{"id":771,"date":"2015-10-15T20:40:19","date_gmt":"2015-10-15T20:40:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.candelalearning.com\/zelixart102\/?post_type=chapter&p=771"},"modified":"2016-01-06T23:37:12","modified_gmt":"2016-01-06T23:37:12","slug":"introduction-to-realism","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-arthistory2\/chapter\/introduction-to-realism\/","title":{"raw":"Introduction to Realism","rendered":"Introduction to Realism"},"content":{"raw":"

Realism and the Painting of Modern Life<\/h2>\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_772\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\"]\"A Figure 1. Charles Albert d'Arnoux Bertall, in\u00a0Le Journal Amusant<\/em>, no. 595 (May 25, 1867) (The Research Library, The Getty Research Institute)[\/caption]\r\n\r\nThe Royal Academy supported the age-old belief that art should be instructive, morally uplifting, refined, inspired by the Classical tradition, a good reflection of the national culture, and, above all, about beauty.\r\n\r\nBut trying to keep young nineteenth-century artists\u2019 eyes on the past became an issue!\r\n\r\nThe world was changing rapidly and some artists wanted their work to be about their contemporary environment\u2014about themselves and their own perceptions of life. In short, they believed that the modern era deserved to have a modern art.\r\n\r\nThe Modern Era begins with the Industrial Revolution in the late eighteenth century. Clothing, food, heat, light and sanitation are a few of the basic areas that \u201cmodernized\u201d the nineteenth century. Transportation was faster, getting things done got easier, shopping in the new department stores became an adventure, and people developed a sense of \u201cleisure time\u201d\u2014thus the entertainment businesses grew.\r\n

Paris Transformed<\/h2>\r\nIn Paris, the city was transformed from a medieval warren of streets to a grand urban center with wide boulevards, parks, shopping districts and multi-class dwellings (so that the division of class might be from floor to floor\u2014the rich on the lower floors and the poor on the upper floors in one building\u2014instead by neighborhood).\r\n\r\nTherefore, modern life was about social mixing, social mobility, frequent journeys from the city to the country and back, and a generally faster pace which has accelerated ever since.\r\n\r\nHow could paintings and sculptures about Classical gods and biblical stories relate to a population enchanted with this progress?\r\n\r\nIn the middle of the nineteenth century, the young artists decided that it couldn\u2019t and shouldn\u2019t. In 1863 the poet and art critic Charles Baudelaire published an essay entitled \u201cThe Painter of Modern Life,\u201d which declared that the artist must be of his\/her own time.\r\n

Courbet<\/h2>\r\nGustave Courbet, a young fellow from the Franche-Comt\u00e9, a province outside of Paris, came to the \"big city\" with a large ego and a sense of mission. He met Baudelaire and other progressive thinkers within the first years of making Paris his home. Then, he set himself up as the leader for a new art: Realism\u2014\u201chistory painting\u201d about real life. He believed that if he could not see something, he should not paint it. He also decided that his art should have a social consciousness that would awaken the self-involved Parisian to contemporary concerns: the good, the bad and the ugly.\r\n\r\n ","rendered":"

Realism and the Painting of Modern Life<\/h2>\n
\"A<\/p>\n

Figure 1. Charles Albert d’Arnoux Bertall, in\u00a0Le Journal Amusant<\/em>, no. 595 (May 25, 1867) (The Research Library, The Getty Research Institute)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The Royal Academy supported the age-old belief that art should be instructive, morally uplifting, refined, inspired by the Classical tradition, a good reflection of the national culture, and, above all, about beauty.<\/p>\n

But trying to keep young nineteenth-century artists\u2019 eyes on the past became an issue!<\/p>\n

The world was changing rapidly and some artists wanted their work to be about their contemporary environment\u2014about themselves and their own perceptions of life. In short, they believed that the modern era deserved to have a modern art.<\/p>\n

The Modern Era begins with the Industrial Revolution in the late eighteenth century. Clothing, food, heat, light and sanitation are a few of the basic areas that \u201cmodernized\u201d the nineteenth century. Transportation was faster, getting things done got easier, shopping in the new department stores became an adventure, and people developed a sense of \u201cleisure time\u201d\u2014thus the entertainment businesses grew.<\/p>\n

Paris Transformed<\/h2>\n

In Paris, the city was transformed from a medieval warren of streets to a grand urban center with wide boulevards, parks, shopping districts and multi-class dwellings (so that the division of class might be from floor to floor\u2014the rich on the lower floors and the poor on the upper floors in one building\u2014instead by neighborhood).<\/p>\n

Therefore, modern life was about social mixing, social mobility, frequent journeys from the city to the country and back, and a generally faster pace which has accelerated ever since.<\/p>\n

How could paintings and sculptures about Classical gods and biblical stories relate to a population enchanted with this progress?<\/p>\n

In the middle of the nineteenth century, the young artists decided that it couldn\u2019t and shouldn\u2019t. In 1863 the poet and art critic Charles Baudelaire published an essay entitled \u201cThe Painter of Modern Life,\u201d which declared that the artist must be of his\/her own time.<\/p>\n

Courbet<\/h2>\n

Gustave Courbet, a young fellow from the Franche-Comt\u00e9, a province outside of Paris, came to the “big city” with a large ego and a sense of mission. He met Baudelaire and other progressive thinkers within the first years of making Paris his home. Then, he set himself up as the leader for a new art: Realism\u2014\u201chistory painting\u201d about real life. He believed that if he could not see something, he should not paint it. He also decided that his art should have a social consciousness that would awaken the self-involved Parisian to contemporary concerns: the good, the bad and the ugly.<\/p>\n

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Candela Citations<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t
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