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Landscape with Saint John on Patmos, Nicolas Poussin (French), 1640, 39 1/2 × 53 5/8 in.,  oil on canvas.

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French Cultural Tradition: Classicism and The Academy 

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French Cultural Tradition: Classicism and The Academy 

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Source: Dr. Elizabeth Gand, Diablo Valley College course, Baroque to 20th Century Art History (197 SP24), course module page, “Elite Status & Classical Values: The Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture’”

Poussin was a hugely influential and key figure in the French movement of Classicism which was studied and perpetuated by the French Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture. They defined and promoted this painting to become the standard of French art. According to Dr. Gand, art came under Royal control just like everything else in 17th century France.

This acquisition of art as a practice  reflected how art started to become an elite activity that reflected intellectualism that was made for the people at the top of the social hierarchy. Instead of art being seen as a labor or craft, the Royal Academy argued it should be intellectual and high class. The “Royal Academy” lecture video by Dr. Gand goes further to explain how Classicism amplified classical authority and emphasized precision, heroes, and power.

Poussin’s Landscape with Saint John on Patmos  showed how a landscape could be transformed into “high-genre”.  He places St. John right at the center of the foreground, surrounded by Roman empire ruins,  which gives  him a sense of a noble purpose. It also is an epitomized  example of the measured, calculated, calm, and balanced composition and form which was so important in Classicism. The artist's hand is nowhere to be seen and everything seamlessly blends together as if it were a picture.  For this reason, he was loved and promoted by The Royal Academy as the ideal artist.

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Jean-Antoine Watteau, The Signboard of Gersaint, 1721, Oil on canvas, 63 4/5 × 120 1/2 in.

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Source: Stokstad and Cothren, Art History, Ch 30, European and American Art, 1715–1840, “Rococo".,

Dr. Elizabeth Gand, Diablo Valley College course, Baroque to 20th Century Art History (197 SP24), course module page, “Rococo Painting: Watteau, Boucher, and Fragonard’”

Later in France, intellectual revolutions started to break out which led to the Enlightenment. As the textbook explains, as a result of this period, urban aristocrats began to take interest in art as their own intellectual pursuit.  On the module page "Elite Culture in the 1700s" Dr. Gand points out that these patrons "enjoyed a regained independence from the king's court in Versailles. No longer required to orbit the king in his Versailles splendor, they established themselves in elegant Paris townhomes designed to show off their sophistication". Art became a way for them to feel powerful, rich,  and smart.

Jean-Antoine Watteau was a key figure in catering to this demographic and  gave birth to the art movement known as the French Rococo. Shops began to sprout up for art dealers who sold art to these wealthy merchants, which is why Watteau created this painting.

The Signboard of Gersaint was a huge painting which was created as a signboard for Edmé-François Gersaint’s shop. The painting itself depicts an imagined interior of one of these shops, showing art that Watteau admired all over the walls, as well as the wealthy, sophisticated merchants shopping there.

Stylistically, this change is characterized by a use of visible brushstrokes and expressive color which was very different from The Academy’s Classism. A hallmark of Rococo style is depicting a lavish and sensual lifestyle that appealed to the aristocrats of the time which marks this period where art as a lavish display of wealth is at its most obvious. Art was made to fan the egos of aristocrats and celebrate their shallow and expensive lifestyles. It seems almost polar opposite to Daumier’s Third-Class Carriage.

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David, Death of Marat, 1793, Oil on Canvas, 5′ 4″ x 4′ 2″. 

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Source: Dr. Elizabeth Gand, Diablo Valley College course, Baroque to 20th Century Art History (197 SP24), course module page, “David, the Premiere Revolutionary History Painter”,

Stokstad and Cothren, Art History, Ch 30, European and American Art, 1715–1840, “Later Eighteenth-Century Art in France".

According to Dr. Gand on the module page “Painting the Revolution”,  the French revolution erupted in 1789,  due to the long buildup of inequality and abuse of power from the top two estates which comprised only 3% of the population– the aristocrats and the clergy. The other 97% of France was the Third Estate who were fed up and began to demand political self-determination.

French artist Jacques-Louis David invented a new style of Neoclassicism and was a key-witness to the revolution and French history.  Before he was pushed to be a counter-revolutionary after The Reign of Terror, he was absolutely a revolutionary and used painting as a way to promote the French revolution. His style of Neoclassicism brought back the focus on using Ancient Greek and Roman styles of art-making,  emphasizing  simplicity, geometry, and discipline.

His Death of Marat, was revolutionary in the way it both depicts a revolutionary hero, and depicts a contemporary event as opposed to a historical one. In the same year he made this painting, he helped with abolishing the Royal Academy of painting and made moves apart from the Church and Monarchy.

In the painting he depicts revolutionary political martyr Jean-Paul Marat after being murdered in his bathtub as a result of his revolutionary ideas. As the textbook states, this emotional painting pushed French academic rules to their limit. To me, a part of this painting which calls to Daumier’s Third-Class Carriage, is how David signs his name below his inscription of “to Marat”. It serves both as a tombstone and a sign that David stands beside him in his death. It reminds me of the way Daumier signs his name in the wood of the carriage bench, insinuating too that he stands behind the working class.

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 Gustave Courbet, The Stone Breakers, 1849, Oil on canvas, 5′ 5″ x 8′ 5″.

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Art as Revolution: Realism and The Avant-Garde

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Art as Revolution: Realism and The Avant-Garde

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Source: Stokstad and Cothren, Art History, Ch 31, Mid- to Late Nineteenth-Century Art in Europe and the United States, “Realism and the Avant-Garde”,

Dr. Elizabeth Gand, Diablo Valley College course, Baroque to 20th Century Art History (197 SP24), course module page, “The Avant-Garde: ‘To the Barricades!’”

In the post-revolution world, time began to move much quicker. Industrialization and the modernization of France meant that everything in France was rapidly changing. Academic and high-class art was still the standard in France, until art started to become a tool for dissent. As discussed in the “Avant-Garde: To the Barricades!” module page, the Avant-Garde art movement started as a fight against these barriers and rules that art had previously been stuck in for centuries.

Gustave Courbet was one of the many artists at the time fighting for a new definition of what art is, who it’s for,  and what it can do. He personally saw art as a tool that could be used to push social and cultural change which is exactly what The Stone Breakers is doing.

At its immense size, Courbet is challenging what would traditionally be a history painting canvas size, and instead using it to depict working class people in the modern era. The two figures in the painting are faceless laborers breaking stones, doing back-breaking work. Close to the ground and surrounded by dirt and weeds, the figures are symbolized to be at the bottom of the world. They are isolated and ignored in their struggle as the rich continue to get richer in Paris, while they are doing harder, more industrial work.  I think without a doubt, this piece spoke to Daumier. Both Courbet and Daumier are both radically challenging painting expectations and using art as a way to critique the current conditions of society.

Along with this, the textbook explains that Courbet was one of the first artists to consider themselves a Realist. Realism is something incredibly important in Daumier’s work and sought to depict the absolute truth and harsh realities of the world.

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Honoré Daumier (French, Marseilles), Third-Class Carriage, 1856-1858, 10 1/4 x 13 3/8 in.

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Art for the people: Daumier's Radical Empathy

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Art for the people: Daumier's Radical Empathy

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Source: Dr. Elizabeth Gand, Diablo Valley College course, Baroque to 20th Century Art History (197 SP24), course module page, “Henri Daumier's Prints: Art for the People"

This brings us to Daumier’s Third-Class Carriage. Knowing the history that leads up to it makes it even more provocative and brave. Just as Courbet did, Daumier is standing with the working class and fighting for their rights.

Daumier considered himself a Realist and used his entire career to make art for the working-class people which was pretty much unheard of at the time. In the module page, “Honore Daumier’s Prints: Art for the People” Dr. Gand explains how Daumier used printmaking and lithography to make affordable, accessible prints for the working class.

In his eyes, art was not an elite, upper-class luxury for only the most wealthy, but instead an empowering and empathetic tool to bring people together as well as critique social situations.

In Third-Class Carriage, a tightly packed train car is depicted, one which would have held the lowest class in Paris at the time– the working class. The people in the painting are truthfully depicted as exhausted and human. There is compassion in how each person has been thoughtfully depicted. Their personalities and individuality comes through simple yet effective brush work. Daumier is a Realist and an incredible social observer who stood with and fought for the rights of the working class. His strides in social change not only impact art from this moment on, but also history altogether.