France, (1815-1879)
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A Realist
- (1865), oil on canvas
- 14.9 x 18.1 in. (38 x 46 cm.)
- Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
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Editor’s Note:
[from the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam]
“This canvas by the French artist Thomas Couture can be interpreted as a satire on Realism. Couture was critical of this new direction in painting, which preferred everyday and even entirely trivial subjects to literary or historical themes. This Realist “lowers” himself to painting the portrait of a pig, the quintessential symbol of stupidity. Inconsequential objects hang on the walls; the painter, seated on a sculpted head of the Greek god Zeus, displays scant regard for classical culture. Couture himself usually painted works whose subjects were somewhat more elevated, in a style more in keeping with the academic tradition.
“Realism in art is an attitude as much as a style. From the mid-19th century, Realist painters rebelled against the art academies and their old-fashioned themes, which seemed increasingly irrelevant in a world newly dominated by science and technology. The Realists reasoned that all meaningful knowledge came from what they could see and directly experience. Instead of depicting aristocrats and myths, they chose ordinary people and events as the subjects of their works. Gustave Courbet, the leader of the movement in art, expressed the Realists’ point of view when he declared that he could not draw an angel because he had never seen one.”
About the Artist
Thomas Couture, France, (1815-1879). Thomas Couture was a French Academic Historical painter, portraitist and teacher. A pupil himself of Antoine-Jean Gros and Paul Delaroche. He later taught Mary Cassatt, Édouard Manet, Pierre Cécile Puvis de Chavannes and many more.
He is chiefly remembered for his vast orgy picture “The Romans of the Decadence” (Musee d’Orsay, Paris). Critics have accused him of bombastic academic painting. He is praised for his use of bright color and surface texture derived from such painters as Decamps and Delacroix and for his methodical drawing.
this painting is now in the national gallery of ireland
http://onlinecollection.nationalgallery.ie/objects/8363/la-peinture-realiste?ctx=773984dd-a944-436c-9dbc-a30639c049fa&idx=3
I saw it on Tuesday
Thanks, JP!
In the picture “A Realist” you can see a person wich is sitting on a head of a scalp wich is right in the center of the room (picture). As yo can see at the right side there is a pig right on the table but if you look close you can see that the person is looking at it but doesn’t draw the pig but he is drawing the whole picture blue you can see that the drawer really didn’t like realism.
Hi Paulina,
Thank you for visiting Porkopolis.org. As I said in my Editor’s Note below the picture, Couture intended this painting as a “satire on realism”. I think your observations are correct, and there are a number of ways to interpret various aspects of this work. I am undecided on the blue paper you mention – is the paper actually just a shade of blue, is the artist just starting to layout his initial drawing – Interpretation is part of the pleasure of appreciating art! There is much more about Thomas Couture at the beautiful van Gogh Museum in the Netherlands. You can visit on line at: http://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/.
Please keep studying art. I would suggest the “Les Porcs en Plein Air” exhibition here as a good place to start if you are also a fan of pigs. https://www.porkopolis.org/art-museum/exhibitions/les-porcs-en-plein-air/.
Root on,
Dan
Editor, Curator and Swineherd at Porkopolis.org