1. Realism
1850 - 1860

2. Gustave Courbet
 Courbet was a farmer's son from Ornans in south-eastern France near
the Swiss border
 He was a committed socialist
 He chose subjects to reflect this
 He avoided subjects previously thought suitable for fine art
 He had a reputation of being loud and arrogant but was in fact an
intelligent and sensitive man
 Courbet and other painters met in a Paris Café which they renamed
the „Pavillion of Realism‟

3. ‘Truth not Prettiness’
 Realist artists favoured ordinary scenes of modern life over historical
or religious subjects
 The wanted „Truth not Prettiness” and to shock society with realistic
images of rural society working hard
 They painted farmers, gravediggers, woodsmen, poachers in paintings
that glorified the hard work.
 They disliked smooth and slick or "false surface" and preferred rough,
unfinished textures in their paintings

4. Gustave Courbet
1819-77
(image wikipedia)
•All artists had to exhibit at the Paris Salon
•In the beginning Courbet found it hard to have his
work accepted
•One painting was however purchased by the
government and won a gold medal
•This meant he was exempt from the judging
process and from now on he had the freedom to
paint as he pleased
•He presented „Realist‟ scenes from his beloved
home town of Ornans at the Salon

5. A Burial at Ornans 1849-50 Gustave Courbet Musee
d'Orsay, Paris
•The huge painting created a storm of outrage at the 1850 Salon
•The subject proclaimed the importance and dignity of an ordinary life and death
•It shocked 19th century French society
•The critics said it was "too big and the figures were too ugly".

6. Bonjour Monsieur
Courbet, 1854
Gustave Courbet
Musée Fabre, Montpellier,
France
•He represented himself as a simple
artist walking across the country side
to meet his patron
•This was offensive to people who
expected a well dressed image of a
„respectable‟ artist standing in a
„graceful‟ pose
•He holds his head high to greet his
patron as an equal
•The servant stands behind the „fine
gentleman‟ with head bowed

7. The Diligence in the Snow 1860
Gustave Courbet Hugh Lane Gallery Dublin
Sir Hugh Lane Bequest, 1917, on loan from the National Gallery London, since 1979.
•Horses and oxen struggle with a stagecoach stuck in the snow.
•Courbet is said to have seen an accident like this while on a hunting trip
Image the Hugh Lane Gallery www.hughlane.ie

8. Jean Francois Millet 1814–1875
 Painted French rural life and human situations with insight and
compassion.
 Considered a socialist and the Salon of 1851 found his work „crude‟
 He came from a family of peasant farmers near in Normandy
 He wrote:
 “I have never seen anything but fields since I was born, so I try to say
as best I can what I saw and felt when I was at work”
 His artistic talent led him to study in Paris
 He hated the Paris Academic studio training system
 He moved his family to live at Barbizon outside Paris and from then on
painted peasant life and country scenes
 He painted the human side of life with religious overtones

9. The Sower
Jean Francois Millet
Museum of Fine Arts Boston
Image from wikipedia
This first great peasant
picture painting showing
an energetic farmer
striding across a
ploughed field, scattering
seeds was called
"confrontational" and
"savage”

10. The Gleaners Jean Francois Millet
Musée D‟Orsay Paris
•Millet‟s best known works
are set in the great spreading
harvest fields near Barbizon
• Three women bend forward
to glean or pick up the
leftovers from the harvest.
•This was regarded as one of
the lowest jobs in society
•Millet gives them pride of
place them in the centre the
picture
•The golden evening sunlight
falls on their shoulders

11. The Angelus Jean Francois Millet
Musée D‟Orsay Paris
•A dignified, hard working couple stop to pray at the end of a working day
•The man holds his cap reverently and the woman clasps her hands.
•The evening sky is flushed pink over the expanse of the fields and the church steeple
is visible in the distance

12. Acknowledgements
Art Associates
Maria Moore
Margaret O‟Shea
Local Facilitator Team
Aine Andrews
Joe Caslin
Jane Campbell
Siobhan Campbell
Niamh O‟Donoghue
Niamh O‟Neill
Keith O‟Rahilly
Sheena McKeon
Tony Morrissey
Monica White
Many thanks to the following for their invaluable contribution to the European
Art History and Appreciation series of workshops and resource materials.
PDST Professional Development Service for Teachers

13. PDST Professional Development Service for Teachers
The PDST is funded by the
Department of Education and
Skills under the National
Development Plan 2007 -
2013
Cultural & Environmental Education
Professional Development Service for Teachers (PDST)
Dublin West Education Centre,
Old Blessington Road,
Tallaght,
Dublin 24
National Co-ordinator
Conor Harrison
Mobile: 087 240 5710
E-mail: conorharrison@pdst.ie
Administrator
Angie Grogan
Tel: 014528018 Fax: 014528010
E-mail: angiegrogan@pdst.ie.