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A R T O F T H E M I D D L E A N D L A T E

1 9 T H C E N T U R Y

Realism in Painting and Literature

Learning Objectives

 To understand the forces which led to the development of the Realist style

 To recognize the major characteristics of Realist painting

 To be able to identify the major subjects of Realist painting and literature

Realism in Painting

 In part due to the impact of photography, the Realist painters wanted to branch away from fantastic or Romanticized representation of life and nature and instead strove to depict real-life events with real-life detail.

 Realists tried to move away from their own feelings and ideas and instead represent life as it actually was – not filtered through just one person’s understanding or emotion. They wanted to represent life without any embellishments and this meant even dealing with its ugly, dirty, or low sides.

 Ultimately, they aimed for objective rather than subjective representation.

 They were also concerned with contemporary events – with the here and now rather than some romanticized past or utopian future.

 The subject matter consists almost exclusively of the lower classes and rural poor.

 Realists tried to convey the idea that ordinary people in modern times, not archaic gods or kings and queens, were the proper subject for modern art.

 The Realists also generally refused to use traditional iconography in their paintings, such as Biblical allusions, mythological subjects, or complex symbols.

Gustave Courbet (1819-1877)

 Courbet was one of the leading figures in this shift away from Romantic, sublime, and idealized art toward a more true-to-life style in painting. He, like most Realists, was also a social activist on the side of the working classes.

 What follows are a few quotes from Courbet that reveal his new approach to painting and which reinforce the characteristics on the previous slide:

 “To be able to translate the customs, ideas, and appearances of my time as I see them – in a word, to create a living art this has been my aim…”

 “The art of painting can consist only in the representation of objects visible and tangible to the painter…[who must apply] his personal faculties to the ideas and the things of the period in which he lives…”

 “I hold also that painting is an essentially concrete art, and can consist only of the representation of things both real and existing…An abstract object, invisible or nonexistent, does not belong to the domain of painting”

 “A painter should paint only what he can see.” When asked why he never painted angels, Courbet replied, “Show me an angel, and I’ll paint one.”

Courbet

Self-Portrait

1848

Here is Courbet’s self-portrait. You can tell he has not tried to create an idealized image of

himself or an overly sentimental image either. It is simply what he sees in the mirror – for better

or for worse!

Gustave Courbet The Stone-Breakers (1849) This painting, and therefore the figures in it, were done on a very large scale (5’3” x 8’6”). This was unusual given the relatively basic subject matter. Courbet did this on purpose, though. The size of his figures alone gave them importance – even if they weren’t famous or powerful.

Courbet Burial at Ornans (1850)

This painting is also done on a monumental scale. It is 21 ft long and 10 ft high! The figures are larger than life size.

Courbet said this painting was “the negation of the ideal…and the Burial at Ornans was in reality the burial of Romanticism.”

What aspects of the painting (subject, style, color, etc) distinguish this from most Romantic paintings?

Courbet Interior of My Studio (1854)

Courbet Interior of My Studio (1854)

 This painting is a manifesto of Realism and an intentional allegory for Courbet’s life and the Realist movement.

 Courbet is in the center sitting at a canvas painting a landscape scene. On one side he is being watched by a nude women and on the other by a young boy. Behind the canvas he’s sitting at stands another canvas with a religious image painted on it.

 These are representations of all of the major forms of art in the 19th century. Nature is representative of Romanticism, the nude woman is probably Neoclassicism, and the other canvas is representative of religious art.

 On the left of the painting are members of the proletariat – the working class.

 A hunter and his dog, peasants, and laborers are among those depicted.

 On the right is the bourgeoisie – the rich and powerful of society.

 Wealthy merchants and individuals in fashionable dress can be seen.

 Basically, on the left are those who Courbet paints, and on the right are those whom he paints for.

 The Allegory or Meaning:

 It shows the artist as the mediator between the working class and the ruling class.

Courbet Interior of My Studio (1854)

Courbet Beach in Normandy (1875)

Realist Painting

 Compare a Realist view of the beach (Courbet’s on the previous slide) with a Romantic view of the beach

(Friedrich’s Monk by the Sea) on the next slide. This comparison gives you a good sense of how different the

two periods represented nature.

Jean-Francois Millet (1814-1875)

 Millet is referred to as the “Peasant Painter.”

 He painted mainly the rural poor and peasants in rural settings.

 His paintings imbue common and anonymous people with dignity and importance.

 One of the most powerful ways he accomplishes this is by creating large figures in his paintings. Most of the people Millet painted were placed in the foreground and dominate the canvas – forcing the viewer to see them as large and important.

 He is also noteworthy as one of the founders of the Barbizon School of painters in France.

Millet The Sower

(1850)

Compared to Courbet, Millet’s paintings look and feel a bit different. You get the sense he cares

about the peasants he paints and so they don’t feel quite as objective or detached as Courbet.

However, the representation of contemporary people and the hardworking poor aligns the two

painters.

Millet Woman Baking Bread (1854)

Millet The Gleaners (1857)

Gleaners were peasants so poor they were allowed to pick up leftovers after a harvest – known as gleaning the fields – in order to get food to eat.

Rosa Bonheur (1822 – 1899)

 Bonheur also painted rural scenes but very often her paintings were of the animals or land instead of people. In so doing, she creates a very accurate portrait of rural life in the 19th century.

 She does not paint idyllic representations of animals, but instead, painstakingly anatomically correct animals.

 She is not concerned with portraying an emotion, simply in reconstructing the scene as life-like as possible.

Rosa Bonheur

The Horse Fair (1853)

Notice the extreme detail paid to everything from anatomy, musculature, and light to sheen, color, texture, and movement. Bonheur would spend months studying her subjects before she began to paint them.

Delacroix’s Frightened Horse

Delacroix’s painting is a good point of comparison between Romantic and Realist painting. The representation of Delacroix's horse and Bonheur’s horse reveal the different approaches and ideals between the two movements.

Rosa Bonheur Plowing in Nivernais (1850)

This painting is located at the Ringling Museum in Sarasota so you can see it in person!

Rosa Bonheur

Virtual Tour of the Ringling Museum Once the room comes up, scroll to the left to see the painting.

Click on the link below to go to the room in the Ringling Museum where Bonheur’s Plowing in Nivernais painting is located. You will also be able to see another painting

by Bonheur in the same room.

Honoré Daumier (1808-1879)

 Daumier was perhaps the Realist artist most actively involved in politics.

 His art was unquestionably infused with a social conscience.

 Daumier produced around 4,000 lithographs throughout his lifetime for various Paris newspapers and journals commenting on all aspects of society – from political and economic issues to fashion trends and parenting. Some of them even got him thrown in jail.

 Lithography – literally “stone writing”

 An image drawn onto stone is transferred to paper by pressing paper down on the inked stone.

 It was a cheap way to mass produce and disseminate political and social commentary.

 Click on the link below to watch how lithographic prints are made.

 Watch this *Lithography Demonstration*

(1831)

Gargantua (1831)

 Daumier spent six months in jail for creating and distributing this print (so did his printer)!

 It was a commentary on how capitalism helped those in power get richer at the expense of the working class.

 It shows King Louis-Philippe (the “Bourgeois-King”) who came to power after the July Revolution of 1830. This means he has been in power only a year when Daumier represents him as a gargantuan, overweight man sitting on a throne. He is continuously eating the lower and middle class workers’ taxes thus making him larger and larger (or more and more powerful).

 Underneath Louis-Philippe are his wealthy supporters who run to catch the money and laws he ‘gives off’ which make them wealthier and wealthier.

 The policies of Louis-Philippe which Daumier caricatures here ultimately led to the popular Revolution of 1848.

(1831)

Daumier Le Ventre Legislatif or The Legislative Belly (1834)

It isn’t too hard to guess what Daumier thought of the French legislators or the laws they passed.

Daumier

Nader Elevating Photography to Art

1863

This print is actually making fun of the newly developed genre of photography. Daumier

didn’t actually think photography should be considered “art” and thought it was only a fad

that would pass quickly.

Daumier Third-Class Carriage (1862)

Daumier The Laundress

(1864)

Edouard Manet (1832-1883)

 Manet is a hard figure to classify in the 19th century.

 Stylistically he will lean toward the Impressionists;

 His subject matter, however, falls completely within Realism.

 Manet lived and worked in the modern urban environment. In fact, he was very much part of the social and artistic atmosphere that made the modern world. His paintings represent all the aspects of this modern world: contemporary people, workers, locations, buildings, and activities.

 Manet’s painting Déjeuner sur l’herbe (on the next slide) was rejected from the official Salon exhibition of the Academy of Fine Arts in Paris in 1863 (along with almost 3,000 others).

 Due to the large outcry, a separate exhibit was set up for many of these new artists called the Salon des Refusés (“Exhibition of the Refused/Rejected Painters”).

 It was at this exhibition that Manet burst onto the scene with what was called at the time one of the most shocking and scandalous paintings ever exhibited in Paris – the Déjeuner sur l’herbe – and it was meant to be.

Manet Déjeuner sur l’herbe (“Luncheon on the Grass”) (1863)

Can you tell what it is about this painting that was considered so scandalous, threatening, and vulgar for the 19th century?

Surely it couldn’t be the nudity in Manet’s painting that was considered so vulgar. After all, this painting, Cabanel‘s Birth of Venus, was the winner of the Academic Salon’s highest honor in 1863 (the same salon which rejected Manet’s painting!). In

fact, you could probably argue this painting is even more revealing than Manet’s.

The reason Manet’s naked female was so scandalous and threatening was due to the

fact that she was a real, modern woman looking directly at the viewer of the painting. This is someone you might walk into on the

street. The representation of the goddess Venus, however, is an idealized and

allegorical image of the female body – it isn’t real and therefore isn’t threatening.

Titian Pastoral Concert (1509)

Can you notice the similarities between this Renaissance masterpiece and Manet’s painting?

Titian’s Pastoral Concert hung in Paris’ Louvre Museum at this time as an example of a great Renaissance work. Manet’s painting is obviously quite similar.

So, again, why the powerful outrage at Manet’s painting if it so close to an accepted masterpiece? Well, the reasons are similar to that given in the previous example.

Manet's scene was too real, too close, too contemporary, too human. Manet's figures were neither mythological, like the Birth of Venus, nor historical or pastoral, like in the Pastoral

Concert. Characters from classical mythology or shepherds from some remote region of time past posed no threat to society, but Manet's subjects were intentionally real, 19th century people

who saw nothing wrong with removing their clothes for an afternoon lunch in the park.

Manet Déjeuner sur l’herbe (“Luncheon on the Grass”) (1863)

Manet Olympia (1865)

Olympia was considered just as scandalous – and for many of the same reasons - as the Dejeuner sur l’herbe. This is not an idealized woman but a real woman of the late 19th century. Also, Olympia was a common name for a prostitute of the time – far from ideal.

Titian's Venus of Urbino (1538)

This is one of the most famous reclining nudes from the Renaissance. Can you see the differences between this painting and the way Manet represents his reclining nude? Why might people accept this one and reject Manet’s?

Manet Olympia (1865)

Winslow Homer (1836 – 1910)

 Winslow Homer is probably the most well-known American Realist artist. He created both paintings and prints for newspapers and magazines that almost exclusively dealt with the horrors of the Civil War or the injustices of slavery.

 His work, like most American Realist paintings and literature, attempts to illuminate the brutal conditions of slavery, the violence of the Civil War, and the plight of the freed slaves in 19th century America.

Winslow Homer Veteran in a New Field (1865)

Winslow Homer Veteran in a New Field (1865)

 This is an image of an American soldier returning home after the Civil War has ended.

 This individual has physically left the battlefield and now finds himself back in his agricultural field – thus a veteran in a new field.

 It appears at first to be a positive image with the amber waves of grain and bright colors. But the more closely you look at the painting the more you realize it isn’t all joy and back to normal.

 If you look hard enough you can see his uniform and canteen are in the bottom right (in the next slide).

 It’s as if Homer is saying that even though the war is over the scars are not. This man has left the war and is back at home, but the impact of his war experiences are still with him.

 Also, notice that he is cutting through the amber waves of grain with the weapon associated with the Grim Reaper – an obvious image of death.

Homer paints a much different image after the Civil War than Church’s Romantic painting Rainbow in the Tropics

Winslow Homer Veteran in a New Field (1865)

Winslow Homer The Gulf Stream (1899)

This is a representation of the plight of the freed slave at the end of the 19th century. Can you pick out all of the various obstacles this man faces?

Winslow Homer

This painting was modeled off of a painting by Millet (on the next slide) both representing the rural poor exhausted from a day of hard work.

Homer The Bright Side (1865)

Millet Noonday Rest

Realism in Literature

 Just like painting, literature began to change and move farther and farther away from the emotional, idealized world of Romanticism beginning around 1848.

 The world the Romantics wrote about just wasn’t the world most people knew.

 Authors began writing short stories, novels, and essays that addressed contemporary life and that very often had a social consciousness underpinning the narratives.

 The effect of industrial urbanization, capitalism, and the plight of the poor can be seen just as much in Realist literature as it can in Realist painting.

 The subject of Realist works of literature, then, attempted to portray the lives, appearances, problems, and customs of the middle and lower classes.

 This meant merchants, factory workers, peasants, housewives, and chimney sweepers, among various others. And while not exclusively, it dealt mainly with people in the urban setting.

 Realists writers intentionally wanted to reproduce all the hitherto ignored aspects of contemporary life.

 This meant no kings, queens, princes, or powerful individuals; but also no shepherds, wizards, or mythological characters - only society’s current attitudes, physical settings, material conditions, and people.

Realism in Literature

 The characters in Realist literature were modeled, or could have been modeled, after real people.

 They were created without exaggeration, without creating any kind of artificial, sentimental emotion, and without romanticizing the actions or lives of individual characters.

 Realist authors represented the world as it is - not as it should be or ought to be. This meant including the sordid, nasty, dirty, and ugly sides to life as well.

 They relayed facts and tried to be as objective, detached, and accurate as possible – very much like a newspaper reporter.

 Realist authors did, however, incorporate criticism of the contemporary social environment into their stories. They would critique the bourgeoisie world for its hypocrisy and cruelty and they also critiqued the effects of industrialization and mechanization on humanity.

 There is an implied criticism of the modern social, economic, and/or political environment but it is usually not overtly stated by the author or narrator. The story itself reveals what is wrong.

 Put another way, the author is not going to try to teach us anything overtly, nor is he/she going to preach morality or social conventions to us; but instead, the author allows the characters and actions to speak for themselves.

 Finally, there is a huge change in the subject and function of literature.

 Literature goes from focusing on the Individual (Romanticism) to generally focusing on Society (Realism). There is also a shift in perspective from the Subjective (Romanticism) to the Objective (Realism).

Realism in France

 Honoré de Balzac’s The Human Comedy (1833)  Honoré de Balzac was the chief precursor of French Realism. He was one of the first

writers to create a detailed, encyclopedic portrait of the entire range of people within French society. He attempted this enormous feat in his series of novels collectively called The Human Comedy.

 The series dealt with a wide range of characters which spanned the entire spectrum of 19th century French society from housewives to merchants to industrial workers.

 By the time he was done Balzac had written 92 novels in all!

 They were all set in early industrial France and mainly, though not exclusively, in the urban center of Paris.

 One of the major themes Balzac deals with in The Human Comedy is how industrialism has profoundly changed middle class values.

 He attempts to show how the materialism inherent in capitalism had come to dominate the lives of the middle and lower classes at the expense of intimate human relationships. He reveals how people’s attitudes, relationships, and lives have been altered due to the importance placed upon objects and money instead of people.

Realism in France

 Gustave Flaubert’s Madame Bovary (1856)

• Flaubert’s Madame Bovary firmly established the Realist style in literature. It follows the life of its protagonist, Emma Bovary, in meticulous detail. Flaubert records both her behavior and her surroundings with a precise, objective, systematic, and journalistic perspective.

• Flaubert was actually placed on trial because of the book and accused of corrupting French morals by writing about such a woman.

 The novel can also be considered a Realist critique of Romanticism and its worldview. Emma Bovary is portrayed as an emotional and idealistic Romantic living in the new, modern world. Through her life, pain, and destruction the reader is shown how ill-equipped Romantic values are to deal with the realities of modern life.

 Please read Reading 30.8 from Flaubert’s Madam Bovary in the textbook.

Realism in England

 In England, the Realist style had perhaps its greatest expression in the works of Charles Dickens.

 Almost all his novels are about the evils of industrial urbanization:

 Oliver Twist (1838), The Old Curiosity Shop (1841), A Christmas Carol (1843), David Copperfield (1850), Hard Times (1854), e.g.

 His settings and the actions of his characters illuminated the harsh realities of urban and industrial life.

 They helped reveal the social and individual consequences of industrialization at a personal level, not just at the social or political level.

 Dickens, however, doesn’t suggest that capitalism and industrialization are innately flawed and can’t work (as Marx does). Instead, he condemns the people who create the horrible living and working conditions for others.

 In fact, there are stories such as A Christmas Carol which seem to suggest capitalism could work in a good way if the bourgeoisie (Scrooge) actually cared more about their workers (Bob Cratchit) than every penny of profit. After all, it isn’t the system which keeps Bob Cratchit and Tiny Tim down, it’s Scrooge. Hence, when Scrooge changes his view on what’s important their lives get better.

 Please read Reading 30.5 from Dickens’ The Old Curiosity Shop in the textbook.

 Pay attention to detail after detail of the environment Dickens describes. What is he suggesting the modern urban world is like? What about his style seems to draw out the seemingly unending images he

describes?

Realism in America

 Most of the Realist literature in America came out of the conditions of slavery and the Civil War.

 In fact, you could probably argue that some of the best examples, anywhere, of Realist literature are the slave narratives which develop in the United States.

 Frederick Douglas’ Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglas (1845)  Douglas’ style has some of the hallmarks of Realist writing. For example, he doesn’t tell you what

to feel or think, he simply relates his story and faithfully tells you what he has endured and experienced. Douglas does not infuse his narrative with over-the-top emotion, sentimentality, or exaggeration even though many of the scenes, actions, and experiences he describes are horrific.

 The actions and events he conveys speak for themselves without any prompting from the author on how we are supposed to feel.  There is an excerpt from Douglas’ My Bondage and My Freedom in Reading 28.5 in the textbook.

 Mark Twain’s Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885)  Twain’s realism comes through largely in the different dialects and speech patterns he uses.

 Click on the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and simply read the first paragraph of Chapter 1. His mastery of dialect and speech is apparent from the very first sentence.

 Twain’s writings also reveal the Realist mantra to not smooth-out or ignore the ugly side to life. Instead, he deals directly with social and political issues even if they are taboo or may cause some people to become uncomfortable. He forces his readers to deal with the real situation, and not necessarily the one we want or the one that makes us feel good.

Realism in Russia

 Feodor Dostoevsky (1821-1881) was one of the greatest Russian Realists who influenced not only Russian literature, but world literature, with his works.

 He possessed an insight into human psychology which predated Sigmund Freud and he was able to imbue his characters with all the psychological depth of real individuals. Dostoevsky’s novels often reveal his belief in the personal freedom of choice and the worth of every individual – even amid the vast anonymity of modern industrial and urban life. These are topics drawn directly from his personal experiences and the experiences of millions of Russians during the 19th century.

 Dostoevsky began writing at a young age. Most of his early writings were anti-government and he ran in intellectual circles that had socialist leanings. His first job was in the Engineering Corps of the Russian Army, but he resigned because of fear of what would happen to him if his writings were discovered.

 He was eventually arrested for his ideas/writings in 1849 and immediately sentenced to be executed. He was given a last second reprieve, however, and instead of death he was sent to a work camp in Siberia. That wasn’t the end of his punishment though! Once he was released he was still required to spend the next 10 years as part of the Russian army.

 Eventually he is released and begins the greatest part of his writing career. It is at this time that he

writes perhaps his most famous novel, Crime and Punishment (1866).

 The novel is a deeply psychological text which delves into the mind of a male student as he ponders killing someone. It looks at the psychology, personality, and thought processes involved in human decision-making and how we justify the negative things we do.

Realism in Russia

 Leo Tolstoy (1828 – 1910) was another great Russian Realist writer.

 He is the author of some of the greatest works of world literature: The Life of Ivan Ilyich, Anna Karenia and War and Peace.

 Each of these works is characteristic of Tolstoy and his style of Realism in that they are all written in an objective, almost completely detached fashion. Tolstoy especially adheres to the Realist ideal of not explicitly stating morality or judgments – just recording the facts.

 He presents people, places, and actions in great detail staying true-to-life without romanticizing anything or creating any kind of artistic sentimentality.

 His novel War and Peace (1869) goes even further than Flaubert’s Madame Bovary and is generally held up as the quintessential Realist text.  It follows the life of not just a single individual, but of 5 different families.

 In the novel, Tolstoy illuminates the exploitation of the common person at the hands of those with money and power. Two of the main characters also reveal the differences in views and perspectives of the Romantic and Modern minds (similar to Emma and Léon in Madame Bovary).

 Tolstoy included so much specific detail that the novel reaches 1,475 pages in its English translation!

The End

 Please complete the End of Chapter Assignment for Industry, Empire, and the Realist Style.