1850-1900 Realism, Impressionist,
Post-Impressionist
handout
In a letter written to a friend in 1850, Gustave Courbet announced that "in our so very civilized society it is necessary for me to live the life of a savage. I must be free even of governments. The people have my sympathies, I must address myself to them directly." These words shed considerable light on Courbet's art - and not just because Courbet's subjects aren't always the predictable, socially acceptable ones. There's something direct and even savage (if by that we mean unconventional) in the way Courbet attacks the canvas: in the way he sponges or scrapes the paint, juxtaposes areas that are more or less realistically handled, and frames or arranges figures and objects in unexpected ways.
- Jed Perl
(contemporary art critic)
It is true that Rodin's art makes overt reference to its own
artificiality. When we say that his kind of realism was not seamless, we mean
it: his sculptures often exposed the joint lines of the piece molds in which
they were cast, as well as the "unfinished" marks of modeling and
editing. Fragmentation and repetition functioned in the same way, as instances
of the sculptor's processes made evident in his product. Rodin typically made
"spare parts" - feet, hands, knees, and so on - and put together his
figures from these. And once he made a figure, he would often remake it, by
recasting multiple versions and variants. By showing these processes in the
partial figures and modular recurrences of his exhibited work, he undercut his
own virtuosity as a conjurer of stories in flesh and bone, and introduced an
evident self-consciousness about the artificiality of art's means. [emphasis added] - Kirk Varnedoe
(contemporary art historian)
Realism KEY IMAGE: Manet,
p. 372. know
artist, title & style
§
“Realism
in the arts aimed to give a truthful and objective representation of the social
world, without illusion or imaginative alteration.” P. 353, emphasis
added.
§
response
to urban life
§
Impressionism KEY IMAGE: Monet, p. 374. know artist, title,
date & style
§
1874
exhibition
§
Monet,
Renoir, Cassatt, Morisot, others (see p. 374)
§
“sought
to capture fleeting effects of light and color” (p. 374)
§
used
color theory
§
open
air, rather than studio painting
§
direct
application of unmixed colors
Post-Impressionism 1880-1890s
KEY IMAGE: Van Gogh p.
383. know artist, title & style
KEY IMAGE: Cezanne p. 380 know
artist
§
extended
impressionist techniques
§
various
steps toward modernist painting
§
(some
works) less spontaneous, more composed
§
the
picture dissolves into planes, brushstrokes, etc. – a consciousness of
artistic techniques
Following not on exam (not even in the textbook):
PUCCINI La Bohème (1896) – most
performed opera in the 20th Century, rivaled only by Madama
Butterfly (1904)
Sentimental look at artsy types in the “past,” fifty years
previous
VERISMO – “Realism” in opera – (what is realistic about any
opera?) humble characters in
poverty. Similar to the realism in
painting decades earlier.
May 2007
David Meckler