Realism in France and the United States Notes

Realism in France and the United States

Chapters 29-30 discuss the background for revolution in Europe and the United States during the mid-19th century.
Cities were overcrowded and dangerous.
Disease was rampant.
Agricultural and financial institutions were collapsing.
Streets were filled with garbage, raw sewage, rats, and fleas, leading to diseases like dysentery, cholera, and typhoid fever.

In February, Louis-Philippe was overthrown, and a provisional government was established due to the proletariat demanding the right to work.
The June Days involved three days of brutal street fighting between workers and the army, resulting in 10,000 deaths.
The middle class and Bourgeoisie experienced the "Red Fear" due to fear of working-class violence.
In December 1848, Charles-Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte (1808-1873), known as Louis-Napoleon, was elected president of France.
In 1851, he led a coup d’état and proclaimed himself Emperor Napoleon III, an autocratic ruler, after the assembly refused to amend the French Constitution to allow him a second term.

Édouard Manet (1823-1883) aimed to shock bourgeois sensibilities through his paintings.
Luncheon on the Grass was displayed in the Salon des Refuses, an exhibit for works rejected by the official Salon of 1863.
The contrast between the nude female and her clothed male companions confounded and dismayed audiences.
The painting's lighting is influenced by the invention of photography, specifically flashbulb lighting.
The composition is inspired by Marcantonio Raimondi's Judgment of Paris, playing on the theme and representing Manet's judgment of Paris.
It also recalls Giorgione's (Titian's?) Pastoral Concert of 1508, which Manet could have seen in the Louvre.
- Nude: A natural state.
- Naked: Someone who should be clothed but isn't, indicated by the presence of socks, jewelry, or clothes lying about.

Comparison of Manet's Olympia to other portrayals of Venus by Titian and Giorgione. Titian, Venus of Urbino, 1538. Giorgione, Sleeping Venus. Alexandre Cabanel, The Birth of Venus, Salon of 1863.

The American Civil War changed how war was waged and, consequently, how it was represented.
War became unsafe as a “spectator event,” leading newspapers and journals to retain special artists to provide pictorial records of battles.
Mathew Brady was the most famous Civil War photographer.
Winslow Homer (1836-1910) was hired by Harper’s Weekly to depict the events of the war.
Homer presented almost psychological portrayals of war's reality rather than panoramas of battles.
The formality of his setting contrasts sharply with the horror of his subject.

The camera was used for the first time in battles during the American Civil War.
Photographer Alexander Gardner, an employee of Mathew Brady (1823-1896), used the camera to record an accurate sense of battle.
Photographed images, combined with the comments of the photographers, powerfully conveyed the horrors of war.

Alexander Gardner's photograph captures the aftermath of the battle of Gettysburg.

Alexander Gardner (for Mathew Brady) captured this image.
23,000 soldiers were killed, wounded, or missing after twelve hours of combat on September 17, 1862.
The Battle of Antietam ended the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia’s first invasion into the North and led to Abraham Lincoln’s issuance of the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation.