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If you had to explain today’s lesson to a friend, what would you tell him/her?

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realism, in the arts, the accurate, detailed, unembellished depiction of nature or of contemporary life. Realism rejects imaginative idealization in favour of a close observation of outward appearances. As such, realism in its broad sense has comprised many artistic currents in different civilizations. In the visual arts, for example, realism can be found in ancient Hellenistic Greek sculptures accurately portraying boxers and decrepit old women. The works of such 17th-century painters as Caravaggio, the Dutch genre painters, the Spanish painters José de Ribera, Diego Velázquez, and Francisco de Zurbarán, and the Le Nain brothers in France are realist in approach. The works of the 18th-century English novelists Daniel Defoe, Henry Fielding, and Tobias Smollett may also be called realistic.

Realism was not consciously adopted as an aesthetic program until the mid-19th century in France, however. Indeed, realism may be viewed as a major trend in French novels and paintings between 1850 and 1880. One of the first appearances of the term realism was in the Mercure français du XIX siècle in 1826, in which the word is used to describe a doctrine based not upon imitating past artistic achievements but upon the truthful and accurate depiction of the models that nature and contemporary life offer the artist. The French proponents of realism were agreed in their rejection of the artificiality of both the Classicism and Romanticism of the academies and on the necessity for contemporaneity in an effective work of art. They attempted to portray the lives, appearances, problems, customs, and mores of the middle and lower classes, of the unexceptional, the ordinary, the humble, and the unadorned. Indeed, they conscientiously set themselves to reproducing all the hitherto-ignored aspects of contemporary life and society-its mental attitudes, physical settings, and material conditions.

Realism was stimulated by several intellectual developments in the first half of the 19th century. Among these were the anti-Romantic movement in Germany, with its emphasis on the common man as an artistic subject; Auguste Comte's Positivist philosophy, in which sociology's importance as the scientific study of society was emphasized; the rise of professional journalism, with its accurate and dispassionate recording of current events; and the development of photography, with its capability of mechanically reproducing visual appearances with extreme accuracy. All these developments stimulated interest in accurately recording contemporary life and society.

Gustave Courbet was the first artist to self-consciously proclaim and practice the realist aesthetic. After his huge canvas The Studio (1854-55) was rejected by the Exposition Universelle of 1855, the artist displayed it and other works under the label "Realism, G. Courbet" in a specially constructed pavilion. Courbet was strongly opposed to idealization in his art, and he urged other artists to instead make the commonplace and contemporary the focus of their art. He viewed the frank portrayal of scenes from everyday life as a truly democratic art. Such paintings as his Burial at Ornans (1849) and the Stone Breakers (1849), which he had exhibited in the Salon of 1850-51, had already shocked the public and critics by the frank and unadorned factuality with which they depicted humble peasants and labourers. The fact that Courbet did not glorify his peasants but presented them boldly and starkly created a violent reaction in the art world.

The style and subject matter of Courbet's work were built on ground already broken by the painters of the Barbizon School. Théodore Rousseau, Charles-François Daubigny, Jean-François Millet, and others in the early 1830s settled in the French village of Barbizon with the aim of faithfully reproducing the local character of the landscape. Though each Barbizon painter had his own style and specific interests, they all emphasized in their works the simple and ordinary rather than the grandiose and monumental aspects of nature. They turned away from melodramatic picturesqueness and painted solid, detailed forms that were the result of close observation. In such works as The Winnower (1848), Millet was one of the first artists to portray peasant labourers with a grandeur and monumentality hitherto reserved for more important persons.

Another major French artist often associated with the realist tradition, Honoré Daumier, drew satirical caricatures of French society and politics. He found his working-class heroes and heroines and his villainous lawyers and politicians in the slums and streets of Paris. Like Courbet, he was an ardent democrat, and he used his skill as a caricaturist directly in the service of political aims. Daumier used energetic linear style, boldly accentuated realistic detail, and an almost sculptural treatment of form to criticize the immorality and ugliness he saw in French society.

Pictorial realism outside of France was perhaps best represented in the 19th century in the United States. There, Winslow Homer's powerful and expressive paintings of marine subjects and Thomas Eakins 's portraits, boating scenes, and other works are frank, unsentimental, and acutely observed records of contemporary life.

Realism was a distinct current in 20th-century art and usually stemmed either from artists' desire to present more honest, searching, and unidealized views of everyday life or from their attempts to use art as a vehicle for social and political criticism. The rough, sketchy, almost journalistic scenes of seamy urban life by the group of American painters known as The Eight fall into the former category. The German art movement known as the Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity), on the other hand, worked in a realist style to express the cynicism and disillusionment of the post- World War I period in Germany. The Depression-era movement known as Social Realism adopted a similarly harsh and direct realism in its depictions of the injustices and evils of American society during that period.

Socialist Realism, which was the officially sponsored Marxist aesthetic in the Soviet Union from the early 1930s until that country's dissolution in 1991, actually had little to do with realism, though it purported to be a faithful and objective mirror of life. Its "truthfulness" was required to serve the ideology and the propagandistic needs of the state. Socialist Realism generally used techniques of naturalistic idealization to create portraits of dauntless workers and engineers who were strikingly alike in both their heroic positivism and their lack of lifelike credibility.

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Realism | History, Definition, & Characteristics

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Realism, in the arts, the accurate, detailed, unembellished depiction of nature or of contemporary life. Realism was a major trend in French novels and paintings between 1850 and 1880. Highlights included Gustave Courbet's painting Burial at Ornans (1849) and Gustave Flaubert's novel Madame Bovary (1857).

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1760 - 1830

1. Greek or Roman men armoured with swords and spears, e.g. The Oath of Horatii by Jacques-Louis David

2. Classical subject matter: People in static calm poses, draped in flowing Greek robes, Roman togas and sandals, e.g. Virgil Reading the Aeneid to Augustus, Octavia, and Livia by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres

3. Clear and sharp outlines within a rectilinear composition featuring people looking polished and posing in a statuesque manner, as if they're marble sculptures e.g. The Death of Socrates by Jacques-Louis David

How Neoclassical art got its name? and where did it originate?

Neoclassicism (meaning New Classicism) was born in the mid-1700s, originally in Rome but its popularity exploded in France, as a generation of French and other European art students finished their training and returned from Rome to their home countries with newly-rediscovered Greco-Roman (Classical) ideals. As a testimony of the significant influence the Greeks and Romans had on Western civilization, interestingly the term itself is a merger of words derived from both ancient languages spoken by them; neos (Greek for "new"), classicus (Latin for "first class") and ismos (Greek for "doctrine" or "ideology"). Neoclassical art style was widely adopted and popularized by French artists, since France was the centre of culture and art in Europe at that time. The art movement was not limited to painting and sculpture; it was also manifested in literature, architecture and music, embraced by artists all over Europe and America. Born on the eve of the Age of Revolution, it reflected the intellectual, social and political changes of that period. One book ( Gardner's Art through the Ages, 1926) accurately describes it as "the semiofficial voice of the French Revolution."
1. The Age of Enlightenment and the Grand Tour
Ever since the fall of the Roman Empire, thirteen centuries earlier, Europeans had been nostalgically fascinated by the grandeur and glory of ancient Rome. It was always in the intellectual background, hence several classical revivals emerged over the centuries, such as the one that materialized in Italian Renaissance art. However, it was powerfully reignited in the Age of Enlightenment of the 18th century, due to the philosophical return to classical thought, and renewed appreciation of Greek and Roman cultures. Being one of the leading advocates of Neoclassicism, German art historian Johann Joachim Winckelmann summed up the admiration of a new generation of artists behind such resurgence of classical tradition in his book History of Ancient Art (1764). His influential book gave the movement momentum in which he famously proposed that since the ancients had already attained perfection in their art, "the only way for modern artists to achieve greatness was to imitate the Greeks." [Source: Antoine Watteau: Perspectives on the Artist And the Culture of His Time By Mary D. Sheriff]. In the 1750s, art students in Rome gathered around the historian Winckelmann and his protégé, the painter Anton Raphael Mengs, one of the earliest artists to adopt classical themes in his paintings. By the end of their mid-18th century "pilgrimage" to Rome, a part of what is known as the Grand Tour, expatriate artists had acquired newly-found ideals from the ancient past and a new artistic style.
2. The Ruins of Herculaneum and Pompeii
The revival was also inspired by the excavation of the ruins of Herculaneum and Pompeii. Both were Roman sites, buried under volcanic ash and mud in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. Such archaeological discoveries were the biggest news of the day. Ancient lost cities, frozen in time, preserved for centuries and about to give an accurate picture of life in antiquity. The excavated artifacts sparked the interest of people and artists in particular. Several books were published about Graeco-Roman art like Antiquities of Athens of 1762 (by English archaeologists James Stuart and Nicholas Revett) and the European fascination with classical antiquity began to be reflected in paintings, fashion, furniture and even tableware and garden design. Architecturally, the Arc de Triomphe of Paris (built between 1806 and 1836) is one of the best known Neoclassical constructions. Also, the American Founding Fathers were in favor of the Neoclassical style. Many government buildings, universities and museums were built to look like Greek temples, for example the White House (built between 1792-1800) and the US Capitol (built between 1793-1829).
3. The Age of Revolution
The advent of revolutionary movements in France and America, based on classical ideals such as the democracy of ancient Athens and Rome, made Neoclassical art even more appealing. Those ideals were a major force behind the American colonies' Declaration of Independence from the British Empire (1776) and the overthrow of the French monarchy (1789). As they rejected and revolted against the contemporary unjust governments, they found values and inspiration in the Greco-Roman past. Concepts related to the republic and senate, of the ancient ruling system of Rome, provided the revolutionaries with a vision for the emerging American and French republics. The basic reasons behind the French Revolution were poverty and famine, which provoked the rising of the impoverished society that included peasants, laborers and merchants against both the aristocracy and clergy. Frustration with the monarchy and the Church turned violent and hundreds of priests were killed by mobs throughout the revolution, as happened in the September Massacres of Paris in 1792. Eventually, the French government replaced the quasi-state religion of Christianity with anti-clerical Secularism. With religion marginalized, it's no surprise that they looked towards an alternative source of morals and values from antiquity. That hostility to religion explains why on the path to the revolution, Neoclassical artists portrayed themes of civic duty and allegiance to the state rather than to church (or family). Paintings showed virtues glorified by the Romans and Greeks, like fighting for one's country, bravery and loyalty. They promoted ideals such as patriotism, courage and sacrifice. The anti-clerical sentiment is evident in the radical approach of depicting civic virtues that were idealized by pagan Romans and Greeks, instead of biblical virtues and Christian saints. It's not an art style where you'd find a moral message through a painting of a Christian martyr, but rather a dying pagan philosopher (e.g. The Death of Socrates by Jacques-Louis David). Modern-day fallen patriots and revolutionaries were mythologized and portrayed as heroes bravely meeting their demise in scenes that resemble religious martyrdom (e.g. Death of Marat by Jacques-Louis David). One of the best known examples of neoclassical paintings was The Oath of the Horatii painted five years before the outbreak of the revolution. It was painted by French artist Jacques-Louis David whose artwork anticipated the revolution. Three-quarters of the French were illiterate which created an opportunity for art to become a political tool to arouse revolutionary fervor.

Neoclassical painters rebelled against Rococo art because it epitomized what was wrong with a formerly great nation. Rococo art represented the aristocratic extravagances of the pre-revolutionary society under Louis XV. Its shallow subject matter showed flirty women and frolicsome men, cherubs and cupids, mythological scenes, and carefree people with a hedonistic attitude. It was almost sinful and certainly lustful. Neoclassical artists rejected the Rococo superficial beauty and aristocratic frivolity. If Rococo art was aimed at the French aristocracy, then Neoclassical art was aimed at the masses on the verge of revolting against the aristocracy. If Rococo style represented a decadent culture, then Neoclassical subject matter was art with a moral character. Unlike the Rococo art movement, the purpose of art was no longer decorative but to inspire values while yearning towards the greatness of Greco-Roman cultures. Art had a political role to play. As a sign that flamboyance had given way to solemnity, clarity and order, the serpentine and curvilinear motifs of the Rococo style were replaced by the Neoclassical symmetrical and rectilinear ones.

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1760 - 1830 How to identify Neoclassical art? 1. Greek or Roman men armoured with swords and spears, e.g. The Oath of Horatii by Jacques-Louis David 2. Classical subject matter: People in static calm poses, draped in flowing Greek robes, ... Continue reading →

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1. Art Appreciation

2. Defining Romanticism in the Arts

By Jesse Bryant Wilder

Many art historians will tell you that Romanticism slips through your fingers when you try to define it. That's partly because Romantic artists didn't have one style like the Impressionists or Expressionists. The movement was about intense personal expression, so artists could focus on whatever turned them on. In addition, the movement wasn't grounded in France or Italy. It spread across most of Europe and later to the United States. Romanticism wasn't merely a visual-arts movement - it included poetry, fiction, and music. There were even Romantic philosophers! The fact that Romanticism was so widespread and diverse makes it hard to squeeze it into one definition.

Romanticism doesn't mean lying dreamy-eyed on a patch of clover or gazing wistfully into your lover's eyes. It doesn't refer to romance at all. It means being a staunch individualist, believing in the rights of other individuals, and expressing deep, intense, and often uplifting emotions - like Beethoven (whose Fifth Symphony marked the beginning of the Romantic era in music). Often, but not always, it means having a deep, spiritual relationship with nature. "Nature never did betray the heart that loved her," wrote the British Romantic poet William Wordsworth in Tintern Abbey.

The most famous Romantic works of art are not paintings, poems, or symphonies, but three novels: The Hunchback of Notre-Dame and Les Misérables, both by the French writer Victor Hugo, and Frankenstein, by 18-year-old British writer Mary Shelley. All three works are outcries against man's inhumanity to man. To drive home the point, the writers magnify the inhumanity so we can see it better. They do this by directing it against outcasts: a hunchback, an ex-convict, and a manmade monster. The more of an outsider someone is, the more people abuse that person.

The Romantic period was the first time in history that art focused on teaching people to care about each other. In this sense, Romanticism was "art with a heart." Romantic artists were also concerned with promoting individual liberty, ending slavery, and supporting democratic and independence movements, like the Greek war for independence from Turkey and the nationalism movement in Italy. To promote democracy in England, the Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley (husband of Mary) said to his countrymen in "Song to the Men of England":

Men of England, wherefore plough
For the lords who lay ye low?
Wherefore weave with toil and care
The rich robes your tyrants wear?

The French painter Delacroix used his paintbrush to win support for the Greek struggle for independence against the Turkish Empire. His painting The Massacre at Chios broadcast the terrible price the Greeks were paying in their struggle for liberty (in 1822, the Turks massacred 42,000 inhabitants of the island of Chios and sold about 50,000 as slaves in North Africa), moving many Europeans to sympathize with the Greek cause. The British Romantic poet Lord Byron put down his pen to help out. He died in Greece from a fever in 1824. Today, Byron is a Greek national hero.

Besides trying to improve social and political conditions, many Romantics went on inward quests to find and express a higher, truer reality than the one that confronts us from day to day. These painters and poets became prophets of a new Romantic spirituality. In "A Defense of Poetry," Shelley wrote:

The great secret of morals is Love; or a going out of our own nature. . . . A man, to be greatly good . . . must put himself in the place of another and of many others; the pains and pleasures of the species must become his own.

Many Romantics believed that there was a basic goodness in man buried under layers of socialization. The idea was largely born in the brain of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. In his influential book The Social Contract, he wrote, "Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains."

Rousseau said man was naturally good and honest (innocent as a babe) and that society made him bad. His Social Contract started a "back-to-Eden" movement, and a lot of the Romantics got onboard. Rousseau's ideas spurred the cult of the noble savage (Tarzan is an early-20th-century example), the natural man, born in the wild and unpolluted by socialization. The noble savage was natural, good, honest, and free - just like Tarzan or Mowgli in The Jungle Book.

Originally, Romantic also meant the opposite of classical. Classical is calm, orderly, even serene, like the Venus de Milo. Romantic is wild - a painting or poem bursting at the seams with energy, meaning, and often intimations of something spiritual.

About the Book Author

Jesse Bryant Wilder holds a MAT (Masters in Teaching) and a MA in Literature and is the founder, publisher and editor of NEXUS, a series of interdisciplinary textbooks used in high schools around the country. He has written several textbooks on art and art history and was an art critic for the Plain Dealer.

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Defining Romanticism in the Arts - dummies

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Many art historians will tell you that Romanticism slips through your fingers when you try to define it. That's partly because Romantic artists didn't have one style like the Impressionists or Expressionists. The movement was about intense personal expression, so artists could focus on whatever turned them on.