The Romantic Movement: Gustave Courbet Analysis

intro

Discovering the life of an artist and absorbing all the ordinary and the extraordinary, all the struggles and every downer, is an incomparable journey. Uncovering the realities of a time period that are now only part of the history, transports one into that era and thus compel them to see the world through the artist’s perspective. As a receptive reader one cannot help but herald Gustave Courbet as a rebel of the Romantic Movement. He pushed forward realism into the modern world and perhaps at a time when it wasn’t ready. He was a true forward thinker in every sense of the phrase because if it weren’t for his contributions, people would still be caught up in old school art practices for many more years than they already were until greatness

Young Women from the Village received more than a fair share of back lash from critics who were obviously disturbed by the ugliness of the three women and some miscalculated proportions of cows on the part of the artist further instigated them. The title in itself gained a lot of notoriety because the use of the term ‘demoiselles’ or young ladies went directly against the concept of the time. The fact that something that was particularly reserved for the high class was taken up by an artist to depict some common village women was a source of a lot of

I no longer wanted to imitate the one than to copy the other; nor, furthermore, was it my intention to attain the trivial goal of "art for art's sake". No! I simply wanted to draw forth, from a complete acquaintance with tradition, the reasoned and independent consciousness of my own individuality.

To know in order to do, that was my idea. To be in a position to translate the customs, the ideas, the appearance of my time, according to my own estimation; to be not only a painter, but a man as well; in short, to create living art – this is my goal. “

The genius that he was, merging traditional Dutch style of practice with everyday subjects of rural France, he set new records straight by serving something that was radically in contrast to the mindset of the public who were so accustomed to seeing life in a highly romanticized manner that they were just unable to visually or mindfully digest his brilliance. His works like. The painting the stonebreakers or the wheat sifters are worthy of a mention in this