Realism Paintings

The stone breakers - Gustav Courbet 

This painting shows ordinary people working hard to remove stone from a road which was a difficult and unpleasant task, but it was painted on a scale that was reserved for history painting’s or religious theme's, making these lower class people important. To show the simple life Courbet used a simple style unlike the one the academy was teaching as he wanted to show what’s real, Courbet painted them wearing torn clothing also he painted a man to old and a boy too young to be working in that environment. Courbet’s main goal was to show an accurate painting of the suffering and social injustice that was going on in French rural life.

The Bathers – Gustav Courbet

Here we see a painting which bought a lot of controversy in the art word, also a lot of critique artist where used to seeing idealized forms but what Courbet painted shocked them as he glorified the ugly so to speak.  Again this painting shows us that Courbet was giving importance to reality, he painted the truth. People didn't like his work because they thought that paintings should be pleasant and be enjoyed not show social injustice.

Bibliography

The Stonebreakers - Smarthistory. 2013. The Stonebreakers - Smarthistory. [ONLINE] Available at: http://smarthistory.khanacademy.org/the-stonebreakers.html. [Accessed 06 March 2013].

Every Painter Paints Himself | Courbet’s Bathers (1853). 2013. Every Painter Paints Himself | Courbet’s Bathers (1853). [ONLINE] Available at: http://everypainterpaintshimself.com/article/courbets_bathers. [Accessed 06 March 2013].