Analyzing Realism Impressionism and Nineteenth Century Photography

Realism, Impressionism, and Nineteenth-Century Photography

The Village Maidens

Artist

Gustave Courbet

Date the Piece was Created

Art Movement and/or Style Media

Realism / Oil Paint

Description and Analysis

This 1852 painting, which sparked the creation of a collection of pictures dedicated to women's lives, depicts the artist's three sisters -- Juliette, Zoe and Zelie -- taking a stroll along the Communal-- a little valley close to Ornans (their native village) (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2016). Despite nothing of significance being depicted in this painting, it tells a story. Courbet uses a dark and dull color tone and the overall painting is neither overly dark nor overly bright. The weather may be taken to be pleasant and warm, considering the clear sky Courbet portrays in the painting's background. His brush strokes and paint choice impart a realistic texture and tone to the picture. As no activity is shown in the backdrop, the first and most overt element a viewer sees is the three ladies painted in bright colors. The painting shows a fine contrast, letting viewers know the position of the sun (shadows are being cast on the picture's right, indicating that the sun was positioned on the opposite side). Shapes are conveyed beautifully in this vast expanse of plain land, giving rise to a three-dimensional valley. The artist takes a modernist approach with this painting. Its focus is on what's happening at present rather than in the past. Courbet has captured what his sisters were doing at the very same moment in time (Galbreat, 2014).

Bain a la Grenouillere

Artist

Claude Monet

Date the Piece was Created

Art Movement and/or Style Media

Impressionism / Oil Paint

Description and Analysis

Bain a la Grenouillere by Monet portrays a popular bathing and boating establishment, with a floating cafe adjacent to it, near Bougival, on West Paris's Seine. In summer 1869, the artist was residing near this resort, with Camille, his mistress, and their son. Monet worked alongside Renoir to sketch the scenery in a rather direct and fresh manner, probably as a draft painting for a final one on a larger canvas, which might have been displaced over time (The National Gallery, 2016).

In this painting, which looks towards the northeast, the afternoon sun is shown to fall from behind him; this sort of lighting effect was probably inspired by Manet's work. But despite the use of full-face lighting, Monet takes care not to exploit it. The end result is an overall brilliance to the more open landscape. It was only during the 1870s that Monet started employing this device. Owing to the closeness of overhanging dense trees, the artist has generated alternating dark blocks, with patches of bright sunlight piercing them, leading to contrasts of shade and light, which was characteristic of Manet's 1860s' paintings. Another similarity with Manet's work is this painting's juicy paint quality. However, unlike Manet, this scene was painted outdoors. The brushwork signifies the speed with which he had to capture transitory effects offered by the scenery. Generally, the layer of paint is opaque, hiding the white canvas background, with the exception of the painting's upper right corner, which is most hastily painted. However, this white background serves to retain the recently-cleaned paint layer's brilliance. A letter Monet wrote to his artist friend, Frederic Bazille (1841-1870), dated September 25, 1869, while working on this painting verifies that he was, at this time, still working traditionally -- i.e., seeing such studies as preparatory art for larger, probably studio executed paintings. In this picture, vigorous brushwork is seen, with individually discernible brush marks, indicating that he used hog's hair paint brushes measuring 1-2 centimeters (2/5-4/5inches) in width. No much variation exists between stroke size in the background and foreground for suggesting depth. However, more uniform and straight horizontal brushstrokes and pastel shading on the far-off water gives an impression of recession and depth (Pioch, 2002).

London Underground in the 1890s

Artist

Unknown

Date the Piece was Created

1980s

Art Movement and/or Style Media

19th Century Photography

Description and Analysis