CH 21 #1 Gustave Courbet. The Artist's Studio vs Edouard Manet. Le Dejeuner sur l'herbe

In the 19^th century the movement know as Realism took off. The artist was said to capture a typical day of life in a realistic manner. These were not meant to be extravagant or exotic but meant to be ordinary as they realistically lived their lives. Gustave Courbet’s The Artist's Studio: A Real Allegory Summing Up Seven Years of My Life as an Artist painted  himself in a crowded room of people. Edouard Manet’s Le Dejeuner sur l'herbe had one small difference in his painting. He painted two men having a picnic in their normal attire. However, a woman is sitting next to them with the same expression on her face as the others but seems to be completely naked. With each artist their came small variations in Realism that they perceived. All the artist who painted Realism had no intension of showing any sense of historic value or extravagance. Ordinary, simply, and common and  is all they desired.

Gustave Courbet’s The Artist's Studio: A Real Allegory Summing Up Seven Years of My Life as an Artist is a painting that people consider Realism but with a closer look lies a story. As you look close at each person in the painting there is a huge sense of emotion in sometimes subtle expressions. These little expressions can tell an entire story of each unique life. For Courbet, these people represented a different phase of life since he has become an artist. He was known to many as an amazing painter that was always watched when he worked.

Edouard Manet’s Le Dejeuner sur l'herbe painted two contemporary men simply having a picnic in the garden. The reason critics ridiculed this painting was not because of the men but the two disrobed women that were in the painting as well. Intending to provide a modern counterpart to the classic paintings by the venetian masters, this painting was greatly misunderstood and criticized. These people pushed Edouard Manet to move to different styles of painting.

Whether a painting depicts an entire career of a man and have great success or will always be misinterpreted by others and pushed into retirement, Realism stays true to the roots of ordinary. A day in the life of the artists choosing.