… REALISM

 Realism was a reaction to the highly subjective approach

to Romanticism which hey felt was out of touch with
everyday reality.
 The Realists strived towards truth & accuracy.
 The tendency to depict everyday reality also found
expression in theatre, literature &opera at the time.
 The emphasis in social criticism of the plight of the poor.
Barge Haulers on the Volga (1870-73), Ilya Repin.
 Realism was in pursuit of truth in art & a
total rejection of idealization.
Realists believed that art should be
It should not be true to appearances without any
confused with idealization or stylization.
Naturalism ->
whereby art should This meant that the Realists often
closely resemble the portrayed the ugly, the dark side &
natural world. the suffering of human beings the
working class and labourers.
 The Realists wanted to depict the life, conditions & hardships of
the contemporary citizen, more notably the poor of society, the
working class & peasant, who suffered in poverty.

It was a description Many paintings which

sprung up during the
of simple life & a time of realism depicted
critical view of the people at work, usually
social structures. doing “unglamorous’
jobs.
= COMPOSITION
Often like a scene from an ongoing
situation.

Bonjour, Monsieur
Courbet, 1854. A
Realist painting
by Gustave Courbet,
 SHAPES
Shapes are clearly defined.

Boveteskörd gjord av Jean-

François Millet, 1868-1874

APPLICATION
Brushstrokes are often visible.
 COLOUR
Preference for somber, earth colours that
suited their themes.
Jean Désiré Gustav Courbet
(1819 – 1877)

“Show me an angel
and I will paint you an
angel”.
 French painter who led the Realist
movement in the 19 century French
th

painting.
 Courbet occupies an important place in 19 th
century French painting as an innovator &
as an artist willing to display bold social
commentary in his work.
My paintings often provoked a
storm of protest at the Salon.

Scenes of rural life were

expected to be small &
picturesque.

My peasant pictures were large in

scale & focused on the hardship of
working conditions.
The stone breakers, 1849, Oil on canvas.
 I placed the two
figures in the
foreground & the
viewer feels their
backbreaking
work.

In this work two men are engaged in stone breaking as

a means to survive. This painting was inspired by an
old man & a young boy working on the roads. I felt the
poverty.
 I used a palette of
somber colours, with
brown as the
dominant colour

Lights & darks converge abruptly along the edges of

simplified planes & I created a surface of richness through the
way I used the pigments
 My contemporaries thought my work was crude.

Crude, dude…..crude!

I do not try to seduce the viewer with any tricks

or idealization, but I capturef a ‘real’ event in
simple, direct painting. I often use a palette knife
to place large daubs of paint which creates a
rough surface...
This painting also addresses the social injustices of the time & Courbet was influenced by
socialist ideas concerning the plight of the peasants.

Through his honest depiction of the lives of peasants,

he shocked & enraged critics.

He exposed their poverty in a real way & did not try to soften it by giving it a moralistic
message.
I was also politically & socially a radical artist
leading the 19th century society towards a new
social order.

The Desperate Man, 1844–45, Oil on canvas;

(45 x 55 cm). Private Collection, courtesy of
Conseil Investissement Art BNP Paribas .
A Burial at Ornans, 1849-50 ; Oil on canvas, 314 x 663 cm; Musee d'Orsay, Paris
The Painter's Studio; A Real Allegory 1855; Oil on canvas, 361 x 598 cm; Musee d'Orsay, Paris
Jean-François
Millet
1814-1879
 French painter
 One of the founders of the Barbizon School in rural
France
 Millet is noted for his scenes of peasant farmers who
worked in the forest
 He was associated with a group of landscape &
figure painters known as the ‘Barbizon School’ who
worked in the forest of Fontainebleau, near the town
of Barbizon
The Gleaners
1857
Oil on canvas
 Millet depicts three peasant women performing the back-breaking
task of gleaning the last wheat scraps
This woman holds a handful of
wheat behind her back &
bending over, reaching for the
ground

The third, stooping still

This woman is bent over with her lower & resting her hand
face intent on the ground, searching full of wheat on one knee
for an ear
These women were members of the lowest level of
peasant society.

He placed the monumental figures in the foreground,

against the flat, dull landscape & sky.

He gave dignity, strength &

beauty to these simple
peasant women.
 Millet’s work is distinguished by
an absolute truthfulness to nature
which was the guiding principle
of his life.
He saw a peasant bent over in the
fields & he pictures himself in
poverty & weariness. He invests
himself, by his inspired vision,
with the symbolic dignity of
labour.
Thus, in painting life,
Millet reveals the
inspirational in
the
commonplace,
the promise
hidden in the
pain & the mercy
that hovers over
sorrow.
Honoré Daumier
(1808-1879)
 French painter, He was one of the
greatest satirical drawers
caricaturist & in history known for his
printmaker, whose cartoons & caricatures.
many works offer
commentary on the
social & political life in This was due to the
France in the 19th invention of
Lithography in the 19th
century. century.
 Honore Daumier - Mr. Joliv
Portrait of Adolphe Jollivet Le
Charivari Paris
Bust of Francois-Pierre-
Guillaume Guizot, 1833 -
Honore Daumier
Gargantua
16 December 1831.
He mercilessly lampooned the misbehavior of people
in power & even spent six months in jail
  He was an impressive
painter.
 In his unfinished work he
used light & dark to create a
dramatic portrayal od an
everyday scene.
The third class carriage (1862-63)
  It is a striking documentation of his time & the new
reality of public transport & the urban poor
 Daumier gave us one of the first glimpses into modern
society & its social realities
 Relating to South
African art
The South African artists chosen in relation to Neo-classicism,
Romanticism & Realism do not always reflect all the characteristics of the
movement. There are aspects that relate in terms of subject matter & in
some instances, characteristics in style
Durant Sihlali
 Sihlali started drawing during his childhood.
 He attended classes at Polly Street, received
guidance from a variety of established artists
& went on a two study tours to Europe.
 The experience of township life was his
main source of subject matter.
Race against time
1973 Watercolour on paper
In this painting Sihlali shows the viewer an event that he &
the residents of that area experienced on a specific day in
Soweto in 1973.
This watercolour documents the
degrading effects of the
decisions of the apartheid
government.
The socio-political
circumstanced that resulted
from forced removals are an
important aspect of the scenes
recorded by Sihlali during his
life time.
 As in Race against time, Sihlali’s other watercolour
paintings show that he developed a personal style.
 The expressive calligraphic brush marks & soft colours
may be associated with a romanticized view of life.
 The emphasis of the beauty of the flowing watercolours
& blurred shapes are characteristic of Romanticism.

 Sihlali’s direct approach to the subject matter that

surrounded him presents us as viewers with the truth of
daily reality, normally associated with Realism.
 A dusty explosion
caused by the
bulldozer, wrecking
the fragile home.

Chaotic debris of planks & bricks

dominate the foreground.
 Sihlali remembers his interaction with the
township manager.
 He gave Sihlali the impression that he wanted to
show off how quickly he could destroy the home.
 For Sihlali the creation of this record of the
destructive event was a race against time.
 He completed the painting by the time the house
was demolished.
 The process of painting, in this case,
can be compared to taking a
photograph.

But Sihlali’s signature of broken

brushstrokes, fragmented surfaces &
crumbling edges enhances the
documentary aspect of the work

Through his eyes we can see the fragility of the modern urban
environment in apartheid South Africa.
Ze end.