Post #2

             Gustave Courbet was a phenomenal painter of the realism movement.  His paintings depicted ordinary events with a political twisting message that caused strongly mixed emotions from different classes of society.  Courbet developed two paintings only a short year after the Karl Marx Communist Manifesto was unleashed upon the public.  Although it is not a direct cause and effect, it definitely made it a popular topic that many avant-garde artists took into consideration, the idea of exposing the working class.  For many years in Europe, artwork was considered to be more of a visual dream that people could escape to.  The wealthy were overly drawn to the idea of hiring artists to paint them as heroic figures or seen in the brightest of lights.  This is where the emergence of realism quickly struck down those ideal standards and made way for a new form of expression.

            One of the most controversial paintings Courbet constructed was The Stone Breakers in 1849.  This specific piece of work epitomizes the idea of realism, since it specifically focuses on two figures working away on some of the most backbreaking labor of the 19^th century.  There were some major elements within this piece that made it such a despised piece amongst the bourgeoisie (the wealthier middle/upper class).  Aside from the subject matter, it was created at a very large scale (5’ x 8’).  During this time, grand scale paintings illustrated mythological events, historical tales, or even portraits of vastly important figures, but never would people imagine such a depressing painting to be constructed at these extreme dimensions.  The subject matter also plays a huge role, as it shows two figures, an older man and a much younger boy, breaking rocks that would be used for the support of the under road.  As noticed, both figures faces are turned away from the viewer, almost as a message to the upper class of how immense the working class had it.  Each figure stands out as having some sort of tattered article of clothing as they were mostly consumed by the life of hard work and poverty.  The foreground consisted entirely of these two figures and had little to no background, focusing the audience towards the sorrow of the laborers.  This was a direct insult towards the bourgeoisie, as they were not comfortable with being confronted with the idea of how hard off the working class has it in comparison to their own lives.  It also was a slap in the face towards the wealthy class since it follows the idea of political radicalism by glorifying the working class.

 

Aside from this specific painting, his other popular piece, A Burial at Ornans in 1849 also made Courbet a disliked artist amongst the bourgeoisie.  Like the first painting, this painting had a much more unclear subject matter and highlighted certain elements that left many people puzzled and unsatisfied.  One of the most notable things in this painting was that the dog stands out much greater than those of the people there for the burial, which created quite a stir throughout the bourgeoisie.  Likewise, the foreground consisted of a large hole where the corpse was being buried, leaving the wealthy to relate this painting as “ugly, repugnant, disgusting, and too realistic”.

            In my opinion, Gustave Courbet had a fantastic understanding of how to politically control the expression of his audience.  He was one of the extreme definitions of “avant-garde” in terms of creating a piece of work that would change the way society is reflected and hopefully create change.