Realism in England and France - Essay Example

REALISM IN FRANCE AND ENGLAND Realism in arts is the attempt to describe human behavior and their surroundings or to represent objects and figures exactly as they appear in life. Attempts of realism have been made to time throughout the history of all aspects of art; generally restricted to a mid-19th-century movement in reaction to the subjective approach of romanticism. Realism in its wide sense has comprised many artistic currents in various civilizations. For example, in visual arts, realism can be found in ancient Hellenistic Greek sculptures accurately portraying old women and boxers. Realism bothered itself with how life was composed, economically, socially, culturally and politically during the mid-nineteenth century. It led to ugly portrayals of lifes unpleasant moments and dark earthy palettes. The French realist presented labor in their paintings in bent postures, manual labor, and struggling with their hands. The realist paintings illustrated the harsh life, everyday reality of ordinary people from the middle and lower classes of society. On the other hand, the England realist presented labor in a rebellious way, non-struggling people and more so concentrated to paintings that portrayed a high-class living style and industrious. This was controversial to the French mode of labor presentation. The French were able to take a hard look at the effects of the industrial revolution at the end of the Napoleonic wars. Appalled by the blighting effects of technology, misery of the lower class and the industrial smog of London, the French decided to approach modernism carefully. The British workers were more educated and more productive than the French were. 1. Donnelly, Jack. Realism and International Relations. Cambridge [England: Cambridge University Press, 2000. The French slowed down industrialization contrary to England, a nation that transformed itself from a rural community to a more urban community and from an agricultural to an industrial nation. By the year 1840, Englands agriculture was overtaken by industries in prominence but it was until 1950 when the rural way of life predominated in France. As an outcome of its economic policies, French was spared by industrial pollution that had made life in England a dark shrouded nightmare. The difference in artistic content between the French and English Realist artists is explained by their contrasting economies. Most artists were middle class aged, and they were financially secure enough to criticize the prevailing establishment by depicting their own age. They painted from a protected privileged position. The lower classes did not represent themselves because they were represented in terms of needs and attitudes of the dominant class. E.g. in France, Jean-Francoise Millet was from a wealthy background and concentrated on peasant life. In France, illustrating peasants were quite extensive with risk for an artist. Outside Paris, the lower classes were resistant to the new government forms following the revolution. By mid 19th century, the "peasant" in France came to symbolize the lower classes in general. The peasants paintings tended to function in a socially reassuring fashion, by displacing the middle-class nervous away from the ever-infuriating proletariat to a more distant peasant who were isolated in the countryside. Meanwhile in England, Ford Maddox and John Millais turned their attention to the life in an urban culture. The Pre-Raphaelites were certainly painting from a socially privileged position, but their ideas were frequently urban, reflecting the realities of London life at the mid-century. On the other hand, the French concentrated on rural life for several reasons. First, the peasants still existed in a large population in that country and rural life was an important factor in the French culture. Secondly, modernization set off the waves of nostalgia about the supposedly untouched Agricultural sectors. French painter Gustave Courbet was one of the first major exponents of realism (a 19th-century style that was characterized by its portrayal of a contemporary life devoid of any sentimentality), idealization, and nobility of subject matter. This made him on of the best genre painters of his time and one of the most influential French modern artists. Realist artist like Courbet neglected both the soft-focus of Romanticism and the heroism of neoclassical painting, in favor of objective truth, however, unpalatable or ugly it is. His style of art was not just about painting pretty pictures but rather about illustrating the irregularities of nature in all its harshness and beauty. Fig.1. Gustave Courbet “Stone Breakers” One of Gustave Courbet famous paintings was the "Stone Breakers" which was painted in the year 1849. Proudhon, a socialist philosopher, described this painting as an icon of the peasant world, but to Courbet, it was merely a remembrance of something he had seen; two men breaking stones by the roadside. Looking keenly at this painting, the artists concern for the plight of the poor is evidenced. The two stone breakers in the painting are set on a low hill of the sort common in the rural towns of Ornans where the artist had been raised and spent most of his time. The hill reaches to the canvas top everywhere but the upper right corner where a tiny patch of the bright blue sky appears. This effect is to isolate those two men and suggest that they are economically and physically trapped. Courbet wants to illustrate what is real, and so he illustrated a boy that seems too young and a man who seems to be old for such back-breaking labor. It is not meant to be heroic, but an accurate account of the abuse and deprivation that was a common feature in the mid-century French rural life. And as with most of great artworks, there is a close affiliation between the narrative and the formal choices which were made by the painter, meaning elements such as composition, brushwork, color, and line. 1. Fried, Michael. Courbets Realism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990. Fig.2. Jean-Francois Millet “The Gleaners” The Gleaners is an oil painting by Jean-Francois Millet, which was completed in the year 1857. The painting illustrates three peasant women gleaning a field of stray grains of wheat after a harvest. The painting is prominent for featuring in a sympathetic way that was then the lowest levels of rural community. This was accepted from a poor perspective by the French upper classes. The Gleaners is an example of Realism. The gaze of the three peasant women does not encounter the viewer, and their faces are uncertain. In the background, plentiful wheat amounts are being stacked while a landlord stands to watch on the right. The artist has chosen to center the women and paint them with a greater contrast. The earthy figures blend into the color of the piece, ingraining them well into the scene. Through the misalignment of disappearing points among the three women and in particular never aligning with the central focus of the background, Millet passes the message that while the lowest-class women occupy the same canvas as the abundance illustrated in the background, they will never be a part of that real physical abundance. I.e. they occupy their own space layered on top of another space, in both the painting and in real life. An evidence of one of Millets favorite peasant life, this painting is the climax of ten years of research on the gleaners subject. These peasant women represent the rural working-class. Without using picturesque, Millet gives these certainly poor but no less dignified gleaners an emblematic value free of any miserabilism hint. Fig.3. John Everett Millais “Christ in the House of His Parents” Christ in the House of His Parents is a painting by John Everett Millais produced in the year 1849. It is one of the early religious concepts of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, and it is a perfect illustration of the combination of elaborate symbolism and minute realism of their work. Sir Millais based the setting on a real carpenters shop and the sheep in the background were painted from two heads gotten from a butcher. Christ has just cut his palm on the nail that is left on the door that they are seen making and a drop of blood has fallen on his foot. In the background, the dove perched on the ladder is a symbol of the Holy Spirit and the Carpenters triangle of the Trinity. The painting was attacked by critics, partly for its realism that defied all current presumptions that religious art should illustrate (the Holy Family) in a highly idealized manner. The elaborate symbolism also seems to have generated strong feelings in relation to the violent controversy going on at precisely that time over the introduction of Roman Catholic-style ceremony into the Church of England. Fig.4. Henry Wallis “Stonebreaker” The Stonebreaker by Henry Wallis is an 1857 oil painting. Julian Reuherz has described the social message portrayed by the picture in relation to its critic of the Poor Law which criticized paupers to this kind of law. This would have reflected Walliss own radical political beliefs. It is seen as a more than a social realism exercise for it continues the Promethean subject of human beings daring an arbitrary religious authority that is evident through all Wallis works connecting them to a Shelly-inspired intellectual tradition. The main themes conveyed by the picture are both manual and mental labor. The realism movement in French art excelled from about 1840 towards the late 19-century and aimed to convey a sincere and intended vision of life. This was a reaction to history painting and Romanticism. As the French society opted to fight for democratic reform, the realists democratized art by illustrating modern subjects drawn from the daily lives of the working class. Turning down the idealized classicism of academic art and the foreign themes of Romanticism, the subject of realism was grounded on straight observation of the modern world. Realist often recorded gritty detail the present day existence of humble people, paralleling related trends in the naturalist literature. The elevation of the working class into literature fields and high art coincided with the socialist philosophies. Courbet established himself as the chief campaigner of realism movements by challenging the act of history painting in particular. Most of his works depicted ordinary people from his native region on the monumental scale previously reserved for the elevating themes of history paintings. This reflected the French artists desire for a more egalitarian and democratic society. On the other side, the England realist movement had a different idea. Instead of a democratic society desire, they were more into industrial revolution contrary to the French movement. They proposed an increase in the number of industries and to shift from agrarian society to a more industrious nation. 1. The New Realists: An Exhibition of Factual Paintings & Sculpture from France, England, Italy, Sweden and the United States by the Artists, Agostini [and Others] ... 1962. What was the cause of low class and middle-class living standards in France as illustrated by the realists in their paintings? Industrialization in France happened in a much slower rate than the English model would suggest. The French experienced a slower rate of change to commercialized agriculture, mass production, and power-driven machinery. Most of the workers were still employed outside the industries towards the end of nineteen century. The factories were located mostly in a few cities in the northern French regions. One of the main reasons for this was that France did not possess large natural supplies of raw materials like other countries e.g. England. The 1789 revolution freed peasants and farmers from debts and taxes guaranteeing them a comparatively well-secured existence. The outcome was a lack of superfluous workers, a fact that granted a particular boost to the industrial revolution in England. However, France primarily remained an agricultural nation until way into the 20th century. Large new factory areas were concentrated in specific regions, above all in the east and in the north parts of the country. This promoted French to a new level of exporting cotton looms and machines to the whole Europe. Increasing Industrialization particularly hurt the cottage industries and the family economy as traders found they could maximize their profits by buying all materials from the factories. Since it decreased prices down, it also made it more and more difficult for cottage industries to find enough work and money to survive. The breakdown of the family economy played a huge role in creating major changes for the working class as families began to have minimal control over all aspects of ones life such as marriage partner and employment. Many people in the rural areas started to supplement their income by becoming migrant workers in digging construction industries. During the peak of the construction season, they would travel around building railways and digging canals. This is what the realist in their paintings presented. People using a hand operated tool, manual labor and struggling with their hands were all subjects of revealing the harsh living conditions that most of the French people were going through during this revolution time. During this time, England was in a more stable position and most of the people were living a high-class life. Industrialization in their country happened in a more speedy method since they had most of the materials required to run their industries. The majority of the people migrated from the rural areas to the urban centers in order to work in the industries. This improved their economy and people were living in quite better living conditions that were conveyed by their realist in the paintings. Thinking about the theme of realism, one can conclude that nothing could be more appropriate than to ask and respond to the question; why realism? Today, many organizations believe in the importance of realism both contemporary and classical. Realists do say that realism is unsophisticated. The majority of the people can easily tell what is going on in realistic sculpture or painting. Its easy to understand; only creating ideas and subjects that are not found in nature show the real originality. The fine arts of sketching, drawing and painting are best understood first, last and as a language. It was a well-known means of communication much like both spoken and written languages. The earliest forms of written languages enforced simple drawings of real objects to represent those objects. If communication is the objective, our language must have a grammar point and vocabulary that both the teller and listener can share. 1. Schehr, Lawrence R. Rendering French Realism. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1997. Bibliography Donnelly, Jack. Realism and International Relations. Cambridge [England: Cambridge University Press, 2000. Fried, Michael. Courbets Realism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990. Schehr, Lawrence R. Rendering French Realism. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1997. Stremmel, Kerstin, and Uta Grosenick. Realism. Koln: Taschen, 2004. The New Realists: An Exhibition of Factual Paintings & Sculpture from France, England, Italy, Sweden and the United States by the Artists, Agostini [and Others] ... 1962. Read More