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Europe 1800 - 1900
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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Bonheur, Plowing in the Nivernais
Rosa Bonheur, Plowing in the Nivernais (or The First Dressing), oil on canvas, 1849 (Musée d'Orsay, Paris) Speakers: Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker. Created by Beth Harris and Steven Zucker.
Want to join the conversation?
- How can a human possibly paint such a dignified picture?(5 votes)
- Could you clarify, please? Do you mean how could someone develop such a dignified composition, and have the technical skill to execute the dignified image?
Or do you mean how could someone decide to compose such a calm, dignified image?
Are we talking techniques or the psychology of the artist?(1 vote)
- Bonheur seems to have understated or even left out the harnesses, yokes and guides that normally would be seen on such plows along with the central chain that can be glimpsed. The animals seem to be working, but "free." Is this also part of her romanticisation of labour?(5 votes)
- why is learning realism so important(2 votes)
- Art is about exploration and expression. The beautiful and also the unpleasant all in how it is represented. If it causes a response or definite sensation, then something was artistically accomplished. When I see a movie and leave the theatre wondering if I liked the flick or not, I decide that it has made its mark if the movie comes back to me in the days that follow. Almost an unconscious thing...(4 votes)
- Hi, I have similar painting. How can I identify it is original by Rosa Bonheur or someone else? And about the value, how can I check it?(0 votes)
- what is it made of? paint?(0 votes)
Video transcript
[MUSIC PLAYING] BETH HARRIS: We're
in the Musee d'Orsay and we're looking at Rosa
Bonheur's light-filled painting called "Plowing
in the Nivernais." STEVEN ZUCKER: That refers to
both the region, and the kind of oxen that are the
stars of this canvas. BETH HARRIS: They are. The human figure that pushes
them along is hardly important. STEVEN ZUCKER: So Rosa Bonheur
did some extraordinary things. She was an incredibly
precocious girl. I think it was at age
14, she was actually sketching in the Louvre,
and actually creating oil paintings. This was possible because
her father was an artist and had really encouraged her. I think they were very liberal. BETH HARRIS: Otherwise,
she would not have had her enormous
artistic talent encouraged. She might not have ended
up a painter at all. STEVEN ZUCKER: So
this was made in 1849, which is just one year
after the revolution. And, it's so interesting
that an artist, now, is moving out into
the countryside, away from all of the
chaos of the city. BETH HARRIS: Where the
revolution happened. STEVEN ZUCKER: I mean, we
have this incredible image of these oxen turning
the soil in the fall to prepare for the
following year's season. And look at the soil
itself, you almost get a sense that here is
the strength of France. BETH HARRIS: The earth looks
incredibly rich and fertile. So there is a sense of a
kind of nationalistic idea of the French countryside,
and that France will survive, and indeed thrive. STEVEN ZUCKER: And those
oxygen are so powerful and so beautiful, and
in a sense, So eternal. This is a ritual
that has gone on long before the politics
of the modern world. BETH HARRIS: And will
continue long after. They come forward in
a receding diagonal that moves into our space. So we have this sense of depth,
and atmospheric perspective, and sense of weather, the
warmth of the sunlight. It's so particularly
and carefully observed. And it reminds me of so much
that we see in the 1840s and then into the 1850s. Of this interest in
rural life, of laborers, of the virtues of
the countryside. STEVEN ZUCKER: Now, when
I look at this, the oxen, those backs are so
beautifully aligned, they almost create their
own horizon, like the hills beside them. And so, in a sense, they
are the Earth itself. There is the sense
of permanence. I think throughout
the 1840s, especially with the kind of
industrialization and growth of the cities
that's taking place, there is this real
desire to return to this much more basic truth. BETH HARRIS: Which resides in
nature and the countryside. STEVEN ZUCKER: And
in labor itself. But a kind of simple,
very direct kind of labor. BETH HARRIS: So do you think
Rosa Bonheur is giving us a conservative
vision at this moment just after a very
radical revolution of 1848, that brings the
working class into power in a significant way? STEVEN ZUCKER: I think that
there are conservative aspects here, but it's more
complicated than that. She's breaking too
many boundaries. She is emphasizing the
importance of landscape, of animal painting itself,
on a scale that is often reserved for history painting. She is a woman, not
painting miniatures, not painting as
an amateur, but as painting at the level of
the highest professional. These are radical
ideas, and I don't think we can see this as
conservative painting. BETH HARRIS: And really
remarkable accomplishments. [MUSIC PLAYING]