The Stone Breakers Analysis

Realism is an approach to art in which subjects are depicted in as straightforward manner as possible. Realism is also the tendency to represent things as they really are without any alterations or modifications. Additionally, in realism there is a concern for fact or reality and a rejection of the impractical and visionary. Realism is a mid-1850s- late 19th century movement that started in France. Realism emerged in the aftermath of the Revolution of 1848 that overturned the monarchy of Louis-Philippe and realism developed during the period of the Second Empire under Napoleon III. As French society fought for democratic reform, the Realists democratized art by depicting modern subjects drawn from the everyday lives of the working class.

He viewed the frank portrayal of scenes from everyday life as a truly democratic art. His painting “Burial at Ornans” depicts the funeral of his great-uncle in the Courbet’s birthplace, the small town of Ornans. Additionally, his painting “The Stone Breakers” was a work of social realism. The painting depicted two peasants, a young man and an old man, breaking rocks. The painting had shocked the public and critics because of the way he honestly depicted humble peasants and laborers. Courbet did not glorify his peasants but presented them in the painting just as they were in real

After the outbreak of the American Civil War, Homer made drawings at the front for Harper’s Magazine. But, he dealt with views of everyday camp life more than he did with scenes of battle. His painting “Prisoners from the Front” represents an actual scene from the war in which a Union officer, Brigadier General Barlow, captured several Confederate officers on June 21, 1864. The background depicts the battlefield at Petersburg, Virginia. Winslow successfully characterized the range of personalities involved in the war, from the young and uncertain boy being captured to the bearded old man who was humbly submitting to his fate, to the proud challenging stance of the third man who was still dressed in his Confederate uniform. In the painting you can still tell that there is tension between Barlow and the Confederate soldier. Winslow admirably captured the dominant national mood of reconciliation in the painting. (winslowhomer.org) Additionally, realism artwork doesn’t avoid sad, unpleasant or tragic events and situations that happen in life. The realist movement began as a reaction to romanticism. Realists rejected Romanticism, which had dominated French literature and art since the late 18th century. Moreover, realism rejected the idealized classicism of academic