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Course: Europe 1800 - 1900 > Unit 5
Lesson 2: Realism- A beginner's guide to Realism
- Courbet, The Stonebreakers
- Courbet, A Burial at Ornans, 1849-50
- Gustave Courbet, A Burial at Ornans
- Courbet, The Artist's Studio, a real allegory summing up seven years of my artistic and moral life
- Courbet, The Artist's Studio, a real allegory summing up seven years of my artistic and moral life
- Courbet, Bonjour Monsieur Courbet
- Bonheur, Plowing in the Nivernais
- Bonheur, Sheep in the Highlands
- Millet, L'Angelus
- Millet, The Gleaners
- Manet, Music in the Tuileries Gardens
- Édouard Manet, Olympia
- Manet, Olympia
- Manet's Olympia
- Manet, Le déjeuner sur l'herbe
- Manet, The Railway
- Manet, The Railway
- Manet, Émile Zola
- Manet, The Balcony
- Manet, Plum Brandy
- Manet, In the Conservatory
- Manet, A Bar at the Folies-Bergère
- Manet, Corner of a Café-Concert
- Eva Gonzalès, A Loge at the Théâtre des Italiens
- Daumier, Rue Transnonain
- Honoré Daumier, Nadar Elevating Photography to the Height of an Art
- Realism
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Manet, Corner of a Café-Concert
Edouard Manet, Corner of a Café-Concert, 1878-80, 97.1 x 77.5 cm (National Gallery, London) Speakers: Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker. Created by Beth Harris and Steven Zucker.
Want to join the conversation?
- They mention the "absurdities"... and it's so true. When I first saw this, the painting was actually not very pleasurable (for me) to look at. After hearing the insights, I can see what was bothering my eye. Some things just match up so perfectly that it makes it feel disunited. Like how her arm that is reaching around the man matches up exactly with his neckline and collar and they come to a criss-cross. Maybe, as they say, he was having fun with drawing attention to the visual and helping us to see things a little differently. Other thoughts on this?(12 votes)
- This painting is definitely not the most organized picture in the world. It could very well be him painting us to look at the little things here and there. He invites us to notice everything that is different aspects of things and not just the big picture.(3 votes)
- Can someone discuss the near-vertical line down the back of the man's blue shirt? It seems to be a continuation of the server's apron.(3 votes)
- I thought so too. The paint from the man's blue shirt seems to be only thinly veiling the apron. It might be a consequence of Manet's loose, carefree brushstrokes. It could also be just a consequence of the passage of time, though. Perhaps that's not how it looked 130 years ago.(3 votes)
- the man man whit the pip look like he's going to past something to the woman look at his hand near his right leg. look at the women eyes corned to see if any ones wacthing.(2 votes)
- what is realism(0 votes)
Video transcript
(jazzy music) Female: We're looking at
Manet's Corner of a Cafe-Concert at the National Gallery in London. I'm just looking at all
of those brush strokes on her apron, on the glass, on the counter where the man has his elbow. Male: Or the instruments of the musician. Female: Manet's really
calling our attention to the brush strokes. Look at the weavey white lines
that serve as her collar. Male: It's not just the sort
of the chaos of the brushwork, the energy, the velocity
of that brushwork, but it's also the wild composition and the space that's being depicted. It's such a complicated image. Generally you would think a single person is taking up 2/3 of the canvas. I'm looking at the pipe
smoker with the blue smock. Then the large woman just in back of him, the waitress with the two beers. Generally that would sort of settle a painting down compositionally, but not at all. Here she's leaning over. He is looking towards the dancers just rather nonchalantly, his elbow really quite relaxed. She's in a very awkward
position, which really suggests there's a real movement taking place. Then her eye goes back and it's completley confused for a moment. Female: Right. She is
doing two things at once. It reminded me of our
word of "multitasking." Male: (laughs) That's true. Female: So there's something
so modern about this, of doing multiple things simultaneously, although I guess maybe there's nothing specifically modern about that idea. Male: Although catching it visually I think is incredibly modern. That idea of the momentary
as opposed to the staged. Female: Of course this is a painting that's composed to look uncomposed; that this is actually
carefully thought out. What I was just noticing,
too, as we were talking about the sort of discontinuity of things, he looks in one way,
she looks in the other, her body moves one way,
his body moves the other, is the way that all those
forms in the background kind of allied with the foreground, so I was looking specifically at those white brush strokes that
are right by his left wrist that are actually part
of her cuff of her dress. Male: As she reaches around
to pick up more beer. Female: Because we don't see whole bodies. He's in a way violating the basic academic idea of leaving the body
whole and readable here. Male: I think he's actually
having fun with it. He's catching little
sort of windows of forms. For instance, look at the little u-shape that the bowl of the man's
pipe, the stem of the pipe and then his forefinger create, and caught in that bowl is
the ear of the man beside him. Female: (laughing) Right. That's true. Male: (laughing) He seems to be delighting in the absurdity of those kinds
of junctures, visual junctures. Female: Yeah, or the
way that the gray smoke that rises up as a little
plume from the pipe collides with the gray
of the bowler hat behind. Male: That's right. Or the way in which the instruments frame that bowler hat in the most absurd way, and clearly intentionally. Female: I think that
by doing these things, Manet is doing something really wonderful that I think is one of the most important things art can do, which is to make us more visually aware of
the world that we live in and how unexpected things happen and how interesting they can be. Male: Had art ever done that before? When we think about carefully composed paintings of the old masters, that painting is not
drawing your attention to the veracity of life. Female: The serendipity of life. Male: This is really anticipating
our modern visual culture. Female: It makes for an
image that really still very much speaks to us. This is still our world. Male: Yeah, walking into a bar. This would not be unexpected at all. This kind of bustle and chaos. Female: It's no surprise
that these galleries are among the most popular
at the National Gallery. This is our life still. (jazzy music)