texas citizens from Indians and bandits.

When the American Civil War began, many of the Rangers elected to fight for the Confederacy and joined a group known as Terry's Texas Rangers.

Their duties are not defined by city or county boundaries.

They still range over the entire state, and they are usually called in when a case is deemed to be beyond the scope of local agencies.

Their cases over the years have included train robbers, highwaymen, and outlaws like Sam Bass, John Wesley Hardin, Bonnie and Clyde.

Frontier Fighters. Rangers from a unit of the Frontier Battalion helped retame Texas after the Civil War. In the 1870s, the Rangers apprehended or killed over 3,000 desperados, including Sam Bass and John Wesley Hardin.

Realism Romanticism!!!