Realism vs Post-Impressionism

 Realism

"How could art about classical gods and biblical stories relate to a culture enchanted with progress? In the middle of the nineteenth century, young artists decided that it couldn't and shouldn't." 

(smarthistory.com, n.d.)

        The first painting in this era comparison is The Artist's Studio. This painting was done using oil on canvas by Gustav Courbet in 1854-55. The full name for the painting is The Artist's Studio: A Real Allegory Summing Up Seven Years of My Life as an Artist. It is an extravagantly large painting spanning to almost 12 feet in height and 19 feet in length. Size alone drew my attention in immediately and it only got better from there. The artists intentions were to curate an image based on an idea of his world, revolving around him. On the right side of the painting, Courbet represents those who he deems to be his supporters and friends. On the left, "this is the other world of ordinary life, the people, misery, poverty, riches, the exploited, the exploiters, those who live on death" (Harris et al, 2015).

        

        Visually, this piece offers high contrasts in order to draw the viewers attention to the focal points of the painting, such as the model, the little boy and the artist himself. The bright light colors of the woman stand out next to the darker colors of the artists clothing. This piece also offers a sort of Baroque diagonal in that it draws the viewers attention from left to right, with varying heights of the figures and the objects within the picture. Finally this piece offers quite a bit of symbolism, which is where the astonishing amount of detail becomes more visible. For example, the boy's clothing represents a more rural look as it is all torn and rugged and the breast feeding woman just to the left of the artist's painting represents poverty. 

    

    Overall, this painting works to recall a variety of different painting styles all in one. We can see the religious representations, as well as still-life paintings as seen through instruments and other objects place strategically on the floor. The most obvious painting style being landscapes as that is the image the artist is curating. "Finding beauty with the world that exists, not the past" (Harris et al, 2015).

    The second painting is titled L'Angelus and was created by Jean-François Millet in 1857-1859. This image portrays two individuals bowing their heads and appearing to pray. It is meant to represent the idea of valuing hard work, but also remember to stop and take a moment to say a prayer. The artist intended to portray people engaging in religion rather than entitling the piece as a religious piece. Millet also intended to represent a childhood memory, "the way in which his grandmother would stop everyone when they were doing their weeding and planting to do their evening prayers" (Harris et al, 2015) 

    The visual elements that I picked up on the most in this painting were values, contrasts, and forms. Value is seen in the variety of shaded areas that intermix with the lighter areas creating depth and light. Contrasts are also used to create a sense of light coming from the sunset, but also through the sky illuminating the two praying figures. Finally, the forms of objects are detectable without an intense amount of detail within the painting. 

    For me this painting holds some familiarity to it, as in a comforting and homey feel. It reminds me of how I was raised, in that I wasn't pressure to engage or believe in religion if I didn't want to, but I was still expected to be respectful of other's beliefs. Millet works to convey a deep respect for praying, along with the inclusion of moral values and hard work, seen through the tools lying around the figures. 

   

Post-Impressionism

"The post-impressionists took divergent paths, exploring emotional depth and scientific rigor as they painted cityscapes, biblical subjects, still-lives, and many other subjects." 

(smarthistory.com, n.d.)

      The third painting, by Georges Seurat, is titled A Sunday on La Grande Jatte. This painting, made in 1884-86, using oils on canvas shows off a very bright image of a gathering of people enjoying time outside. Seurat strived to bring science into the methods of impressionism, through techniques of making a painting appear more luminous and bright. This is done through a contrast technique known as optical mixing. To achieve this, colors are placed next to one another rather than mixed and instead allows the light waves to do the mixing. This is the first visual element that was quite interesting to learn about. Another way we can see contrasts being used is how the artist is portraying the sunlight. The use of contrast creates a sense of outdoor lighting. Finally, there is the use of a receding diagonal, a technique for creating an illusion of space, seen as the lake extending back into the painting. 

  

      Seurat not only wanted to draw in science in order to illuminate his art more, but he also wanted to confound the expectations of his viewers. He achieved this by combining more than a dozen oil sketches together featuring a variety of different classes of people and abnormal interactions between those people all in one image. As a viewer this was shocking as it was rare or unheard of to see such things co-exist within the same image. 

    

    The brightness of this photo, along with the joy of finding something new about it each time I look it over, really intrigued me. It truly does hold the illusion of an outdoor space and offers a comforting feeling or reminder of relaxing at the lake during summer. I can also appreciate the artist's effort to include more than just one class of people in that era. 

    Lastly, is a painting by Paul Cezanne using oils on canvas in 1902-04. This painting is titled Mont Saint-Victoire, and is one of many of Cezanne's works of the mountain. Sadly, it was one of the last works ever composed by Cezanne be he passed away, two years after this painting was made. In the painting you can see buildings and trees, clouds and the sky. However, when you look closer the detail begins to fall apart. Cezanne's intention was not to capture an atmospheric and realistic perspective, but more so to capture more permanent image. 

    

    The visual elements within this painting are contour, form, and the use of line to create illusion. We can see the contour in places where shadows and lights meet to support the detailed shapes. Form is seen through the illusion of familiar objects in the shapes and brush strokes. Finally, we can see the use of line roughly to define edges of areas such as where the grass meets the buildings or the grass at the bottom, representing the perspective from an adjacent hilltop. 

    

    I was drawn to this painting as it seemed to hold a lot of simplicity upon first looking at it. After taking the time to really look it over and learn about it, I see that it holds quite a bit of complexity. The strategic ways the colors were combined to create the shapes and forms we can slowly identify as known objects is fascinating. However, the illusion of being able to focus and un focus the attention on those objects versus the brush strokes alone adds to the uniqueness and complexity of the image. 

References:

Dr. Ben Harvey, "Paul Cézanne, Mont Sainte-Victoire," in Smarthistory, August 9, 2015, https://smarthistory.org/cezanne-mont-sainte-victoire/

Dr. Steven Zucker and Dr. Beth Harris, "Georges Seurat, A Sunday on La Grande Jatte – 1884," in Smarthistory, December 4, 2015, https://smarthistory.org/georges-seurat-a-sunday-on-la-grande-jatte-1884/

Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker, "Gustave Courbet, The Painter’s Studio: A Real Allegory Summing Up Seven Years of My Life as an Artist," in Smarthistory, August 9, 2015, https://smarthistory.org/courbet-the-artists-studio/

Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker, "Jean-François Millet, L’Angélus," in Smarthistory, November 27, 2015, https://smarthistory.org/jean-francois-millet-langelus/