Totally forgot to write this entry, whoops! Better late than never, I suppose…

We opened class with Goya’s The Third of May, 1808, which served as a transitional piece for this course, portraying a shift towards a different, more realistic mode from Romanticism through its depiction of a serious, political subject.

We then covered Corot’s View of Rome: The Bridge and Castel S. Angelo with the Cupola of St. Peter’s, which the textbook cited as romantic but Prof. strongly disagreed. Corot’s painting is a reproduction of reality with a soft color scheme. Corot is clearly interested in well-defined forms through his depictions of the geometrical shapes of the circular copula and of the Castel S. Angelo. I particularly like the usage of atmospheric perspective in this painting, the faraway topographical elements are blurrier and more blue.

We then talked about Millet’s The Sower, a depiction of a everyday subject (a peasant), engaged in a basic, universal activity, clothed in a timeless outfit. Millet was sympathetic towards peasants due to his own background growing up as one, and he clearly tries to convey the importance and dignity of the peasant class through this painting. The subject takes up the majority of the large canvas, conveying his importance in an almost monumental representation. The viewer looks up towards the subject, further elevating him. It is clear that the subject is supposed to represent the peasant class as a whole, the backbone of society, through his obscured face, rendering him anonymous and therefore universal.

We covered three Courbet paintings, but my favorite one was The Stone-Breakers. There is painstaking amounts of detail in this painting, from the old-fashioned rags that the laborers wear to the straw used as a cushion under the father figure’s knee as he works, and the pots in the background, presumably what they use for cooking.

Next, we examined Bonheur’s Plowing in the Nivernais: The Dressing of Vines, which was commissioned by the second Republic of France. Unlike other paintings we’ve studied, the subject of this work is not an exotic or powerful animal, but a domesticated, common, and tame one (cows), pictured in labor. The painting encapsulated the idealized charm and appeal of the countryside present during the rapid industrialization of European society at the time.

We covered two Daumier works, but I preferred The Third-Class Carriage. I loved the gritty, dull colors, and how the viewer is placed in the carriage amongst the people. It made me uneasy… in a good way.

To conclude, we covered two American artists: Homer and Eakins, but I particularly liked Homer’s Snap the Whip. I loved the dynamism of this painting and the nostalgia factor. In a time of such rapid industrialization, it is no wonder artists tended to draw more rural scenes.