REALISM

Group 1 BSN 3C
1. Galila, Aiah Nayr T.
2. Madale, Zamairah Lynn
3. Nacilla, Mary Joenalyn S.

What is Realism?

● Realism is the accurate depiction of life, perspective, and the details of light and colour
● The main idea of Realism in art is to accurately and honestly represent the world through
painting or other media.
● Realism art often deals with subjects such as poor and working class lives in order to
show the truth of the world through the depiction of reality.
● Technique, training, and avoidance of style is a large part of Realism
● Artists painted their everyday lives and surroundings exactly as they saw them and did
not try to interpret the settings or add emotions
● Realism Art increased in landscapes, slowly transitioning artists to paint more abstractly

Origin of Realism - Where and When did it start?

● The Realism Movement began in France in the 1850s after the French Revolution of
1848
● While French fought for democratic reform, Realists pushed the idea of Art created from
the everyday lives of the working class
● It was created to revolt against the themes of exaggerating emotions and drama during
the romanticism movement that dominated French arts

Transition of Realism to Impressionism

● The transition of Realism to Impressionism started at the 19th Century and in which
Impressionism then was referred to as The Ultimate Form of Realism
● Both Realism and Impressionism are depictions of reality but the difference between the
two is that Impressionism focuses more on the object and light while Realism focuses
 merely on the subject of reality such as the French people during the revolution. Realism
is concise- it is a portrayal of reality solely through art media.

Realist Artists

● Gustave Courbet - a French painter and the leader of the realism movement. He
rejected the classical styles of traditional paintings. He started painting the reality he
saw in front of him. He was a controversial painter not only because his work
involved social issues like peasants and the working condition of the poor. But also
because of the unsentimental way in which he painted them.
● Jean-François Millet - a French realist painter and one of the founders of the
Barbizon School of France. His subject matter changed from mythology and portraits
like gustave courbet. He started to paint peasants living their everyday normal lives.
● Nestor Garcia Leynes,Sr. - A Filipino realist painter born in Santa Cruz, Manila. Leynes
is regarded as one of the leaders of the "Magic Realist'' movement of the Philippines.
Leynes' subjects are typically scenes of Philippine rural life, ranging from women sifting
rice (like Bigas ni Lorna) to harvest scenes. He is also best known for his favorite
subject, that of the mother and child.
● Juan Luna - A Filipino painter, sculptor and a political activist of the Philippine
Revolution during the late 19th century. He became one of the first recognized Philippine
artists. Juan Luna’s art style includes impressionism, romanticism and realism.

Realist Artworks

● THE STONEBREAKERS - The Stone Breakers was an 1849 painting by the French
painter Gustave Courbet. It was a work of realism, depicting two peasants, a young man
and an old man, breaking rocks.
- Gustave Courbet said that he was inspired to paint this scene after having
seen the two men depicted working by the side of the road. He said it was
“not often that one encounters such a complete expression of poverty and so,
right then and there I got the idea for a painting. I told them to come to my
studio the next morning.”
● THE GLEANERS - The Gleaners is an oil painting by Jean-François Millet completed in
1857. It depicts three peasant women gleaning a field of stray stalks of wheat after the
harvest.
 - In Millet's day French farmers followed the Biblical injunction to leave
gleanings (or left-over scraps of the grain harvest) in the fields so that poor
women and children could live on them. Millet's Gleaners occupy the extreme
foreground of the canvas. The grinding poverty of the peasant women,
evident in their rough, simple garments, and the back-breaking work of
collecting individual grains appear as a contemporaneous depiction of the
Biblical directive.
● DUYAN - Duyan is an oil in canvas masterpiece by Nestor Leynes. It depicts a woman
gazing upon a baby in a small wood-like hammock. This painting illustrates a mother’s
unconditional and absolute love for her child.
- We can all see and feel that the woman’s gaze towards the young child is full of
love, fondness, and warmth. For example, the act of gently rocking the hammock
back and forth is a popularly known technique to get babies to fall asleep. This
particular method requires patience as it takes a long time for the child to actually
sleep. I think that this act solidifies the love of the mother towards her child
seeing that a person wouldn’t actually spend so much time and effort for
someone who isn’t special to him/her.
- On the other hand, it was said that Leynes’ artworks were said to usually
illustrate scenes of typical Philippine rural life.
● SPOLIARIUM - The Spoliarium by the great Juan Luna is definitely a great example of a
Filipino-made realist art. It's dark, riveting, and captures the hardships of the dying
gladiators.
- Why is Spoliarium realistic in art? Scale and proportion also play a part with the
Hierarchical scaling as it gives the viewer an actual scale of a real person in the
painting and of course the painting itself is giving a really big proportion. Lastly he
used a style which is a mix of realistic art and representational art.
References:

● https://youtube.com/watch?v=9AANb_XqRMg&feature=share
● http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/history-of-art/realism-to-impressionism.htm
● https://www.artst.org/impressionism-vs-realism/
● https://www.theartstory.org/artist/millet-jean-francois/
● https://www.thecollector.com/gustave-courbet-father-of-realism/
● https://medium.com/@leslie.abinuman/ia-6-deriving-meaning-9d1e49f3f335
● https://www.artsmartmanila.com/blog/realism-in-art-how-much-do-you-know-about-realist
-art