Realism (1849-1895 CE)

Question 1

The Stone Breakers

Answer 1

Critiques industrial age
Emphasizes with working class
Realistic peasants (not idealized like typical Protestant work ethic idealizers)
Accurate but blistering commentary on the condition of life in the 19th century
Child (too young for the work)
Man (too old for the work)
Background is filled with doom
Rejects Neo-classist smoothness
Anonymity (only as good as the work that they do)
Nobility (large canvas, mimics a historical painting)

Question 2

The Stone Breakers IDs

Answer 2

Gustave Courbet
1849 CE
Realism
Oil on canvas

Question 3

Realism Style

Answer 3

Real, tangible subjects (no religion or fantasy)
Genre scenes
Images that were previously “unworthy” of paintings (peasants, working class, mundane things, etc.)
Parallels new science and observation

Question 4

The Burghers of Calais

Answer 4

Burgher (social class)
King Edward wanted them to come to him wearing sackcloth, no shoes, and nooses around their neck, and give him the keys to the city, or he’d destroy the city
Volunteered for execution (lives were actually spared)
Displayed in front of a cathedral
Ordinary people who did something extraordinary (we are capable of this as well)
Same height as us (not glorifying them)
Individualized
Stand close to each other but no acknowledgement
Circumambulatory

Question 5

The Burghers of Calais IDs

Answer 5

Auguste Rodin
1884-1895 CE
Realism
Bronze

Question 6

Olympia

Answer 6

Meant to shock the viewer
Famous prostitute (not a goddess)
Quiet mystery (where is she?)
“Attendant” giving her a bouquet of lowers she has received
Compositionally similar to Venus of Urbino
Waiting for her next client
Wearing shoes (makes her look more naked)
Not an elite home (dirty sheets)
Not idealized (she’s not glowing)
Black cat (superstition)
Olympia (goddess, makes it more acceptable)
Acknowledges she is being looked at, takes the control from the viewer, and assumes the “masculine” role (active)

Question 7

Olympia IDs

Answer 7

Edouard Manet
1863 CE
Realism
Oil on canvas

Question 8

Nadar Raising Photography to the Height of Art

Answer 8

Satire of photography becoming the “height of art”
Collodion method (fixing gun cotton onto a glass plate for a short amount of time)
Nadar was known for capturing the first aerial photographs from a hot air balloon

Question 9

Nadar Raising Photography to the Height of Art IDs

Answer 9

Honoré Daumier
1862 CE
Realism
Lithograph

Question 10

Horse in motion

Answer 10

Created during a time when motion in objects was somewhat unknown
One of the first instances of motion photography
Settled a long debate about whether all four legs leave the ground at once when horses run

Question 11

Horse in motion IDs

Answer 11

Eadweard Muybridge
1878 CE
Realism
Albumen print