Gustave Courbet, el padre del Realismo Pictórico

Welcome to this video essay on pictorial realism. I am Alberto Rodríguez and this project is part of the Art Studies Diploma of the Ibero-American University, coordinated by the teacher Cristina García. This video focuses on pictorial realism, a style that emerged in France in the 19th century and whose main exponent is Gustave Courbet. The main characteristic of this style is the rejection of any historical, religious or mythological theme to focus on the life of ordinary people, on everyday life. This video is divided into three parts. First, we will talk about Gustave Courbet's biographical data, and then continue with the iconographic analysis of his emblematic work, The Study, and make some final conclusions. I hope you enjoy this video. Gustave Courbet was born in 1819 in Ornans, a town in eastern France near the border with Switzerland. He comes from a landowning family that achieved some economic growth after the French Revolution thanks to his prosperous agricultural business. His childhood took place between the forests and fields of Ornans. From a very young age, he had inclinations towards aesthetics. Faced with a possible family rejection of his artistic aspirations, in 1839 he convinced his parents to move to Paris with the purpose of studying law. But his true intention was to start his art studies being an apprentice of the painter Charles Stuck and later enrolling at the Swiss Academy. In the 40s, it was a time of struggle between Courbet and the jurors of the Salon de Pintura, who often rejected his proposals. His imagination needed the stimulus of the physical presence. He was deeply moved by the tangible reality of things and living beings, rejecting historical or religious narratives, as well as any type of abstraction. He established friendship with characters who were also characterized by their anti-academic tendencies, such as the critic Jules-Jean Fleury, the poet Baudelaire, the painters Corot and Daumier, and the philosopher Trodon. Works such as Ornans' Burial in 1850 consolidate his realistic style, causing a strong impact on the public for being the first time that the Ornans were elevated to the art category. In 1851, with the coup d'état of Napoleon III, a new absolutist period began. The artistic tastes returned to conservatism. The rejection of Courbet's works continues, being defined by experts as vulgar and ugly works. In 1855, the artist starred in an unusual event, exhibiting his works in an independent pavilion called Realismo, outside the official hall. For the first time, his most ambitious painting, The Study of the Artist, was exhibited. Gustave's fame as a controversial and rebellious artist continues to grow. One of his main friends and patrons was the banker Alfred Brullas, a philanthropist with whom he shared his republican ideals and for whom he made several portraits. Courbet took part of the Paris Commune in 1871. After the defeat of France in the Franco-Prussian War, the first proletarian government in the world was established. Gustave was appointed president of the Federation of Artists Responsible for the Conservation of Artistic Properties, abolishing the School of Fine Arts and the designation of medals. During his term, the column of the Plaza del Dom, erected to commemorate the Napoleonic victories, was destroyed. The artist was accused of being the main instigator. His sentence consisted of six months in prison and paying for the reconstruction of the column. After being released in 1873, Gustave moved to Switzerland where he would live until the end of his days. Iconographic Analysis The Study of the Painter, a real allegory of a phase of seven years of my artistic and moral life. This painting is a mysterious composition of monumental scale, full of characters, symbols, secrets and allegories. Coubert declared about this work, It is the whole world that comes to me to paint it. The painter in the center wears a gray suit and carries a brush and a colorful palette. He is sitting in front of a tree-lined landscape that surrounds him. The canvas is inspired by the nature of his natal Ornans. Next to him, a female model admires Gustave's creation. It symbolizes beauty without idealizing. The muse shows her mundane nudity in realistic proportions. A peasant boy and a cat accompany them. The little one seems to demand the attention of the painter, since he looks directly at him and not at the landscape. The child's poverty is reflected in his silhouetted clothes and his sweat. There are two differentiated sectors of characters in the work. The group on the right is inhabited by friends and colleagues of the artist, directly linked to the world of art. We recognize the bearded profile of the collector Brouillaz, behind, in front of us, the prudent philosopher, the critic Jean Fleury sitting on a stool, while Baudelaire is absorbed in a book in the corner of the composition. With them, Gustave must have heated debates about his cultural environment. The couple in the foreground personifies the lovers of art. She looks like an elaborate bunch of colors. Additionally, another couple next to the window represents free love. The characters on the left lack a literal identity, but they have greater symbolic richness. In the words of the painter himself, they are everyday life, the people that includes misery, poverty, wealth, the exploited and the exploiters, people who live with death. We will observe an Irish woman of low resources breastfeeding her son, a priest, a merchant and a beggar girl. We have to highlight the hunter who appears next to his two stray dogs. It is noteworthy the resemblance that Napoleon III has. The artist, as fervent republican, rejects the recent emperor, represented here as a stealthy hunter, someone who takes a power that does not belong to him. Behind the landscape canvas, a mannequin appears that reminds us of the crucifixion of Christ. The artists use these models to compose religious scenes. We will also observe the skull of a skeleton, reference to death, and some objects scattered on the ground, such as a guitar, a hat and a dagger, elements that could feature a cellar. The importance of this work lies in the freedom that Foucault has for art. Previously, the artists were subject to established parameters and to the tastes of the patrons. The academy dictated the themes, rewarding those who symbolized glorious pasts or spiritual fervor. Gustave breaks with the established, exposes in an independent way and dispels the hierarchy of pictorial genres. In a work he demonstrates his ability to compose any theme, whether religious, historical, even portraits, landscapes or cellars. The amazing thing is that he was able to conjugate everything in this piece. It is evident the value of this work to represent an era, its ideals and its appearances. As conclusions, Gustave Courbet was an innovative artist, controversial among his contemporaries for multiple reasons such as the theme and its political manifestations. The historian Linda Nostlin was a critic of the realistic style, due to the inconsistencies that her conception entails. Based on positivism and science, she proclaims a single reading about reality. Sincerity is imposed as the only point of view, excluding emotions, feelings and multiplicity of visions. The experience of the artist and his thematic selection as the most valid. But despite this contradiction, this movement is a watershed in many respects. Faced with the rejection of the study for the Paris Universal Exhibition in 1855, Courbet built at his expense the Pavilion of Realism, far from officialism. This gesture meant bringing art closer to other social sectors, setting a precedent for impressionists and future avant-garde. That, in the face of academic rejection, also establish their own exhibition spaces. From my personal perspective, I highlight the position of creating a social and empathic consciousness between the social strata, the bourgeoisie, professionals and proletarians, through a new pictorial language, which is the rejection of the superficial, hedonistic and privileges. Aware that their work will cause discomfort and repugnance among the majority of patrons, this risk becomes valuable if it is able to change the perception of some philanthropic mind that helps in the crusade to create a more just and egalitarian society. The influence of Courbet's work was extraordinary, as it evidenced the conventional and insipid of academic painting and contributed to draw attention to new formulations that reflected the reality of the viewer, thus establishing an important step towards modernity. I hope you enjoyed this video. Thank you very much for joining me.