romanticism and realism oral - Jenna

Romanticism origionated in the second half of the 18th century and ended in the mid 19th century.
Romanticism was basically a reaction against Neoclassicism, it is a deeply-felt style which is individualistic, beautiful and exotic.

During the romanticism movement, the artists believed that the expression of the emotional drama of the moment was the most important issue in their art.
One of the most important and useful ways of creating this emotion was by using colour. Line was not as precise as it was in Neo-Classicim any more and brush strokes became loser.
The paintings were always filled with emotion and drama. The emotional connection that the artist had with his/her painting was seen as a hugely important aspect of the paining too. Sometimes the rough sketch of the painting (before the artist did the final painting) had more of an emotional connection in it, which is why often the rough work of an artist had great value to it too.

The Romanticist seemed to preffer a subject matter with lots of movement, always dramatic, full of emotion and often exotic.
Strange stories from far away places and hostorical episodes in countries other than Europe were favoured. Often exotic animals would be painted (which came out completely wrong as the artist had never actually seen the creature before.)
Gericault and Delacroix were two well knowen romantic artists, there paintings were full of energetic brush strokes, rich colours and emotive subjuct matters.
Friederich (also a romantic painter) painted landscapes and created images of solitary loneliness. And in Spain Goya painted about the horrors of war.
All af these artists had such different subject matter, but the emphasis was put on the drama and emotion in all of the art works.



Salon (Paris)
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In 1674 the first exhibition was held at the Salon. The salon orrigionally focused on displaying artworks of recent graduates from the Ecole des Beaux of Arts. But an exhibition at the Salon was essential for any artist to become succesful in France for about the next 200 years. The salon marked a sign of royal favour.
In 1737 the exhibitions became public and were held at first, annually and the biannually in odd number years. They would start on the 25th of August and would run for a few weeks.The Salons reputation was never questioned and in 1748 a jury of awarded artists were introduced to judge which paintings were to be displayed and who got medals for their work.
The Salon exhibited paintings in every possible space (from the floor to the celing.)
The French revolution then opened the exhibition to foreign artists too and later artists were allowed to exhibit sculptures and paintings involving womens body parts. The conservative judges did not like this at all and usaully rejected these artworks, however if they were accepted they would be given a place on the wall too high up to really be noticed.
In 1863 the Salon turned away so many artworks that resulted in an uproar. The artits eventually held exhibitions of their own.
KAT 2 artists
This is Theodore Gericault, he was born in 1791 and died in 1824 at the young age of 32.
He was a very influential French artist, painter and lithographer. His most well knowen artwork is The Raft of the Medusa.
Although he died young, he became well known as a part of the romantic movement.

The Raft of the Medusa (1819)

The raft of Medusa is seen as one of Gericault’s most significant and ambitious works of art. The painting displays a raft of survivors from a french shipwreck (Meduse was the name of the ship.) the captain had abbandoned the ship and left the crew and passengers to die. This shipwreck and the stories that came from it became a national scandal. This painting did not only show the pain and struggle of the survivors, but it also shows the struggle man has with nature. Delacroix actually posed as one of the dying figures for Gericault.

((((The structure of the raft and shape of the people clash with that of the flowing water. ))))

Kat
REALISM kat

Courbet was born in 1819 and died in 1877.
He was a French painter who led the realist movement in the 19th century.
Growing up, his first models for drawing and painting were his 3 sisters. After moving to Paris in 1839, he would return home to hunt, fish and find new inspiration for his art. For a short while he worked at the studio of Steuben and Hesse, but he felt too restricted as he was a free spirited man. He wanted to develop his own style and so he left to study paintings done by Spanish, Flemish and French artists.
Courbet was very bold and individualistic in his artwork, he broke the rules and his artwork stood out, made a statement.
“ I am fifty years old and I have always lived in freedom; let me end my life free; when I am dead let this be said of me: 'He belonged to no school, to no church, to no institution, to no academy, least of all to any régime except the régime of liberty.'

Courbet painted landscapes, still-lifes and seascapes. He painted subjects that were considered vulgar, such as peasants, the working conditions of the poor and naked European women. He said he did not want to be tied down by rules, he wanted to be a free man and so painted any subject matter he wanted.
Courbet believed that the artists of one century are incapable of painting a realistic version of a past of future century, as the artist himself would not have experienced that style and inspiration first hand. He said that the only possible source for a living art is the artists own experience.
For courbet – realisim did not deal with perfect lines and form, instead rough handeling of paint was used… free flowing lines and bristel texture made the image more personal to the artist.
One of what I would call, the most important parts of Courbets art career happened in 1849. He became looked up to after his painting After dinner at Ornans at the Salon in 1849 – infact this work earned him a gold medal (meaning he no longer neede to approval of the judges to display his work there.) Now… obviously courbet (being a free, bold spirit) took advantage of this until 1857, when the rule changed.
STONE-BREA0KERS
This was painted in 1849, it was admired by some as an icon of peasent life, and by others it was frowned upon. The painting was inspired by a scene Courbet witnessed on the roadside – he said "It is not often that one encounters so complete an expression of poverty and so, right then and there I got the idea for a painting. I told them to come to my studio the next morning."

A burial at Ornans
This painting is Massive… its 314x663cm it was painted in 1849-1850 and was displayed in the Salon in 1850-1851, it caused a huge explosion and immediate fame to Courbet.
They say this painting is a recording of his grandfathers funeral which he attended a year before painting this. The people in the painting were the actual people at his grandfather’s funeral. Courbet said this personalised it and made the painting realistic, exactly how it was.
The scale of the painting drew lots of attention as usually a painting that size would be a religious one.
It was said: The burial at Ornans was in reality the burial of romanticism.
The artist’s studio  359x598cm
In 1855 Courbet submitted 14 paintings for exhibition at Exposition Universelle, but three were rejected due to a lack of space (including burial at ornanas and the artists studio.) … so once again Courbet being Courbet took things into his own hands and simply decided to open his own gallery called The Pavilion of realism and there he displayed 40 of his own paintings. The funny part is that this gallery he created for him self was a tempory structure which he put RIGHT next to the Exposition Universelle exhibition. Just to get under their skin.
Needless to say – Courbet became a hero to the younger generation and this painting was described as a masterpiece by Delacroix.
PAINTING
Courbet painted his life as a painter- an heroic venture. He is surrounded by friends and admirers (right) such as art critics and the art collector… and challenges and opposition (left) such as grave digger, priest, prostitute, merchant and others.
The man on the left with the dogs- courbet did not tell anyone who he was or why he was painted in… but xrays show that he was infact painted in later and has been recognised as the french emperor, Napoleon 3rd. Identified by the hunting dogs and his twirly mastache. By placing him on the left Courbet publicly shows his dislike for the emporer and depicts him as a criminal, suggesting his rule over France as illegal.
The Artist's Studio (L'Atelier du peintre): A Real Allegory of a Seven Year Phase in my Artistic and Moral Life, 1855, 359 × 598 cm (141.33 × 235.43 in), oil on canvas, Musée d'Orsay, Paris

During the 1860’s Courbet painted a series of rather erotic paintings. One of these paintings was Sleep- displayed here. This painting just shows how much Courbet bent the rules. As Kat said earlier it was not seen as ok to paint European women naked – but here… He did! And not just naked – clearly getting up to some mischief too. The reason I put this painting in the presentation was to emphasise exactly how far Courbet bent the rules – and very often broke them. This is still (today) knowen as one of the most beautiful nudes in art history.
KAT

Millet was born in 1814 and died in 1875,He was born to a family of peasant. Millet acquired a knowledge of Latin and modern literature under the guidence of two priests. He was sent to study with a portrait painter in 1833 and then in 1835 was sent to study full time with an artist named Langlois. Langlois and a few others mannaged to provide Millet with a scholarship and enough money to move to Paris. He studied at the Ecole des Beaux of Arts with Delaroche. In 1839 his scholarship was termonated and his first submission into the salon was rejected.
A year later a portrait of his was accepted into the salon, he married to a women named Pauline who died a mere 3 years later of consumption. Millets paintings kept getting rejected from the Salon and so he moved to LeHavre with his new fiance Catherine, whome he married in 1853 and had 9 children with. He moved back to Paris with his family once again.
In 1848 Millets painting (the captivity of the Jews in Babylon) was unveiled at the Salon. Art critcs and the public had a negative reaction towards it and the painting was never seen again.

THE SOWER

In 1850 Millet exhibited the sower at the Salon. Millet displayed the working class in his paintings, very realistic.
From 1850 to 1853 he worked on a painting called Harvesters resting. It was displayed at the Salon in 1853 and he received a second-class medal for it. It is said to be the painting that marked his transition from living a peasant life to that of contempory social conditions. It was the only painting he ever dated and the only one to gane him official recognition.

THE GLEANERS
This is Millets most well knowen painting, it was painted in 1857. He went home to visit the land that he grew up in and whilst wondering around the fields – one memory kept popping up… It was the memory of the women and children, having to scan the fields for leftover grain and pick it all up after the Harvest was over. He found the theme was not only memories of his own, but linked to the stories of the Old Testament. He displayed the painting in the salon to an angry public as it was not seen as right to display such a low class to the mid-upper class society.

The golden light in the painting creates a magical, sacred feel to his homelamd… even though those fields were the ones that they used to work so hard in and stuggle to stay alive, it looks so peaceful and calming. There is a movement to the painting too- the lines from the womens backs, to the floor and back up again give you the sense of repitition.