la historia del arte

Gustave Courbet, A Burial at Ornans, 1849-50 Artist Gustave Courbet’s Realist style makes another appearance in this dark, foreboding display of Courbet’s grand-uncle’s funeral. The funeral’s actual attendants acted as Courbet’s models, and their stiffness or lack of theatricality in expression or movement is inconsistent with the normative images or emotions that are associated with a funeral. The model’s faces are almost expression-less, which takes away the painting’s “painterly-ness,” which causes the viewer to consider truth and reality, rather than artistic tradition. The painting is in extremely large scale, which was normally reserved for grand history paintings, paintings that depicted major historical, religious or mythological events, rather than personal or societal concepts. Such paintings were also normally reserved for royals and nobles, therefore Courbet intentionally confronts the privileged bourgeoisie class with gloomy images of social reality. [image via.]

Gustave Courbet, A Burial at Ornans, 1849-50

Artist Gustave Courbet’s Realist style makes another appearance in this dark, foreboding display of Courbet’s grand-uncle’s funeral. The funeral’s actual attendants acted as Courbet’s models, and their stiffness or lack of theatricality in expression or movement is inconsistent with the normative images or emotions that are associated with a funeral. The model’s faces are almost expression-less, which takes away the painting’s “painterly-ness,” which causes the viewer to consider truth and reality, rather than artistic tradition.

The painting is in extremely large scale, which was normally reserved for grand history paintings, paintings that depicted major historical, religious or mythological events, rather than personal or societal concepts. Such paintings were also normally reserved for royals and nobles, therefore Courbet intentionally confronts the privileged bourgeoisie class with gloomy images of social reality.

[image via.]

Gustave Courbet, The Stonebreakers, 1849 Gustave Courbet was born into a wealthy bourgeoisie family in 1819. However, after years of living in a classist, elitist society, he abandoned that glamorous lifestyle to become a bohemian artist in 1841. Courbet painted ordinary places and people to expose the less glamorous, less idealized country life of the poor French class. Normally, such images of the countryside were heavily idealized and picturesque; farms were depicted as beautiful landscapes in which the wealthy class took vacations from the city. However, Courbet made it a goal to portray and expose the truth to the public, and to express true hardship and emotions, rather than fantasy. Courbet’s famous Stonebreakers painting caused much discomfort to the public, because most audiences were not accustomed to this dirty, exhaustive, and harsh style. Gustave is therefore considered to be the father of the Realist movement in the late 19th century. [image via]

Gustave Courbet, The Stonebreakers, 1849

Gustave Courbet was born into a wealthy bourgeoisie family in 1819. However, after years of living in a classist, elitist society, he abandoned that glamorous lifestyle to become a bohemian artist in 1841. Courbet painted ordinary places and people to expose the less glamorous, less idealized country life of the poor French class. Normally, such images of the countryside were heavily idealized and picturesque; farms were depicted as beautiful landscapes in which the wealthy class took vacations from the city.

However, Courbet made it a goal to portray and expose the truth to the public, and to express true hardship and emotions, rather than fantasy. Courbet’s famous Stonebreakers painting caused much discomfort to the public, because most audiences were not accustomed to this dirty, exhaustive, and harsh style. Gustave is therefore considered to be the father of the Realist movement in the late 19th century.

[image via]

Paul Cézanne, The Bay of Marseilles, view from L’Estaque, 1885

Paul Cézanne, The Bay of Marseilles, view from L’Estaque, 1885

William-Adolphe Bouguereau, Bathers, 1884 Bouguereau’s portrayal of two nude female bathers is a perfect example of Classical, Romantic tradition that was created during the Impressionist period. In comparison to the Impressionists of his time, Bouguereau created an academic, traditional painting that appealed to purely aesthetic experience, rather than sensational, modern style.

William-Adolphe Bouguereau, Bathers, 1884

Bouguereau’s portrayal of two nude female bathers is a perfect example of Classical, Romantic tradition that was created during the Impressionist period. In comparison to the Impressionists of his time, Bouguereau created an academic, traditional painting that appealed to purely aesthetic experience, rather than sensational, modern style.

Jean Frédéric Bazille, Summer Scene, 1869 Is it possible for one to be ambitious, wanting to make a large-scale history painting that reckons with social phenomena, but also to be ever-more self-referential? This was the challenge that Bazille faced as a modern painter.

Jean Frédéric Bazille, Summer Scene, 1869

Is it possible for one to be ambitious, wanting to make a large-scale history painting that reckons with social phenomena, but also to be ever-more self-referential? This was the challenge that Bazille faced as a modern painter.

Édouard Manet, Le Vieux Musician (The Old Musician), 1862. Information from the National Gallery of Art website: “It was the homeland, at ten pence a night, of all the street organ players, of all the monkey tamers, of all the acrobats and of all the chimney sweeps that swarm the streets of the town.” Such was a contemporary description of the neighborhood of Petite Pologne, close to Edouard Manet’s studio. Here Manet has painted characters from this area he called “a picturesque slum.” Most are real individuals. The seated musician is Jean Lagrène, leader of a local gypsy band who earned his living as an organ grinder and artist’s model. The man in the top hat is Colardet, a rag-picker and ironmonger. At the right a man named Guéroult is cast as the “wandering Jew,” the prototypical outsider. In their poses and dress, several figures recall those of Velázquez or the peasants painted by French seventeenth-century artist Louis Le Nain, whose works Manet would also have seen during his studies in the Louvre. Impassive and silent, these people from the margins of Parisian life are restricted to the narrow plane of the foreground. Presented with neutral detachment, they do not interact, appearing equally unconnected to each other and the vague, undefined setting they inhabit. The urchin and rag picker look toward the seated musician, but he is unaware, focused instead on the viewer outside the picture. The emotional blankness of Manet’s painting felt “modern” to contemporary viewers.” [nationalgallery.]

Édouard Manet, Le Vieux Musician (The Old Musician), 1862.

Information from the National Gallery of Art website:

“It was the homeland, at ten pence a night, of all the street organ players, of all the monkey tamers, of all the acrobats and of all the chimney sweeps that swarm the streets of the town.” Such was a contemporary description of the neighborhood of Petite Pologne, close to Edouard Manet’s studio.

Here Manet has painted characters from this area he called “a picturesque slum.” Most are real individuals. The seated musician is Jean Lagrène, leader of a local gypsy band who earned his living as an organ grinder and artist’s model. The man in the top hat is Colardet, a rag-picker and ironmonger. At the right a man named Guéroult is cast as the “wandering Jew,” the prototypical outsider. In their poses and dress, several figures recall those of Velázquez or the peasants painted by French seventeenth-century artist Louis Le Nain, whose works Manet would also have seen during his studies in the Louvre.

Impassive and silent, these people from the margins of Parisian life are restricted to the narrow plane of the foreground. Presented with neutral detachment, they do not interact, appearing equally unconnected to each other and the vague, undefined setting they inhabit. The urchin and rag picker look toward the seated musician, but he is unaware, focused instead on the viewer outside the picture. The emotional blankness of Manet’s painting felt “modern” to contemporary viewers.”

[nationalgallery.]

close-up of The Adoration of the Lamb, The Ghent Altarpiece.

close-up of The Adoration of the Lamb, The Ghent Altarpiece.

close-up of Pagan Writers and Jewish Prophets, The Ghent Altarpiece.

close-up of Pagan Writers and Jewish Prophets, The Ghent Altarpiece.