Realism according to the 19th century was related to the French since it started in France. It emerged when Napoleon was in power caused by the defeat of Louis. However, the main emergence of realism was caused by the desire to communicate the honest and trustworthy about present-day life. In addition the French and the realists had a misunderstanding in that, the realists advocated for expression of modern life through art while the French were encouraging for reforms related to egalitarianism (Khanacademy.org, n.pg). Also, the argument that the realists argued with was that the contemporary life would be impacted by the working class. However, the realists felt discouraged by Gustave Courbet, who was a renowned artist. His work was concerned with existing things which made the realists idea on contemporary life feel discouraged. However, realism pushed on through art argumentative dialogues where they managed to record the contemporary life as it looked by then.
Moreover, Courbet joined in the campaign for art to represent the contemporary life, in that he led the realists to fight against the traditional aspect of art. However, the realism faced criticism from the political field with the argument that, the paintings they drew were communicating messages that were against the authority governing the empire. However, the argument was based on the assumption that, the realists idea was much stronger compared to the historical painting. Hence, the majority were advocating for the historical seeing that soon the realism would win the fight on art representation. Nevertheless, realism still faced threats from the historical conservatives about paintings and art representation. For example, some artworks that Courbet drew were often rejected. However, he adopted another style that he used to symbolize various aspects both in the society and the government (Khanacademy.org, n.pg). Through the adopted technique, Courbet was able to represent the realists and hence promoted realism.
Also, Courbet artworks were related to realism. His artwork related to the philosophy of realism in that; they conveyed a message that represented the inner aspect of the society that people could not comprehend. The society comprised of different classes of people. However, the working-class category was better off compared to the middle class and the poor. Also, the working-class category was on a higher rank to make an impact in the society, compared to the poor who had little impact on the society. Hence, Courbet artworks enhanced the understanding of these aspects. There are two major artworks that reflect the philosophy of realism. These artworks are “The Stone Breakers” and “Burial at Ornans.” drawn by Courbet.
In the ‘stone breakers’, Courbet drew two people working hard to remove a stone from a road that was undergoing construction (Khanacademy.org, n.pg). He also drew a hill on the background. However, one cannot understand the concept that Courbet wanted to bring, however. However, his concept of the artwork was to comply and present the realism philosophy. The hill was meant to show the isolation of the laborers from the people uphill who could not struggle as much as they did. Also, he wanted to portray the truth in that, the artwork comprised of two people of different ages. The first person was a young man while the other person was an old man. The concept in that setup was that he wanted to portray the unequal treatment and abuse of people that was rampant in the French upcountry. Moreover, the materials used to draw the artwork are rough to portray the realism rejection and resistance towards the French neoclassicist that exists to date. The Burial at Ornans has the same realism philosophy since it portrays the treatment of funeral with realism and also portrays the historical conservation of the French painting that the realists disliked.
- Khanacademy.orgCourbet, The Stonebreakersretrieved date 14 February 2016
- https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/becoming-modern/avant-garde-france/realism/a/courbet-the-stonebreakers
