Paige Becker
Professor Robert Bomboy
Humanities 101
April 3, 2016
Painting
Critique
When deciding what painting to critique I chose one that
stood out to me, The Stone-Breakers.
The artist use of distinct elements and principles enhances this amazing work
of art. Not only is the piece aesthetically pleasing, it holds a deeper
meaning. The artist used relatable scenes in order to attract a broad audience,
including the lower socioeconomic class, which was not a common thing to do
during that particular time period. These depictions of everyday life were a drastic
change from the “exotic, remote, and heroic imagery of the Romantics and the
noble and elevated themes of the Neoclassicists”.(Fiero, 302)
The leader Realist of the nineteenth century was a French
artist, Gustave Courbet. Courbet stated, “An artist should paint only what he
can see”, which is why many of Courbet’s paintings were landscapes, portraits
and other contemporary scenes (Fiero, 302 ). He was the son of a farmer, and
self-taught artist. Courbet painted ordinary people in their natural settings.
There is a prime example of his work that exemplifies his choice to paint
people in these settings, The
Stone-Breakers. This painting was created in the year 1849 and was an oil
on canvas work of art.
This painting, The Stone-Breakers,
is a painting depicting two men that are doing very physical work. One of the
reasons that this painting is very unique is that the backs of the two men are
facing the viewer of the painting, “thus violating, by nineteenth-century
standards, the rules of propriety and decorum enshrined in French academic art”(Fiero,
303 ). Not only was this painting different because of the previous
circumstance but also the people in the painting are everyday workers. The people
that were being painted in this time period were normally upper socioeconomic people,
not the lower class laborers. Courbet depicted situations such as these to
relate to the lower socioeconomic class. During this time in history “the
country population was still two-thirds rural and largely poor”, which made
this painting very relatable to the working class citizens (Fiero, 303 ). Courbet
“wants to show what is "real," and so he has depicted a man that seems too
old and a boy that seems still too young for such back-breaking labor”, this is
just another way that he was able to relate to the people of that time period (Harris).
The way that Gustave Courbet used certain elements dramatized
the point that artist was trying to make. When viewing Courbet’s brush stokes
it can be viewed that they are rough, which is different from other artists
such as Neoclassic and Romantic styles. It is said that he painted this way one
purpose because it “was in part a conscious rejection of the highly polished,
refined Neoclassicist style that still dominated French art in 1848”(Harris). Also,
Courbet spends just as much time working on and putting the same amount of
detail on the hands as he does on the rocks, which is done to make the painting
“real”.(Harris)
The element of color takes on a big role in this
painting. The colors in The Stone-Breakers,
is monotonous and can directly relate with the tone of the painting. The lack
of vibrant colors insinuates the strenuous work the men are performing and the
feeling of people being trapped in the lower socioeconomic class. You can also
see when viewing the painting that the hands of the workers are covered in
dirt, once again showing the hard work that is being done by the largely poor
population of this era. The majority of the painting is dark, but it can be
viewed in the top right corner, there is a light blue sky, which many feel is
representing that the laborers are trapped in the darkness and cannot reach the
light. The form of the work has depth and depicts the scenery of a mountain in
the distance and the man and young boy working in the lower valley. There is a
shadow that is cast along the top portion of most of the painting. The contrast
that is used in this artwork is used to show the difference between different
objects and to make them stand out. The artist used the elements and principles
in ordered to enhance the overall meaning behind the painting.
Gustave Courbet used art in order to convey a certain
message. Artists during this time period were painting upper class people, and nostalgic
sceneries, but Courbet did not do this. He painted the activities of the
ordinary people during this time period. The power which was held by the upper
class, was being challenged by his paintings. He painted the everyday people
instead of just the rich people, which angered many of the upper class people.
The power of the upper class was being questions by the lower class which was
two-thirds of the population during this era. Overall, the relatable painting
appealed to the people of this time period, and the message that Gustave
Courbet was trying to make known was clearly viewed through his amazing work of
art.
https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/becoming-modern/avant-garde-france/realism/a/courbet-the-stonebreakers
Works Cited
Fiero, Gloria. Humanistic
Tradition Prehistory to the Early Modern World. New York:
Mcgraw-Hill Education, 2015. Print.
Harris, Beth, and Steven Zucker.
"Courbet, The Stone-Breakers." Khan Academy. Web. 01 Apr.
2016.
