My Research

An art movement is a style in art with a specific common goal, followed by a group of artists during a restricted period of time, maybe a few years ago or long decades ago. Art movements are very important especially in modern art whereby each consecutive movement was considered as a new leading-edge for future art. There are many art movements include Gothic, High Renaissance, Rococo, Impressionism, Realism, Post Impressionism, Fauvism, Cubism, De Stijl, Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism, Pop Art, Graffiti, Steampunk and so forth. Learning about different art styles and looking at those amazing arts created by the artists in the world wide is very enjoyable. This is also a part of the journey of developing our own painting style.

In my personal views, realism is the art style that most people considered it as "real art", it is not because of its name, 'real'ism’. Realism art is where the subject of the painting looks very much like it appears in real life or in our daily life. From a little distance everything looks "real" like it was captured with a camera but up close you'll see it is an illusion created by a stunning skill of using paint, colour and tone. The artist uses perspective to create an illusion of reality, set the combination and lighting to make the most of the subject.

History of Realism Art

Realism art refers to the accurate, not to beautify the impression of the ordinary, observe the world without idealization. Besides, realism art keeps away from romantic ideals of beauty, abstraction and imagination. It seeks to depict objects and figures as they do appear in real life. Many realist artists like Gustave Courbet felt the need to depict ordinary people and show the rest of society what their lives were like. It was social commentary, pure and simple.

Realism art shares several elements with naturalism, which explains why the terms art realism and naturalism are sometimes, but not always accurately used interchangeably. The fundamental differences between art realism and naturalism resist simplistic comparisons between the two schools of painting. In the broadest sense, art realism represents things as they exist, without embellishment or adornment, while naturalism portrays things as they might exist, suggesting a certain degree of improvement over their actual appearance.

What's more, realism depicts the world, its events, and people as they really are. There is no personification of people as mythological beings, no one is glorified, and romanticizing anyone or anything is out. It is a social commentary on the world in which we live. Artists took the common and ordinary, and elevated them to a higher status.

Art realism movement

 

The realism art movement emerged in France in the wake of the 1848 Revolution and lasted until 1880. Although several attempts at infusing realism into art had been made throughout art history, the actual wave of realism art swept the art world after Gustave Courbet's independent exhibition in 1855 of his shockingly truthful realism paintings to a scandalized public who, until then, had only been exposed to original art steeped in the sublime aesthetics of Romanticism or the classical ideal of the Old Masters. Rejecting the idealized classicism of the old academic tradition, the realism art movement found raison d'etre in what Gustave Courbet himself called the “representation of real and existing things.” In realism paintings, ordinary, familiar and unadorned figures and objects become worthy subjects. Often implying a moral or social message, realism paintings present a straightforward depiction of the grim lives of the common folk. However, not all realism paintings are intentionally imbued with social consciousness or political subversion as there are also realist paintings that capture every day scenes of contemporary life that the audience may find sweetly sentimental or innocuously spontaneous.

Artist

Gustave Courbet

A french painter, Gustave Courbet was born in Ornans. His birthplace is his favourite subject in his paintings. He studied under several minor artists, and also copied works in the Louvre to establish his own realist style. Courbet won a gold medal at a Salon exhibition in 1949, but his success diminished after his presentation of ‘The Burial at Ornans’, a piece which was considered shallow, ugly, and excessively large. Due to the French Government became suspicious of him during the 1848 Revolution, Courbet held contempt for his native country for the remainder of his life. He refused to exhibit at the World Fair in 1855, and also refused to accept the Legion of Honor offered to him. Because of these actions, Courbet was exiled and spent the last years of his life in Switzerland.

The Stone Breaker

‘A Burial At Ornans’

Francois Bonvin (November 22, 1817 – December 19, 1887)

Francois Bonvin was also a French realist painter, who began studying art at the age of eleven and painted his first known work while working as a clerk for the Paris police department. He was inspired by the Dutch paintings that he studied at the Louvre, especially those of Pieter de Hooch, and imitated their quiet, intimate feel in his own still life and genre scenes. Through his relationship with Gustave Courbet, Bonvin became a leader in the Realist movement. He supported the artists of the movement such as half-brother Leon Bonvin, James McNeill Whistler, and Henri Fatin-Latour, giving them money, supplies, and exhibiting their work in his atelier. Later in his career, Bonvin traveled in the Netherlands and London before settling in a small French village to continue painting his small genre scenes.

 Francois Bonvin, Charity 1851.

Rosa Bonheur (1822 - 1899)

Rosa Bonheur trained under her father, Raymond and showed initial talent. In 1841, she first exhibited at the Salon at the young age of nineteen. After her show, The Horse Fair, which traveled in Britain and the United States, she gained recognition for her work and her feminist views. Bonheur became the first female member of the Legion of honor in 1865.

Rosa Bonheur, The Horse Fair (1853-55)

Wilhelm Leibl  (October 23, 1844 – December 4, 1900)

Wilhelm Leibl first studied at the Academy in Munich. He met Courbet in 1869, while the French artist was traveling with his exhibition. Not long after this encounter, Leibl moved to Paris with Courbet and worked as his assistant. In 1870, the Franc-Prussian War forced Leibl to return to Germany but he continued to exhibit in Paris. After 1873, he moved to the Bavarian countryside and began painting subjects from the area.

Wilhelm Leibl , Peasants in Conversation(1877).