Compare and contrast Renoir’s Moulin de la Galette against Toulouse Lautrec’s At the Moulin Rouge.
INSTRUCTIONS: write a one-page double spaced 12 point type paper. Submitting paper to TURNITIN NO PLAGIARIZING. Worth 100 points, so write a well editing and convincing paper.
PROMPTS: Watch at least two of the four videos below (ONLY USE ATTACHED slides shows as reference material!!! I HAVE ATTACHED EVERY SLIDE SHOW WE HAVE USED THROUGH THE SEMESTER)
Choose only ONE of the following topics to write about:
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Order Paper Now1. Compare and contrast Renoir’s Moulin de la Galette against Toulouse Lautrec’s At the Moulin Rouge. Your paper should have a strong thesis statement. Compare technique, composition, subject matter, and the intent of the artist in each case. State the similarities but also BE SURE TO STATE THE CONTRASTS.
2. Write an in-depth analysis of Manet’s Bar at the Folies Bergère including the technique and intent of the artist, and the subject matter. Concentrate on all the points made in the video, the textbook and the slide show. Compare the still life at the bar with the still life in Renoir’s Moulin de la Galette. Also compare the kind of crowd and the atmosphere in the two paintings. What was Renoir’s intent? What was Manet’s intent? Your paper should have a strong thesis statement.
3. Compare Gustave Caillebotte’s Rainy Day Paris with Renoir’s Moulin de la Galette. Specifically respond to how these paintings address life in Paris in the 1870s. How does the broad boulevard in Caillebotte’s painting apply to the fact that Paris had been renovated? How does the crowd in the Montmartre dance hall Moulin de la Galette compare to the people in Caillebotte’s painting? Why are they both Impressionist painters when Caillebotte’s work is so much more precise in terms of brushstrokes as compared to Renoir’s? Answer these questions in a specific and clear way. Your paper should have a clear thesis statement.
LINKS TO VIDEOS:
REALISM
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A the Romantic movement began to lose favor—a new style of art, and literature, REALISM was ushered in beginning around the late 1840s…
GUSTAVE COURBET, The Stone Breakers, 1849. Oil on canvas, 5’ 3” x 8’ 6”. Formerly at Gemäldegalerie, Dresden (destroyed in 1945
Gustave Courbet was one of the leading figures of the Realist movement. He believed that an artist should examine his or her surroundings and paint what they observe. Subjects that were previously thought to be unsuitable were embraced by artists like Courbet. Courbet had written that he wanted: “To be able to translate the customs, ideas, and appearances of my own time as I see them (…)to create a living art.” In this painting of 1849, Courbet examines the life of a menial workers. Stonebreakers were traditionally one of the lowest ranking of the laborers. We see an older and younger man, whose job it is to break stones from morning until night. Courbet emphasizes the earthiness of their profession by using a palette of browns and greys, and by painting the men’s clothing in the same palette as the earth. We see a man perhaps around 70 and a young man perhaps in his late teens both doing the same hard labor and suggesting that there is no upward mobility in their lives, the young man will grow old doing the same work and remain in poverty. It was rare to create unidealized portraits, especially of the working poor. The 1848 revolution made this painting timely, but the conservative French Academy Salon jurors deemed it unacceptable and “socialist”.
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Courbet described his inspiration for Stone Breakers in a November 1849 letter to Francis and Marie Wey:
“I had taken our carriage to go to the Château of Saint-Denis to paint a landscape. Near Maisières I stopped to consider two men breaking stones on the road. One rarely encounters the most complete expression of poverty, so right there on the spot I got an idea for a painting. I made a date to meet them in my studio the following morning, and since then I have painted my picture. …On one side is an old man of seventy, bent over his work, his sledgehammer raised, his skin parched by the sun, his head shaded by a straw hat; his trousers, of coarse material, are completely patched; and in his cracked sabots you can see his bare heels sticking out of socks that were once blue. On the other side is a young man with swarthy skin, his head covered with dusk; his disgusting shirt all in tatters reveals his arms and parts of his back; a leather suspender holds up what is left of his trousers, and his mud-caked leather boots show gaping holes on every side. The old man is kneeling, the young man standing behind him energetically carrying a basket of broken rocks. Alas! In this class, this is how one begins, and that is how one ends.”
Cited in Albert Boime, Art in an Age of Civil Struggle 1848-1871 (Chicago, IL and London: The University of Chicago Press, 2007), pp. 158-9.
GUSTAVE COURBET, Burial at Ornans, 1849. Oil on canvas, 10’ 3 1/2” x 22’ 9 1/2”. Musée d’Orsay, Paris.
This massive canvas has been regarded by some art historians as Courbet’s masterpiece. It depicts a funeral in the provinces where Courbet was born. These kinds of funerals are depicted in the novels of Balzac and Flaubert, two of the great Realist novelists of the time. Although contemporary critics were harsh, Courbet sought to make this a scene of ordinary people set on a heroic scale, in other words, record this village event as if it was a grand manner history painting. Note the scale of this work, it is almost 23 feet long by 10 feet tall! Some of the models are Courbet’s sisters (which he used as subjects in other paintings) and he also used the faces of friends to make up the funeral attendees. The grave pit itself opens up into the viewers space in the foreground. While many of his critics complained that Courbet used a dark palette and painted with less illusionism than his Romantic predecessors, Courbet’s work sets the stage for modern art by celebrating everyday scenes of contemporary life, and by avoiding any theatrical trappings. A critic who appreciated Courbet’s work, Jules-Francois Champfleury wrote that Burial at Ornans: “represents a small town funeral and yet reproduces the funerals of all small towns.”
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Left: Courbet
Self portrait with a pipe
1849
Below: Courbet
Bonjour Mr. Courbet
1854
Right: Nadar portrait of Courbet c. 1865
Courbet proudly considered himself to be a rebel. In terms of painting this meant depicting himself and everyone around him in a simple and realistic way, preferring to champion simple people. As mentioned, many critics despised his work but he never wavered. Later in his life, he got involved in yet another French revolution in 1870 which finally toppled the monarchic tradition and resulted in the creation of the French Republic, However, he was exiled to Switzerland in 1871 and died there in 1877.
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JEAN-FRANÇOIS MILLET, The Gleaners, 1857. Oil on canvas, 2’ 9” x 3’ 8”. Musée d’Orsay, Paris
Like Courbet, Jean Francois Millet also sought to paint what he saw around him. He was one a group of French painters who observed country life near the village of Barbizon and for that reason his is considered to be one of the Barbizon school. They specialized in landscapes of the countryside. In this painting we see a group of Gleaners, impoverished women, who go through the harvested fields and take whatever is left over. There was a standing law that allowed people to pick up any fruit, vegetable or grain that was left behind after the harvest. Millet was born into a prosperous farming family so although he never experienced hunger, he was keenly aware of its existence all around him. Although to our eyes this looks like a beautiful painting investing the subjects with great dignity. However, it upset many and was very controversial. Middle-class landowners were resisting the tradition of continuing to allow gleaning rights, and the middle class linked the poor to Marxism. The bourgeoisie were afraid of the advance of socialist ideas and for many classes in France this painting was considered a frightening political message because of its sympathy for the poor.
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HONORÉ DAUMIER, Rue Transnonain, 1834. Lithograph, 1’ x 1’ 5 1/2”. Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia
Although to our eyes the work of Courbet and Millet does not seem subversive, set against the political climate in mid-nineteenth century in France, any homage to the lower classes was seen as provocative by the upper class. Honoré Daumier addressed class and social issues directly. In this lithograph, Daumier, a great printmaker depicts a tragic event of French history. This was published in the August 1834 issue of a monthly French newspaper and shocked the public. It tells the story of a demonstration by the working class which was brutally suppressed by French government soldiers. As this was happening, a sniper housed in a workers apartment building fired outside and shot one of the French civil guardsman. The remaining guards stormed the building and brutally murdered all of the inhabitants of the building including men, women, and children. Daumier depicts the moment after the slaughter. We see a dead man whose body covers his dead child. Other dead bodies litter the small, humble apartment. This was a simple but moving depiction of a miscarriage of justice that is a perfect example of Realist art because it is rough, spontaneous and depicts a contemporary event.
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HONORÉ DAUMIER, Third-Class Carriage, ca. 1862. Oil on canvas, 2’ 1 3/4” x 2’ 11 1/2”. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
This painting by Daumier gives the viewer a glimpse into a third-class train carriage and is carried out like a print but is actually a painting. The riders are clearly working class as seen by their clothing and resigned demeanor cramped into a dark and dirty railway car, probably on their way to work. On the rail system, first and second class passengers had private, closed compartments. This is a comment on 19th century industrialization and workers who those of the upper classes might see as anonymous people. His work both in this scene and in the Rue Transnonain take the place of the camera which was as yet unavailable for spontaneous journalistic reportage.
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ROSA BONHEUR, The Horse Fair, 1853–1855. Oil on canvas, 8’ 1/4” x 16’ 7 1/2”. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
A realist painter, Rosa Bonheur avoided the socially charged political subject matter of Courbet, Millet or Daumier. In fact she is one of a kind for many reasons. She focused on country scenes and painted faithful depictions of animals, including horses, rabbits, cows and sheep. She was unusual for her time and her self-assurance can be attributed to the fact that her father encouraged her educations and sense of freedom, unusual in those days in France when upper class women had little formal education and were placed in arranged marriages at an early age. In order to study animal anatomy, Bonheur visited the slaughterhouses where she studied the anatomy of horses and cattle. She also obtained special permission from the government to wear pants (which was generally forbidden to women) so that she could wander freely in the country and the city to study nature. Her paintings were very popular and were made into prints.. “I was forced to recognize that the clothing of my sex was a constant bother. That is why I decided to solicit the authorization to wear men’s clothing from the prefect of police.” She wore typical female attire when not working but she lived with a female companion most of her life. Although she was actually rather conservative, she is seen today seen as a proto-feminist and it is thought she was a lesbian albeit very closeted. She was famous in her own time and was patronized by Empress Eugenie of France, and Queen Victoria of England, as well as being the first woman to be awarded the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor.
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IDEAS THAT USHERED IN REALISM
Realism defined: a return to the rational (in art and literature) and a renewed embrace of Enlightenment ideals
Empiricism: the idea that knowledge must be based on observation and positivism
Positivism: a philosophical model developed by Auguste Comte who believed that science is the highest achievement of the mind
Artists embraced realism as a means to observe life as it is, and to paint without reverting to mythology or history. Realism also became important to writers like George Elliot, Honoré de Balzac and Gustave Flaubert among others
THE NEW MODERNISM
ÉDOUARD MANET, Le Déjeuner sur l’Herbe (Luncheon on the Grass), 1863. Oil on canvas, 7’ x 8’ 10”. Musée d’Orsay, Paris
Edouard Manet was as important to 19th c. art as Courbet had been earlier in the century. He continued to paint scenes of contemporary life, but rather than address social issues, his work commented directly upon the history of art itself. This painting, Luncheon on the Grass, was considered shocking for two major reasons. Although at first glance it is a contemporary genre scene, the fact that Manet combined an unclothed woman and two fully dressed men picnicking in a park like setting was shocking because he didn’t use any mythological pretext. The other innovative feature of this work is the shallower, less illusionistic space created by the strong contrasts between light and dark. Manet is credited as the father of modernism because he believed in flattened perspective and acknowledging the flatness of the canvas. When people looked at this painting, they saw the female figure as a member of the demi-monde, that is to say a prostitute. She was Victorine Meurent, who was one of Manet’s favorite models. The men in the painting are probably Manet’s brother Eugene on the right, and his brother in law Ferdinand Leenhof. Manet used this painting as a way to allude to many paintings of the past like Titian’s Pastoral Symphony or Fete Champetre. One angry critic called it a “young man’s practical joke, a shameful, open sore.” The style of the work and the subject matter combined made this work unacceptable to the public of 1863. However, the work of Manet inspired Impressionist painters soon to come.
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Titian/Giorgione, Fête Champêtre, 1510
Manet was addressing art history and thinking about a real, reinterpretation of this subject by Titian/Giorgione.
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Above: Manet Luncheon on the Grass, 1863
Right: Giorgioni/Titian Fête Champêtre, 1510
Marcantonio Raimondi (after Raphael), engraving 1515
It is also thought that his group of figures was inspired by this print after a painting by Raphael.
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Raphael, The Judgment of Paris, 1512, Private Collection, U.K., 56 x 71 cm
There are many other examples of clothed men and naked females in art history, here an example by Raphael. However, because the subject is mythologically inspired, it raised no concern.
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Claude Monet, Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe, 1865-1866, Musée d’Orsay, Paris.
Luncheon on the Grass has inspired many copies, this one by Manet’s friend Claude Monet who choses to clothe all his figures including his wife, center.
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Picasso, Luncheon on the Grass, 1961
Even Picasso had a version of Luncheon on the Grass in 1951.
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Mickalene Thomas, Le Dejeuner sur l’herbe: Les Trois Femmes Noires, 2010, rhinestones, acrylic and enamel on wood panel, 120” x 288”
As did Mickalene Thomas who interprets this through the eyes of a contemporary African American woman.
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