Realism - Gustave Courbet

It all started in France within the 19^th century 1850s after the 1848 French revolution. Realism art was introduced by the discussion of a group of artists, writers and intellectuals in a Parisian bar. Realism art was all about the latest artistic trends, politics and social issues. 

 

While previous art movement always showed the beauty of human figures and nature, realism artists gave importance to the total opposite, they showed the ugly side of everyday life.

 

A highly important artist within this movement is the french artist Gustave Courbet, he was known as a painter of society. He owns an important place in the 19th century as he was willing to make bold social statements throughout his works.His art works has been rejected by many as he went against the standard academic practice. He painted huge art works that went against the exaggerated emotionalism from the Romantic Movement.

      [Gustave Courbet]

[Gustave Courbet, 1849, Stone breakers,oil on canvas, 165 cm × 257 cm × 30,820 cm, destroyed during World war II]

 

An effective art piece of Courbet is the ‘stone-breakers’. This features 2 men which are working very hard to earn some money. One man is standing down on his knee breaking the stones as on the other hand the young man is carrying a big stone that looks very heavy by the way he's standing, both men looks like their giving all their strength force to do this job. The art work literally shows the ugly truth.

[Gustave Courbet, 1855, The painter's Studio, Oil on canvas, 361 cm × 598 cm,  Musée d'Orsay]

 

This is another art work by Courbet which features an allegory (meaning representations of various influences). Courbet showed his strong idea of the importance in society very well. This striking artwork features the artist himself that seem to be rejecting the ideal human figure and the high class society to paint the middle class society around him.

Brian Gardner, (May 3, 2012), Gustave Courbet, http://westerncivguides.umwblogs.org/2012/05/03/gustave-courbet/, [Accessed on 24/02/14]

Musée d'Orsay, (2006),Gustave Courbet The Artist's Studio, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Painter%27s_Studio, [Accessed on 24/02/14]

The Industrial Revolution - Textiles

The industrial revolution takes places in England, back in the 1760-1840. This revolution totally destroyed the old manner of doing things; it was a total transition in which changed agriculture, textile and metal manufacture, transportation, economic policies and the social structure.

 

This revolution has created a lot of both advantages and disadvantages. It has created a lot of opportunities and facilities to workers in certain areas for example transportation, but on the other hand for others it was a tragic event as people were losing their jobs because they were replaced by big machinery, for example in the textiles industry. For The designers it was also a total mess because everything was created as a mass production, which lacked a lot of the design element.

 

    [Big industrial machines that were introduced to the factories]

The Industrial revolution is a highly important event in the textiles manufacturing as there were important industrial machines invented to make the processes of fabrics a bit easy. Back before the industrial revolution the textile process was way more difficult and a lot of time consuming. 

 

‘’The wool had to be sorted, cleaned and dyed, and then the wool was carded and combed. Next, it was spun into thread which was woven into cloth. Subsequent processes were performed upon the cloth to change the texture or the color of the woolen cloth. Many of these stages of production were performed by women and children.’’

 

New machinery was built. John Kay invented the ‘Flying shuttle’ which basically does all the weaving processes for the textiles and Lewis Paul created the ‘Roller spinner’ which was a spinning wheel to transform the raw materials into threads. 

 

 [John Kay-Flying shuttle]

[Lewis Paul-Roller spinner]

This industrial machinery changes weren’t easily accepted by the workers as the machines were all making their works. When it comes to hand-made stuff obviously it cost way more money because it took a lot more processes and time, but when it came to the industrial machinery fabrics were sold a lot cheaper. 

 

[Typical workers in the factories]

 

Joseph A. Montagna, The industrial revolution, Textiles, http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1981/2/81.02.06.x.html, [Accessed on 21/02/14]

Fred Bradbury, Moss Valley, The woolen industry Historically and commercially considered, http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mossvalley/mv1/wool2.html, [Accessed on 21/02/14]