Gustave Courbet : a study of style and society

Gustave Courbet

a study of style and society

Acknowledgements

List of illustrations

Introduction

The nature and scope of the problem

Part. I. The early years : Courbet's style before 1848

I. The earliest works - Examination of Courbet's works from c. 1840 to c. 1842-44; traditional and original elements; early importance of Rembrandt; hints of realist style; contrast with romantic attitude

II. Works of the mid-forties : the theme of man in nature - Inconsistencies in incipient realism; uneasy union of romanticism and more objective inclinations; "naïve materialism"; expression of Courbet's conception of his role in the Man in the Leather Belt

III. The later forties : the man with the pipe, Holland and Spain - Progressive elements in the Man with the Pipe; reinforcement of interest in Rembrandt during Dutch journey of 1847; first appearance of influence of popular imagery and of Spanish art ; continuing lack of appropriate themes

Part II. Realism : The Background

I. The First realist works - The After Dinner at Ornans, the Portrait of Baudelaire and Marc Trapadoux Examining an Album : connection of stylistic innovations in works of c. 1848-49 with atmosphere of revolution and Courbet's social outlook; influence of Chardin and Le Nains

II. The 1848 Revolution and Art - Climate of ideas surrounding the 1848 Revolution; adulation of "le peuple"; impact of democratic ideas in world of art : liberalizing of Salon; articles in art journals, efforts of Provisionnal Government in realm of art; extent of Courbet's involvement

III. Progressive theory and popular poetry - Art theory and criticism: Fourierists and Saint-Simonians; development of the theories of Thoré and Champfleury; growing preference for the natural and the popular rather than direct social significance in art - Popular poetry : worker-poets; chansonniers; innovations of Max Buchon in poetry, demand for connection of art and literature with everyday life

IV. New Directions in painting : The proto-realists - Intimations of realism in genre-painting; rural and popular sudjects; Spain and the French provinces; examination of the work of Jacque, Bonhommé, the Leleux, Blanchard, Gigoux, Jeanron and Bonvin

Part. III. The nature of Realism: Courbet's painting from 1849-1855

I. The Salon of 1850-51 : Courbet's paintings and the critical reaction

The Burial at Ornans : Inovations in style and iconography ; attacks by conservative critics and praise by progressive ones; popular imagery, the Le Nains, spanish and Dutch art, connection of social ideas and formal configuration

The Stone-Breakers : adulation of labor; accord between form and subject in Courbet's figure-style; contemporary dress in mid-nineteenth century painting

The Peasants of Flagey : materialisme and art, realist iconography : The Young Woman Guarding Pigs and the Portrait of Jean Journet

II. Courbet's realist works from 1851 to 1854

Firemen Running to a Fire : transformation of a seventeenth-century prototype; the Village Maidens : the role of perspective in the realist style; the Salon of 1853 : The Wrestlers, the Bathers and the Sleeping Spinner; separation of art from metaphysical value in realism; tendency towards the sentimental in the Girls Sifting Grain

III. Courbet and the role of the artist in the mid-nineteenth century : The Meeting and The Atelier

The meeting : an expression of Courbet's conception of his social role; the artist and the Wandering Jew; the artist and his patron

The Atelier : an expression of Courbet's conception of his creative role, contrast between the romantic and the realist conception of the artist ; antecedents for the theme of the Atelier ; departures from realist style after c. 1855

Conclusion : the nature of Courbet's realism, its relation to the progressive thought of the time and the importance of its innovating qualities to the art of the future, especially that of Manet

Originally presented as the author's thesis, New York University, 1963, under the title: The development and nature of realism in the work of Gustave Courbet