Gustave Courbet as a Famous Artist - Essay Example

Artist-Gustave Courbet Studio of a Painter: A Real Allegory Summering My Seven Years of Life as an Artist. Musee d'Orsay, Paris 1854-55 Midium: Oil on canvas Gustave Courbet was a French painter who along with his colleagues Honore Daumier and Jean Francois established an art movement called realism. He was a self made artist and grasped the art of painting mostly by copying of works done by renowned painters. Gradually he developed his individual style of painting in a rather candid and straightforward manner to express the reality of subject that he was painting. One of his early paintings of this kind was the stone breakers. Here, he attempted to move away from the well established ideas of romanticism where things were over done in order to convey the emotions or meaning. The term realism was first coined with this painting because it attempted to present life as it was with a deeper concern to bring forth the social issues prevalent at that time. In most of his realist works, Courbet generally depicted working class people carrying out their daily activities and tried to capture the real essence of the moment on the canvas without any attempt to exaggerate or romanticize. During this era, the general tendency to create paintings consisted of producing pictures that made the conditions look better than what it really would be or rater attempting to falsely beautify the picture by adding elements of glamour, happiness and the likes. Courbet's attempt to truthfully portray the common people and places in an unglamorous manner was therefore not appreciated by many art critics and labeled as dull or ugly. The Artist's Studio (also known as L'Atelier du Peintre) is also one of his famous paintings that he did in the early years of his realist experiments. After the completion of the painting in 1855, Courbet subtitled the painting as 'A True Allegory Concerning Seven Years of My Artistic Life'. The painting is a portrayal of an artist's studio wherein the working artist is surrounded by many people. In the painting, Courbet appears as the key figure in the center, sitting with his canvas and painting a landscape. The studio is filled with many other people metaphorically used by Courbet as the people; some who have had least interest in what he was doing whereas some who appreciated and commended his new style of painting. "The composition comprises roughly thirty figures, divided, to a casual glance, into three or more distinct groups: on the left, an assortment of figures, who until recently have been seen representing various general types rather than specific individuals on the right, a number of people who for the most part are identifiable as friends and supporters of the artist, . and, in the middle of the canvas, Courbet himself sitting painting a landscape under the attended gazes of a naked woman and a peasant boy."1 A boy accompanied by a playful cat, stands very near to the canvas and overlooks innocently as the artist is occupied in painting. An unclad female, which is a celebrated subject in the romanticist painting, also stands by the backside of the painter and looks while Courbet is involved in painting. Towards farther left, a group of men sit with little interest in what the artist is doing, they seem to be occupied in their own activities. Whereas on the farther right, a lady accompanied by other people, interestingly look at his work as if they are appreciating the skills and the ideas of the artist. In the painting, the artist has represented all the classes of people; the lower, middle and the upper class. The figures represented in the painting metaphorically represent different people whom Courbet has encountered and who in one way or the other, have influenced the intellectual being of Courbet as an artist. The artist attempts to shows the intellectual and physical transition of his studio and in brief he describe how has he been treated by people in general during the seven years of experimentation with realist painting. Some have been indifferent to his work and paid least interest or rather had little understanding of art that he created (like the people on left side), whereas some appreciated with understanding the new style of painting developed by the artist and impressed by the precision and realistic traits of the painting (like the people standing on the right). The artist has metaphorically used the kid who observes the painting from a close distance, with great interest, but little understanding and more of a wonder as to what the artist was attempting to do. With this kid, it seems that Courbet tries to represent a group of people who have interest in his work but little understanding. Courbet has painted the people as well as the surrounding objects in the studio in a very simplistic manner in order to bring out their realistic expressions. Its composition is very simple consisting of identifiable real objects in the world. It is characterized by technical correction in painting and a limited use of colors. However, it seems that the dimension of space has been avoided and there is a certain kind of flatness in it. Light has been intentionally used in order to highlight the artist sitting in the center of the painting. For the painting, Courbet has used oil paint on canvas where the surface is subjected with thick layers of paint. The painting primarily uses dark colors like that in the upper right corner and in the clothes of all the people. The wall at the backdrop of the painting is also very dull and blank giving an insipid look. The rendering also appears to be very heavy and this adds arduous attributes to painting. This gloomy and dull picture seem to have been painted with some reason; may be he wanted to being out the struggle that he had to do in order to put forward his ideas in the society. "Atelier is not a realist picture; it does not show what Courbet's studio was actually like while he was at work" 2 Courbet has used innovative technique for application of paint on the painting. He has used the palette knife at instances to provide texture on the surface on thick paint. The combined use of a flat and semidry brush and as even things like rags to apply color adds different textures to the painting. The painter has also at times used his fingers and hand to paint. The application of color is quite thick and this gives the painting a tactile surface with texture and this was an innovative style developed by Courbet that was completely unique. His mode of application of color was rather playful and experimental. This strict handling of color along with the thick application of paint gives a more direct look to the painting. This also asserts that the painting is not intended to bear skill full finishes to represent all the good things of the society but rather it is meant to show the harsh social conditions that exist. The use of dark hues and heavy brush strokes accompanied with a very ordinary choice of subjects where life was depicted in an unsentimental manner, this specific painting looks to be a realistic depiction of the then existing situation. The metaphorical use of the people depicted in the painting, takes the meaning one step further. With this discontinuous approach towards painting, it seems that Courbet did not have deep interest in the established style of painting and the history that the art had brought with itself but rather he was interested in the social life in that particular time. It seems that with this painting, Courbet attempted to assert his experiences that he had in the seven year period as an artist. Given the fact that the representation of the studio was not realistic, that is to say the studio as depicted here did never exist. The painting of all the surrounding people is also at the free will of Courbet himself. "The painting was to be an artistic testimonyit demonstrates that the artist can draw only from his own experiences, that all his acquaintances are subservient to his own creative drive".3 Considering the manner in which the subjects have been represented and the technique used for painting, the painting represents a very distinctive style as compared to other paintings of its time. The direct approach towards painting the subjects has resulted into the representation of many different meanings combined in a single painting which can be deciphered in a number of ways. In his style of painting, Courbet did not attempt to achieve high accuracy in terms of forms and lines but rather he tried to portray the immediate situation with spontaneous application of paint. With this, the strokes in the painting were easily identifiable with an inherent roughness. This is also one of the reasons why one can say that the art work lacks elegance and grace as compared to other paintings of that time. References: Fried, Michael. Courbet's Realism. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 1990. Bruno, Foucart. Gustave Courbet. The Easton Press, Norwalk. 1983 Bowness, Alan. Modern European Art, Thames and Hudson, London, 1972 Read More