Realism rules

CCS today dealt in the first lecture with three artists who exemplified the reaction to Romanticism in carrying forward the belief in a realist view of art and its subjects.

Courbet (1819 - 1877), Millet (1914 - 1875), and Daumier ( 1808 - 1879), all saw themselves as Realists under which banner they variously claimed to be socialist and to care for the plight of the masses to a greater or lesser extent:

 Courbet -  The Burial at Ornans (1849-50)

Apologies for the size of this but it loses its impact if reproduced any smaller

 

Millet - The Man with the Hoe (1860 - 62)

 

 

Daumier - A Wagon of the third class ( 1864)

 

At another time I would expand at some length or these artists respective artistic achievements and their political attitudes but suffice it to say that Daumier was the only on of the three who went to jail for hi artistic productions. In passing what particularly attracts me to him is that he was an extremely prolific printmaker having produced somewhere in the region of four thousand lithographs in his lifetime.

 

The second CCS lecture was on methods of reading a picture and took as its subject Manet's A Bar at the Folies- Bergere (1881-82):

 

Now, I have looked at this picture many times  but to my knowledge I never before noticed the legs of the trapeze artist in the top left-hand corner!

The lecture was much more than that,though; the use of pairs of opposites to help one to look more deeply into the picture was again something I had never done before.

So -learning all the time.

 

I went back to the paint studio to take some more photos:

 

 

The finish of yesterdays'

 

 - and while it was relatively quiet, to do another painting - this time with green and red and using the palette knife:

 

I would have to say I think this was at best only moderately successful - I don't think there was enough contrast in the tones. However, let's look at it again tomorrow.

 

And finally

 

Public Print