Artists that need to be visited when looking into realism are some of the most important artists of all time include Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Edouard Manet, Gustave Courbet and Auguste Rodin.
Background
The concept of realism is often reasoned as a social and political ideology, associating itself with telling the truth of reality rather than the more imaginative themes throughout history featuring idealistic forms and scenes, rejecting the former themes of Academic art also, believing it to be hypocritical, repetitive and too utopian. Realism in art tends to come as a partner with it's political agenda of hoping to further social change, aiming for; a new democratic system, focusing on human rights e.g. labour, poverty etc. This often provides a basis for the subject matter of realist art.
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| "The Gleaners" by Jean-Francois Millet, complete in 1857 with Oil on Canvas. |
The image above, The Gleaners is the ultimate depiction of what Realism tried to expose people to the truth of. The image of workers in a field, clearly living in poverty with poor labour conditions, it aimed to give an emotional window into these people's lives. This is evident through the actual way in which it has been painted, as realistic and possible considering the materials and techniques of the time. It is also evident through the smaller details, the gathering of wheat, the torn and dirtied clothes and the land use. This painting contains everything that the Realist period tried to portray to the audience, showing that this was the first art movement that pushed for a social agenda.
Gustave Courbet
A French painter, Courbet despised the Academy and it's outdated traditions, pushing more than any other artist for the development and spread of realism. Using the classic oil paints on canvas, his works had a seemingly ongoing theme of poverty or desperation, resulting in a strong emotive response from the audience. His artworks range from the tough and demanding everyday labour carried out by ordinary people to the nature of forests and seas. He had the ability to add the essence of realism to any painting with thick, sweeping brushstrokes upon large canvases. Courbet was known to work within a broad spectrum. Such work is evident in Self Portrait (The Desperate Man) painted in 1845, as you can sense the desperation and movement in the image by the close up facial expression, gaining an insight of his observation rather than imagination, you get the sense of reality.
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| "Self Portrait (The Desperate Man)" by Gustave Courbet, 1845, Oil on Canvas. |
Manet was another French painter, known for his role in the movement from Realism to Impressionism. However, the painter's aspiration was to achieve the greatness of the Old Masters. Considered to have a tremendous talent for the avant-garde subject matter of urban life and "watershed paintings", he was only rejected as he did not conform to the ideals of Academic art, and later on his realist work caused a mental breakdown in the year 1871. Francisco Goya's Romanticism is named as an influence on his personalized styling of using flat plains of colour with sketch like painted line. One of his most famous artworks is The Bar at the Folies-Bergere painted in 1882. It's painting was typical of Manet in it's utilization of the finer details, using a mirror in the background behind the barmaid to emphasise the inequality and "brushing shoulders" of the upper-class and the poverty stricken staff and prostitutes in the bar, indicating the fine line and the perspective of the working class.
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| "The Bar at the Folies-Bergere" by Edouard Manet, painted 1881 - 1882. |
Another important artist of the Realist art movement was Millet, a French oil painter specializing in engravings. Growing up as the son of a French rural farmer, Millet understood the lifestyle of the social classes often featured in Realist artworks. For this reason, when industrialisation began in France and the peripheral farming industry began to dwindle, he began painting the disadvantaged lives of the hard working people in these fields. Depending on the side at which the audience looks at the painting from, it is said that the workers can be depicting the dignity of the work they do, or the cruelty that they endure.
An artwork that illustrates this feeling is The Angelus, completed around 1859, which depicts two figures praying as the sun sets, while the bell tolls to end the work for the day. The image was later reproduced in a surrealist quality by Salvador Dali, however, it's message is clearly the presentation of the poor life of peasants. As the image darkens and the workers look defeated, it triggers an emotive reaction.
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| "The Angelus" by Jean-Francois Millet, completed in 1859. |
Realism, as an art movement, was the first art movement that completely allowed itself to appear as Dionysian, illustrating the real lives of some in the world; the lives of beggars, prostitutes, peasants and workers. The paintings are still extremely emotive and are aimed at making the audience feel something in order to expose the truth and instigate a social reform. The work of realist painters was more involved in the scenes in which they painted as they attempted to untangle and simplify the issues and cruelty some people live under through artistic expression.
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