In today’s class we dived into the period of realism. This era was defined by factuality, and the attempt to display what is being seen to the viewer. We discussed Jean-Francois Millet’s “The Sawer,” which was created in 1850. Millet came from a peasant family in Normandy, and was one of fourteen children. We learned that peasant families had so many children because child mortality rates were so high along with the fact that families needed lots of means of labor to survive. This artwork expresses a real sympathy for peasants and emphasizes the importance of the peasantry’s work. There is a real political agenda in Millet’s artwork, he argues that the peasantry is the backbone of French society. The cotemporary viewer immediately understood this message when viewing “The Sawer.”
We also talked about Gustave Courbet’s “The Stone-Breakers,” which was created in 1849. Courbet was arguably the most important painter during the realist movement. The notion of the artwork was that the working class was being exploited in the countryside. Peasants are forced to literally complete “back-breaking” activities. A father and his son is presented in the painting, and are both dressed in rags, along with a torn shirt. This represents the poorness of the peasantry class. The message expresses that there is serious exploitation, specifically with the child being forced to work at such a young age. Child labor was a major issue for the peasantry class.