From the end of the XVIII century. France played a major role in the socio-political life of Western Europe. 19th century was marked by a broad democratic movement that embraced almost all sectors of French society. The revolution of 1830 was followed by the revolution of 1848. In 1871, the people who proclaimed the Paris Commune made the first attempt in the history of France and all of Western Europe to seize political power in the state.

The critical situation in the country could not but affect the attitude of the people. In this era, the advanced French intelligentsia seeks to find new ways in art and new forms of artistic expression. That is why realistic tendencies were discovered in French painting much earlier than in other Western European countries.

The revolution of 1830 brought democratic freedoms into the life of France, which graphic artists did not fail to take advantage of. Sharp political cartoons directed against the ruling circles, as well as the vices prevailing in society, filled the pages of the Sharivari and Caricature magazines. Illustrations for periodicals were made in the technique of lithography. Such artists as A. Monnier, N. Charlet, J. I. Granville, as well as the remarkable French graphic artist O. Daumier worked in the caricature genre.

An important role in the art of France between the revolutions of 1830 and 1848 was played by the realistic trend in landscape painting - the so-called. barbizon school. This term comes from the name of the small picturesque village of Barbizon near Paris, where in the 1830s and 1840s. many French artists came to study nature. Not satisfied with the traditions of academic art, devoid of living concreteness and national identity, they rushed to Barbizon, where, carefully examining all the changes taking place in nature, they painted pictures depicting modest corners of French nature.

Although the works of the masters of the Barbizon school are distinguished by truthfulness and objectivity, they always feel the mood of the author, his emotions and experiences. Nature in the landscapes of the Barbizons does not seem majestic and distant, it is close and understandable to man.

Often, artists painted the same place (forest, river, pond) in different time days and under different weather conditions. The etudes made in the open air were processed in the workshop, creating a picture that was integral in terms of composition. Very often, in the finished painting work, the freshness of colors characteristic of etudes disappeared, so the canvases of many Barbizons were distinguished by a dark color.

The largest representative of the Barbizon school was Theodore Rousseau, who, already a well-known landscape painter, moved away from academic painting and came to Barbizon. Protesting against the barbaric deforestation, Rousseau endows nature human qualities. He himself spoke of hearing the voices of the trees and understanding them. An excellent connoisseur of the forest, the artist very accurately conveys the structure, species, scale of each tree (“Forest of Fontainebleau”, 1848-1850; “Oaks in Agremont”, 1852). At the same time, the works of Rousseau show that the artist, whose style was formed under the influence of academic art and the painting of the old masters, could not, no matter how hard he tried, solve the problem of transmitting light and air. Therefore, the light and color in his landscapes are most often conditional.

The art of Rousseau had a great influence on young French artists. Representatives of the Academy, involved in the selection of paintings in the Salons, tried to prevent the work of Rousseau at the exhibition.

The well-known masters of the Barbizon school were Jules Dupre, whose landscapes contain features of romantic art (“Large Oak”, 1844-1855; “Landscape with Cows”, 1850), and Narcissus Diaz, who inhabited the forest of Fontainebleau with naked figures of nymphs and ancient goddesses (“Venus with cupid", 1851).

The representative of the younger generation of Barbizons was Charles Daubigny, who began his career with illustrations, but in the 1840s. dedicated to the landscape. His lyrical landscapes, dedicated to the unpretentious corners of nature, are filled with sunlight and air. Very often Daubigny painted from life not only sketches, but also finished paintings. He built a workshop boat on which he sailed along the river, stopping at the most attractive places.

The life of the largest French artist of the 19th century is close to the Barbizons. K. Koro.

Jean Baptiste Camille Corot

Camille Corot - French painter and graphic artist, master of portrait and landscape, is one of the founders of the French landscape school of the 19th century.

Born in Paris in 1796. He was a student of A. Michallon and JV Bertin - academic artists. Initially, he adhered to the generally accepted point of view that high art is only a landscape with a historical plot, taken mainly from ancient history or mythology. However, after visiting Italy (1825), his views change dramatically, and he begins to search for a different approach to reality, which is already evident in his early works (View of the Forum, 1826; View of the Colosseum, 1826). It should be noted that Corot's sketches, where he changes his attitude to the nature of lighting and color gradations, conveying them more realistically, are a kind of impetus in the development of a realistic landscape.

However, despite the new principle of writing, Corot sends paintings to the Salon that meet all the canons of academic painting. At this time, in the work of Corot, there is a gap between the sketch and the picture, which will characterize his art throughout his life. Thus, the works sent to the Salon (including Hagar in the Desert, 1845; Homer and the Shepherds, 1845) indicate that the artist not only refers to ancient subjects, but also preserves the composition of the classical landscape, which nevertheless less does not prevent the viewer from recognizing the features of the French landscape in the depicted area. In general, such a contradiction was quite in the spirit of that era.

Very often, the innovations that Corot gradually comes to, he fails to hide from the jury, so his paintings are often rejected. Especially strong innovation is felt in the summer studies of the master, where he seeks to convey the various states of nature in a given period of time, filling the landscape with light and air. Initially, these were mainly urban views and compositions with architectural monuments of Italy, where he again went in 1834. For example, in the landscape “Morning in Venice” (c. 1834), sunlight, blue sky, and air transparency are beautifully conveyed. At the same time, the combination of light and shadow does not break the architectural forms, but on the contrary, it seems to model them. Figures of people with long shadows extending from them in the background give the landscape a feeling of almost real spatiality.

Later, the painter will be more restrained, he will be interested in a more modest nature, but he will pay more attention to its various states. To achieve the desired effect, Koro's color scheme will become thinner, lighter and begin to line up on variations of the same color. In this regard, such works as “The Bell Tower in Argenteuil” are characteristic, where the delicate greenery of the surrounding nature and the humidity of the air very subtly, but at the same time with great certainty convey the charm of spring, “Hay Carriage”, in which one can feel the joyful thrill of life.

It is noteworthy that Corot evaluates nature as a place where a simple person lives and acts. Another feature of his landscape is that it is always a reflection of the emotional state of the master. Therefore, landscape compositions are lyrical (the above-mentioned "Belfry in Artangei") or, conversely, dramatic (study "Gust of Wind", ca. 1865-1870).

Corot's figurative compositions are full of poetic feeling. If in the early works a person seems somewhat detached from the world around him (“The Reaper with a Sickle”, 1838), then in later works the images of people
are inextricably linked with the environment in which they are located ("The Reaper's Family", ca. 1857). In addition to landscapes, Corot also created portraits. Women's images are especially good, enchanting with their naturalness and liveliness. The artist painted only spiritually close people, so his portraits are marked by the author's sincere sympathy for the model.

Corot was not only a talented painter and graphic artist, but also a good teacher for young artists, reliable
comrade. This fact is noteworthy: when O. Daumier did not have the funds to pay the rent of his house, Corot bought this house and then presented it to a friend.

Corot died in 1875, leaving behind a huge creative heritage - about 3,000 paintings and graphic works.

Honore Daumier

Honoré Daumier, French graphic artist, painter and sculptor, was born in 1808 in Marseille in the family of a glazier who wrote poetry. In 1814, when Daumier was six years old, his family moved to Paris.

My labor activity the future artist began as a clerk, then worked as a salesman in a bookstore. However, he was not at all interested in this work, he preferred all his free time to wander the streets and make sketches. Soon, the young artist begins to visit the Louvre, where he studies ancient sculpture and the works of old masters, of which Rubens and Rembrandt fascinate him to a greater extent. Daumier understands that by studying the art of painting on his own, he will not be able to advance far, and then (since 1822) he begins to take drawing lessons from Lenoir (administrator of the Royal Museum). However, all teaching was reduced to simple copying of plasters, and this did not in the least satisfy the needs of the young man. Then Daumier leaves the workshop and goes to Ramole to study lithography, while at the same time earning money as a messenger.

The first work that Daumier did in the field of illustration dates back to the 1820s. They almost did not survive, but what nevertheless came down to us allows us to speak of Daumier as an artist in opposition to the official power represented by the Bourbons.

It is known that from the first days of the reign of Louis Philippe, the young artist draws sharp caricatures of both himself and his entourage, thereby creating a reputation for himself as a political fighter. As a result, Daumier is noticed by the publisher of the weekly "Caricature" Charles Philippon and invites him to cooperate, to which he agrees. The first work, published in "Caricature" dated February 9, 1832 - "Applicants for Places" - ridicules the servants of Louis Philippe. After her, satires on the king himself began to appear one after another.

Of the earliest lithographs by Daumier, Gargantua (December 15, 1831) deserves special attention, where the artist depicted a fat Louis Philippe, absorbing gold taken from a hungry and impoverished people. This sheet, exhibited in the shop window of the Auber company, gathered a whole crowd of spectators, for which the government took revenge on the master, sentencing him to six months in prison and a fine of 500 francs.

Despite the fact that Daumier's early works are still quite overloaded compositionally and affect not so much the expressiveness of the image as the narrative, they already have a style. Daumier himself is well aware of this and begins to work in the genre of a caricature portrait, while he uses a very peculiar method: first he sculpts portrait busts (in which the characteristic features are brought to the grotesque), which will then be his nature when working on lithography. As a result, he obtained figures that differed in the maximum volume. It was in this way that the lithograph “The Legislative Womb” (1834) was created, which shows the following picture: right in front of the viewer, on the benches located in the amphitheater, the ministers and members of the Parliament of the July Monarchy settled down. In each face, a portrait resemblance is conveyed with deadly accuracy, while the most expressive group is represented by Thiers listening to Guizot's note. Exposing the physical and moral inferiority of the ruling elite, the master comes to the creation of portrait types. Light plays a special role in them, it emphasizes the author's desire for the greatest expressiveness. Therefore, all the figures are given under harsh lighting (it is known that, while working on this composition, the master put the busts-models under the bright light of a lamp).

It is not surprising that with such hard work, Daumier found a great monumental style in lithography (this is very strongly felt in the work “Down the curtain, the farce is played”, 1834). The power of influence is just as high in works that reveal the role of workers in the fight against oppressors: “He is no longer dangerous to us”, “Do not interfere”, “Transnonin Street April 15, 1834”. As for the last leaf, it is a direct response to the uprising of the workers. Almost all the people actually living in one of the houses on Transnonen Street (including children and the elderly) were killed because one of the workers dared to shoot a policeman. The artist captured the most tragic moment. The lithograph depicts a terrible picture: on the floor, next to an empty bed, lies the corpse of a worker, crushing a dead child under him; in a darkened corner is a murdered woman. On the right, the head of a dead old man is clearly visible. The image presented by Daumier evokes a double feeling in the viewer: a sense of horror from what he has done and indignant protest. The work performed by the artist is not an indifferent commentary on events, but an angry denunciation.

The drama is enhanced by the sharp contrast of light and shadow. At the same time, the details, although receding into the background, at the same time clarify the situation in which such atrocity took place, emphasizing that the pogrom was carried out at a time when people were sleeping peacefully. It is characteristic that already in this work the features of Daumier's late paintings are visible, in which a single event is also generalized, thereby giving the composition a monumental expressiveness in combination with the "accident" of a snatched life moment.

Such works largely influenced the adoption of the "September Laws" (which entered into force at the end of 1834), directed against the press. This led to the fact that it became impossible to fully work in the field of political satire. Therefore, Daumier, like many other masters of political caricature, switches to topics related to everyday life, where he searches for and brings to the surface burning social issues. At this time, entire collections of cartoons were published in France, depicting the life and customs of the society of that era. Daumier, together with the artist Travies, creates a series of lithographs called "French Types" (1835-1836). Like Balzac in literature, Daumier in painting exposes his contemporary society, in which money rules.

Minister Guizot proclaims the slogan "Get rich!". Daumier responds to him by creating the image of Robert Macher - a swindler and a rogue, either dying or resurrecting again (series "Caricaturan", 1836-1838). In other sheets, he addresses the theme of bourgeois charity ("Modern Philanthropy", 1844-1846), the venality of the French court ("Judges of Justice", 1845-1849), the pompous complacency of the townsfolk (sheet "It is still very flattering to see your portrait at the exhibition" , part of the Salon of 1857 series). Other series of lithographs were also executed in an accusatory manner: “The Day of the Bachelor” (1839), “Matrimonial Mores” (1839-1842), “ Better days life" (1843-1846), "Pastorals" (1845-1846).

Over time, Daumier's drawing is somewhat transformed, the stroke becomes more expressive. According to contemporaries, the master never used new sharpened pencils, preferring to draw with fragments. He believed that this achieved a variety and liveliness of the lines. Perhaps that is why his works over time acquire a graphic character, displacing their earlier plasticity. It must be said that the new style was more suitable for graphic cycles, where the story was introduced, and the action itself unfolded either in the interior or in the landscape.

However, Daumier is still more prone to political satire, and as soon as the opportunity arises, he again takes up his favorite pastime, creating sheets filled with anger and hatred for the ruling elite. In 1848 there was a new revolutionary surge, but it was suppressed and the republic was threatened by Bonapartism. Responding to these events, Daumier creates Ratapual, a cunning Bonapartist agent and traitor. This image captivated the master so much that he transferred it from lithography to sculpture, where he was able to achieve great expressiveness with a bold interpretation.

It is not surprising that Daumier hates Napoleon III with the same force as Louis Philippe. The artist does his best to make his accusatory works make the inhabitants feel the evil that comes from the privileged class and, of course, the ruler. However, after the coup that took place on December 2, 1852, the political cartoon was again banned. And only towards the end of the 1860s, when the government became more liberal, Daumier turned to this genre for the third time. So, on one sheet, the viewer could see how the Constitution shortens the dress of Liberty, and on the other - Thiers, depicted as a prompter, telling every politician what to say and what to do. The artist draws many anti-militarist satires (“The world swallows a sword”, etc.).

From 1870 to 1872, Daumier created a series of lithographs exposing the criminal actions of the perpetrators of the disasters in France. For example, in a sheet called "This Killed That," he lets the viewer know that the election of Napoleon III marked the beginning of many troubles. Notable is the lithograph "The Empire is the World", which shows a field with crosses and tombstones. The inscription on the first tombstone reads: "Dead on the Boulevard Montmartre on December 2, 1851", on the last - "Dead at Sedan 1870". This sheet eloquently testifies that the empire of Napoleon III did not bring the French anything but death. All images in lithographs are symbolic, but the symbols here are not only ideologically saturated, but also very convincing.

Another well-known lithograph by Daumier, made in 1871, is noteworthy, where against the background of a formidable and cloudy sky, the mutilated trunk of a once powerful tree blackens. Only one branch survived, but it does not give up and continues to resist the storm. Under the sheet is a characteristic signature: "Poor France, the trunk is broken, but the roots are still strong." With this symbolic image, the master not only demonstrated the results of the tragedy he experienced, but with the help of light and shade contrasts and dynamic lines, he brought out a vivid image that embodies the power of the country. This work suggests that the master did not lose faith in the strength of France and the abilities of its people, who could make their homeland as great and powerful as before.

It should be noted that Daumier created not only lithographs. Since the 1830s he also works in painting and watercolor, but his early paintings (“The Engraver”, 1830-1834; self-portrait, 1830-1831) are characterized by the absence of a developed manner; sometimes it can be difficult to distinguish them from the works of other artists. Later, there is a honing of style, the development of certain themes. So, for example, in the 1840s. the master wrote a series of compositions under single name"Lawyers". In these paintings, the same grotesque images appear as in graphic works Daumier.

His oil paintings and watercolors, as well as lithographs, are imbued with sarcasm. Daumier paints the figures of lawyers speaking to the public with theatrical gestures (The Defender, 1840s) or smugly discussing their dirty machinations beyond the reach of someone else's gaze (Three Lawyers). When working on canvas, the painter often resorts to close-up, depicting the most necessary items and only outlining the details of the interior. With special care, he draws faces, sometimes stupid and indifferent, sometimes cunning and hypocritical, and sometimes contemptuous and self-satisfied. Depicting black lawyer's robes on a golden background, the author achieves a unique effect, opposing light and dark.

Over time, satire leaves the painting of Daumier. In the compositions of the late 1840s. the central place is occupied by spiritualized and heroic images of people from the people, endowed with strength, inner energy and heroism. A striking example of such works are the paintings "Family at the Barricade" (1848-1849) and "Uprising" (c. 1848).

The first canvas depicts revolutionary events and the people participating in them. The heroes are so close to the frame that only a part of the figures is visible. The artist tries to direct the viewer's attention to the faces fashioned by light. An old woman and a man are marked by severity and concentration, a young woman is marked by sadness and melancholy, and a young man, on the contrary, is filled with desperate determination. It is noteworthy that the heads of the characters are shown in different rotations, which gives the impression that the figures are moving, which further emphasizes the tension of the composition.

The second composition ("Uprising") is an image of a rushing crowd, seized by a revolutionary impulse.

The dynamics of events is conveyed not only by a gesture of a raised hand and figures rushing forward, but also by a strip of light.

Around the same time, Daumier painted paintings dedicated to refugees and emigrants, but these images are not found in his work so often. He found all the subjects for his paintings in Everyday life: a laundress going down to the water; barge hauler pulling a boat; worker climbing onto the roof. It is noteworthy that all works reflect separate fragments of reality and influence the viewer not by narrative, but by visual means that create an expressive, in some cases tragic image.

In this spirit, the painting “Burden” was made, which has several options. The plot of the work is simple: a woman slowly walks along the embankment; With one hand she drags a huge laundry basket; nearby, clinging to her skirt, a child trudges along with small steps. A sharp wind blows in the faces of the heroes, which makes it much more difficult to walk, and the burden seems heavier. Daumier's usual everyday motive takes on almost heroic features. The woman looks detached from all worries. In addition, the master omits all landscape details, only casually outlining the outlines of the city on the other side of the river. The muted and cold shades with which the landscape is painted enhance the feeling of drama and hopelessness. It is noteworthy that the interpretation of the image of a woman contradicts not only the classical canons, but also the ideals of human beauty among the romantics; it is given with great expression and realism. An important role in creating images is played by light and shadow: thanks to the lighting, which goes in an even strip, the figure of a woman seems surprisingly expressive and plastic; the dark silhouette of a child stands out on a light parapet. The shadow from both figures merges into a single spot. Such a scene, observed many times by Daumier in reality, is presented not in genre, but in monumental terms, which is facilitated by the collective image he created.

Despite the generalization, in each work of Daumier an extraordinary vitality is preserved. The master is able to catch any gesture characteristic of the person he depicts, to convey a pose, etc. The canvas “Print Lover” helps to make sure of this.

Although during the 1850-1860s. Daumier works very fruitfully in painting, but the problem of the open air, which occupied many painters of that time, does not interest him at all. Even in the case when he depicts his characters in the open air, he still does not use diffused light. In his paintings, light performs a different function: it carries an emotional load, which helps the author to place compositional accents. Daumier's favorite effect is backlighting, in which the foreground is darkened against a light background (“Before Bathing”, c. 1852; “Curious at the Window”, c. 1860). However, in some paintings, the painter turns to another technique, when the twilight of the background seems to dissipate towards the foreground and white, blue and yellow colors begin to sound with greater intensity. A similar effect can be seen in such canvases as Leaving School (c. 1853-1855), Third Class Carriage (c. 1862).

In painting, Daumier did no less than in graphics. He introduced new images, interpreting them with great expressiveness. None of his predecessors wrote so boldly and freely. It was for this quality that progressively thinking contemporaries of Daumier highly valued his paintings. However, during the life of the artist, his painting was little known, and the posthumous exhibition in 1901 was a real discovery for many.

Daumier died in 1879, in the town of Valmondois near Paris, in a house donated to him by Corot.

The revolution of 1848 led to an extraordinary upsurge in the social life of France, in its culture and art. At that time, two major representatives of realistic painting worked in the country - J.-F. Millet and G. Courbet.

Jean Francois Millet

Jean-Francois Millet, a French painter and graphic artist, was born in 1814 in the town of Gruchy near Cherbourg into a large peasant family with a small plot of land in Normandy. From childhood, young Millet was surrounded by an atmosphere of diligence and piety. The boy was very quick-witted, and his talent was noticed by the local priest. Therefore, in addition to schoolwork, the boy, under the guidance of a church minister, began to study Latin, and after a while, along with the Bible, the works of Virgil became his favorite reading, for which the painter had an addiction throughout his life.

Until the age of 18, Millet lived in the countryside and, being the eldest son, performed a variety of peasant work, including those related to the cultivation of the land. Since Milla awakened very early the ability to fine arts, then he painted everything that surrounded him: fields, gardens, animals. However, the sea aroused the greatest interest among the young artist. Millet dedicates his first sketches to the water element.

Millais was distinguished by his subtle powers of observation, and his gaze, which noticed the beauty of nature, did not escape the calamities suffered by a person who entered into confrontation with her. Throughout his life, the master carried a tragic memory, a terrible storm that wrecked and sank dozens of ships, which he observed in early childhood.

Later, the young painter went to Cherbourg, where he studied painting first with Mouchel, and then with Langlois de Chevreville (a student and follower of Gros). At the request of the latter, he received a scholarship from the municipality and went to continue his studies in Paris. Leaving his homeland, Millet listened to the instructions of his grandmother, who told him: "Francois, never write anything obscene, even if it was by order of the king himself."

Arriving in Paris, the artist entered the workshop of Delaroche. He studied there from 1837 to 1838. Simultaneously with classes in Millet's workshop, he visited the Louvre, where he studied the famous paintings, of which Michelangelo's works most impressed him. Millet did not immediately find his way into art. His first works, created for sale, were made in the manner of A. Watteau and F. Boucher, called maniere fleurie, which means “flowery manner”. And although this way of writing is distinguished by external beauty and grace, in reality it creates a false impression. Success came to the artist in the early 1840s thanks to portrait works (Self-Portrait, 1841; Mademoiselle Ono, 1841; Armand Ono, 1843; Deleuze, 1845).

In the mid-1840s, Millet was working on a series of portraits of sailors, in which his style is completely freed from mannerisms and imitation, which is typical early work artist ("Naval officer", 1845, etc.). The master painted several paintings on mythological and religious subjects (St. Jerome, 1849; Hagar, 1849).

In 1848, Millet became close to the artists N. Diaz and F. Jeanron and exhibited for the first time at the Salon. First
the picture presented by him - "Veyatel" depicts rural life. Since that time, the master once and for all refuses mythological subjects and decides to write only what is closer to him.

To implement his plan, he and his family moved to Barbizon. Here the artist is completely immersed
into the world of rural life and creates works that correspond to his worldview. These are The Sower (1849), The Seated Peasant Woman (1849), etc. In them, Millet, with great persuasiveness, truthfully displays the representatives of the peasant class, focusing mainly on the figure, as a result of which one sometimes gets the impression that the landscape in his paintings performs background role.

In the works of Millet in the early 1850s. also dominated by the lonely figures of peasants engaged in ordinary affairs. Creating canvases, the artist sought to elevate the most prosaic work. He was convinced that "true humanity" and "great poetry" could only be conveyed by depicting working people. The characteristic features of these works are simplicity of gestures, ease of poses, voluminous plasticity of figures and slowness of movements.

Looking at the famous painting by Millet "The Seamstress" (1853), the viewer sees only the most necessary attributes of a dressmaker: scissors, a needle bed and irons. There is nothing superfluous on the canvas, there is exactly as much space as necessary - with this the master makes the image significant and even monumental. Despite the apparent static nature of the composition, the image of a woman is full of inner movement: it seems that her hand holding the needle is making more and more stitches, and her chest is rhythmically heaving. The worker carefully looks at her product, but her thoughts are somewhere far away. Despite the ordinariness and some intimacy of the motive, solemnity and grandeur are inherent in the picture.

The painting Rest of the Reapers, exhibited by the master at the Salon of 1853, is executed in the same spirit. Despite some generalization of rhythmic figures, the composition filled with light evokes a sense of integrity. The images of the peasants harmoniously fit into the overall picture of nature.

It is characteristic that in many of Millet's works, nature helps to express the mood of the hero. So, in the painting “Seated Peasant Woman”, the unfriendly forest perfectly conveys the sadness of a girl, deeply immersed in her restless thoughts.

Over time, Millet, who painted pictures in which monumental images were displayed against the backdrop of a landscape, begins to create somewhat different works. The landscape space in them expands, the landscape, which still plays the role of a background, begins to play a more significant, semantic role. Thus, in the composition "The Gatherers" (1857), the landscape in the background includes the figures of peasants harvesting.

Millet gives a deeper meaning to the picture of nature in the small canvas "Angelus" ("Venus Ringing", 1858-1859). The figures of a man and a woman praying in the middle of a field to the quiet sounds of a church bell do not seem alienated from the calm evening landscape.

When the master was asked why most of his paintings have a sad mood, he answered:
“Life has never turned a joyful side to me: I don’t know where she is, I have never seen her. The happiest thing I know is the peace, the stillness that one enjoys so admirably in the woods or on the arable land, whether they are suitable for cultivation or not; agree that this always disposes to sad, though sweet dreaminess. These words fully explain the dreamy sadness of his peasants, which harmonizes so well with the peace and silence of the fields and forests.

A completely opposite mood is observed in Millet's program composition "A Man with a Hoe", exhibited at the Salon of 1863. The fact that this work stands apart from everything that has already been written was realized by the author himself. Not without reason, in one of his letters in 1962, Millet noted: “The Man with the Hoe will bring me criticism of many people who do not like to be occupied with affairs not of their circle, when they are disturbed ...”. Indeed, his words were prophetic. Criticism passed its verdict, describing the artist as a person "more dangerous than Courbet." And although in this picture the viewer sees only a peasant leaning on a hoe, one glance is enough to feel: he just walked with a heavy tread, hitting the ground with his tool. A tired work man is depicted with great expressiveness: both in the face and in the figure, the fatigue and hopelessness of his life are clearly read - all that hundreds of thousands of French peasants actually experienced.

However, among works of this type (especially in the late 1860s and early 1870s) there are works imbued with optimism. These are paintings in which the master focuses his attention on the landscape, flooded with sunlight. Such are the canvases “Bathing the Shepherdess of Geese” (1863), “Bathing the Horses” (1866), “The Young Shepherdess” (1872). In the last Millet, the sunbeam passes very subtly, passing through the foliage of trees and playfully caressing the dress and face of the girl.

In the last period of creativity, the artist tries to capture and capture on the canvas the brief moments of life. This desire to fix the moment was caused by the desire to directly reflect the reality. So, for example, in the pastel "Autumn, the departure of the cranes" (1865-1866), the gesture of a shepherd girl watching the flight of a flock of cranes is about to change; and if you look at the composition "Geese", exhibited at the Salon of 1867, it seems that in another moment - and the flickering light will change. This principle would later find its expression in the works of the Impressionist painters.

However, it should be noted that in the last works of Millet, especially in his figurative compositions, the search for monumentality is again palpable. This can be seen especially clearly on the canvas “Return from the field. Evening ”(1873), in which a group of peasants and animals stands out against the background of the evening sky as a merging generalized silhouette.

So, from 1848 until the end of his life, Millet limited himself to depicting the village and its inhabitants. And although he did not at all strive to give his works a sharp social meaning, but only wanted to preserve patriarchal traditions at all costs, his work was perceived as a source of revolutionary ideas.

Millet ended his life in Barbizon in 1875.

Gustave Courbet

Gustave Courbet, French painter, graphic artist and sculptor, was born in 1819 in the south of France, in Ornans, into a wealthy peasant family. He took his first painting lessons in his native city, then studied for some time at Besançon College and at the drawing school of Flajulo.

In 1839, with with great difficulty having convinced his father of the correctness of the chosen path, Courbet went to Paris. There he simultaneously visited the well-known at that time workshop of Suisse, where he worked hard with living nature, and the Louvre, copying the old masters and admiring their work. The young artist was especially impressed by the work of the Spaniards - D. Velasquez, J. Ribera and F. Zurbaran. Visiting his native places from time to time, Courbet paints landscapes with great pleasure, sculpting volumes with a thick layer of paint. In addition, he works in the portrait genre (most often he himself is the model) and paints canvases on religious and literary subjects (“Lot with his daughter”, 1841).

Creating self-portraits, Courbet somewhat romanticizes his appearance (“Wounded”, 1844; “Happy Lovers”, 1844-1845; “Man with a Pipe”, 1846). It was a self-portrait that was first exhibited by him at the Salon (“Self-Portrait with a Black Dog”, 1844). Poetry and sentimental daydreaming pervaded the canvas "After dinner in Ornans" (1849). With this picture, the artist seems to be defending his right to depict what he knows well, what he observed in a familiar setting: in the kitchen, where, after finishing dinner, the artist himself, his father, the musician Promaillet and Marlay, are sitting. All characters are depicted exactly as they actually looked. At the same time, Courbet managed to convey the general mood created by the music that the characters in the picture listen to. In addition, by arranging the figures on a large canvas, on a large scale, the artist created generalized images, achieving monumentality and significance, despite the seemingly ordinary everyday plot. This circumstance seemed to the modern painter to the public an unheard-of impudence.

However, Courbet does not stop there. In the works exhibited at the next Salon (1850-1851), his audacity goes even further. So, in the canvas "Stone Crushers" (1849-1850), the painter deliberately laid the social meaning. He set a goal with merciless truthfulness to portray the backbreaking work and hopeless poverty of the French peasantry. No wonder Courbet wrote in an explanation to the painting: “This is how they begin and this is how they end.” To enhance the impression, the master generalizes the images presented. Despite some conventionality in the transmission of light, the landscape is perceived very truthfully, however, like the figures of people. In addition to Stone Crushers, the painter exhibited at the Salon the canvases Burial at Ornan (1849) and Peasants Returning from the Fair (1854). All these paintings were so unlike the works of other exhibitors that they amazed Courbet's contemporaries.

Thus, "Funeral in Ornan" is a large-format canvas, unusual in design and significant in artistic skill. Everything in it seems unusual and unusual: the theme (the funeral of one of the inhabitants of a small town), and the characters (petty bourgeois and wealthy peasants, realistically written). The creative principle of Courbet, proclaimed in this picture - to truthfully show life in all its ugliness, did not go unnoticed. No wonder some modern critics called it “the glorification of the ugly”, while others, on the contrary, tried to justify the author, because “it’s not the artist’s fault if material interests, a life small town, provincial pettiness leave traces of their claws on faces, make extinct eyes, wrinkled forehead and meaningless expression of the mouth. The bourgeois are like that. M. Courbet writes to the bourgeois."

And indeed, although the characters drawn on the canvas are not marked by any special beauty and spirituality, nevertheless they are given truthfully and sincerely. The master was not afraid of monotony, his figures are static. However, by the expression of the faces deliberately turned towards the viewer, one can easily guess how they relate to the ongoing event, whether it excites them. It should be noted that Courbet did not immediately come to such a composition. It was originally intended not to draw each individual face - this can be seen from the sketch. But later the idea changed, and the images acquire clearly portrait features. So, for example, in the mass you can recognize the faces of the father, mother and sister of the artist himself, the poet Max Buchon, the old Jacobins Plate and Cardo, the musician Promaye and many other inhabitants of Ornan.

In the picture, as it were, two moods were combined: gloomy solemnity, corresponding to the moment, and everyday life. The black color of mourning clothes is majestic, the facial expressions are strict and the poses of those who see them off on their last journey are motionless. The gloomy mood of the funeral rite is also emphasized by severe rocky ledges. However, even in this extremely sublime mood, the prose of life is woven, which is emphasized by the indifference of the face of the servant boy and the clerks, but the face of the person supporting the cross seems especially ordinary, even indifferent. The solemnity of the moment is also violated by the dog with its tail between its legs, depicted in the foreground.

All these clarifying details are very important and significant for an artist who is trying to oppose his work to the official art of the Salon. This desire can be traced in the further works of Courbet. For example, in the canvas “Bathers” (1853), which caused an uproar due to the fact that the fat representatives of the French bourgeoisie shown in it turned out to be unlike transparent nymphs from the paintings of salon masters, and their nudity is presented by the artist with the utmost tangibility and volume. All this was not only not welcomed, but, on the contrary, caused a storm of indignation, which, however, did not stop the artist.

Over time, Courbet realizes that he needs to look for a new artistic method. He could no longer be satisfied with what had ceased to meet his plans. Soon Courbet comes to tonal painting and the modeling of volumes with light. He himself says about it this way: "I do in my paintings what the sun does in nature." At the same time, in most cases, the artist writes on a dark background: first he puts dark colors, gradually moves to light ones and brings them to the brightest highlight. The paint is applied confidently and vigorously with a spatula.

Courbet does not get stuck on any one topic, he is constantly in search. In 1855, the painter exhibited the "Artist's Studio", which is a kind of declaration. He himself calls it "a real allegory that defines the seven-year period of his artistic life." And although this picture is not Courbet's best work, its color scheme, sustained in silver-gray tones, speaks of the painter's coloristic skill.

In 1855, the artist arranged a personal exhibition, which became a real challenge not only to academic art, but to the entire bourgeois society. The preface written by the author to the catalog of this peculiar exhibition is indicative. So, revealing the concept of "realism", he directly declares his goals: "To be able to convey mores, ideas, appearance my era, according to my assessment - in a word, to create living art - that was my goal. Courbet saw all aspects of reality, its diversity and tried to embody it in his work with maximum truthfulness. Whether it is work on a portrait, landscape or still life, the master everywhere conveys the materiality and density of the real world with the same temperament.

In the 1860s, the lines between the portrait and genre composition were blurred in the painter's works (in the future, this trend would be characteristic of the work of E. Manet and other impressionist artists). In this regard, the most revealing paintings are "Little Englishwomen at an open window on the seashore" (1865) and "Girl with seagulls" (1865). hallmark of these works is that the painter is interested not so much in the complex experiences of the characters as in the beauty inherent in the material world.

It is characteristic that after 1855 the artist increasingly turned to the landscape, observing with great attention the air and water elements, greenery, snow, animals and flowers. Many landscapes of this time are dedicated to hunting scenes.
The space and objects presented in these compositions feel more and more real.

Working in this manner, Courbet pays a lot of attention to lighting. So, in "Roes by the Stream" we can observe the following picture: although the trees are perceived as less voluminous, and the animals almost merge with the landscape background, on the other hand, space and air are felt quite real. This feature was immediately noted by critics who wrote that Courbet had a new stage creativity - "the path to a light tone and light." Of particular note seascapes(“The Sea off the Coast of Normandy”, 1867; “Wave”, 1870, etc.). Comparing different landscapes, one cannot
not notice how the gamut of colors changes depending on the lighting. All this suggests that in the late period of Courbet's work, he seeks not only to capture the volume and materiality of the world, but also to convey the surrounding atmosphere.

Concluding the conversation about Courbet, one cannot but say that, having turned to landscape works, he did not stop working on canvases with social themes. Here it is necessary to especially note "Return from the Conference" (1863) - a picture that was a kind of satire on the clergy. Unfortunately, the painting has not survived to this day.

Since the 1860s in the circles of the bourgeois public, there is a rise in interest in the artist's work. However, when the government decides to award Courbet, he refuses the award, as he does not want to be officially recognized and belong to any school. During the days of the Paris Commune, Courbet takes an active part in revolutionary events, for which he subsequently goes to prison and is expelled from the country. While behind bars, the artist creates many drawings depicting scenes of massacre against the Communards.

Exiled from France, Courbet continues to write. So, for example, in Switzerland he created several realistic landscapes, of which “The Cabin in the Mountains” (c. 1874) is of particular admiration. Despite the fact that the landscape is notable for its small size and the specificity of the motive, it has a monumental character.

Until the end of his life, Courbet remained true to the principle of realism, in the spirit of which he worked throughout his life. The painter died away from his homeland, in La Tour de Pels (Switzerland) in 1877.

Realism(from late Latin realis - material, real) in art, a truthful, objective reflection of reality by specific means inherent in a particular type of artistic creativity. In its historically specific meaning, the term "realism" denotes a trend in literature and art that arose in the 18th century and reached full development and flourishing in the critical realism of the 19th century. and continuing to develop in the struggle and interaction with other areas in the 20th century. (up to the present). Speaking of realism in the middle of the 19th century, they mean a certain artistic system that has found theoretical justification as an aesthetically conscious method.

In France, realism is associated primarily with the name of Courbet. Appeal to modernity in all its manifestations, relying, as Emile Zola proclaimed, on exact science, became the main requirement of this artistic movement. Gustave Courbet was born in 1819 in Ornans, a town of about three thousand people located in Franche-Comte, 25 km from Besançon, near the Swiss border. His father, Régis Courbet, owned vineyards near Ornans. In 1831, the future artist began attending the seminary in Ornan. It is alleged that his behavior contrasted so much with what was expected of a seminarian that no one undertook to forgive him (see also). Anyway, in 1837, at the urging of his father, Courbet entered the College Royal in Besançon, which, as his father hoped, was to prepare him for further legal education. Simultaneously with his studies at the college, Courbet attended classes at the Academy, where his teacher was Charles-Antoine Flajulo, a student of the greatest French classicist artist Jacques-Louis David. In 1839 he went to Paris, promising his father that he would study law there. in Paris, Courbet got acquainted with the art collection of the Louvre. His work, especially early ones, was subsequently greatly influenced by the small Dutch and Spanish artists, especially Velasquez, from whom he borrowed the general dark tones of the paintings. Courbet did not become involved in jurisprudence, but instead began classes in art workshops, primarily with Charles de Steuben. He then abandoned formal art education and began working in the workshops of Suisse and Lapin. There were no special classes in the workshop of Suiss, the students had to depict the nude, and their artistic search was not limited. This style of teaching suited Courbet well.

In 1844, Courbet's first painting, Self-Portrait with a Dog, was exhibited at the Paris Salon (all other paintings were rejected by the jury). From the very beginning, the artist showed himself to be an extreme realist, and the further, the stronger and more persistently he followed this direction, considering the transfer of bare reality and life's prose to be the ultimate goal of art, while neglecting even the elegance of technology. In the 1840s he wrote a large number of self-portraits.

Between 1844 and 1847 Courbet visited Ornans several times, and also traveled to Belgium and the Netherlands, where he managed to establish contact with painting sellers. One of the buyers of his works was the Dutch artist and collector, one of the founders of the Hague school of painting Hendrik Willem Mesdag. Subsequently, this laid the foundations for the wide popularity of Gustave Courbet's painting outside of France. Around the same time, the artist establishes connections in Parisian artistic circles. So, he visited the Brasserie Andler cafe (located directly next to his workshop), where representatives of the realistic trend in art and literature gathered, in particular, Charles Baudelaire and Honore Daumier.

With the mind and considerable talent of the artist, his naturalism, seasoned, in genre paintings, with a socialist trend, caused a lot of noise in artistic and literary circles and gained him many enemies (Alexandre Dumas son belonged to them), although also a lot of adherents, among which belonged to the famous writer and theorist of anarchism Proudhon.

Eventually, Courbet became the head of the realist school that originated in France and spread from there to other countries, especially Belgium. The level of his dislike of other artists reached the point that for several years he did not participate in the Parisian salons, but at world exhibitions he arranged special exhibitions of his works, in separate rooms. In 1871, Courbet joined the Paris Commune, managed public museums under it, and led the overthrow of the Vendôme column.

After the fall of the Commune, he served, according to the verdict of the court, six months in prison; later he was sentenced to replenish the costs of restoring the column he destroyed. This forced him to retire to Switzerland, where he died in poverty in 1877. Creativity Courbet repeatedly throughout his life spoke of himself as a realist: “Painting consists in presenting things that the artist can see and touch ... I firmly adhere to the views that painting - extremely concrete art and can only consist in depicting real things given to us ... This is a completely physical language. ”The most interesting of Courbet’s works:“ Funeral in Ornans ”, his own portrait,“ Roe deer by the stream ”,“ Deer Fight ”,“ Wave" (all five in the Louvre, Paris), "Afternoon Coffee at Ornans" (in the Lille Museum), "The Breakers of the Highway Stone" (kept in the Dresden Gallery and died in 1945), "Fire" (painting, due to with its anti-government theme, destroyed by the police), “Village priests returning from a comradely feast” (a caustic satire on the clergy), “Bathers”, “Woman with a Parrot”, “Entrance to the Puy-Noire Valley”, “Oragnon Rock”, “Deer by the water" ( in the Marseille Museum) and many landscapes in which the artist's talent was expressed most vividly and most fully. Courbet is the author of several scandalous erotic paintings that were not exhibited, but known to contemporaries (“The Origin of the World”, “Sleepers”, etc.); it also organically fit into his concept of naturalism. "Funeral in Ornans" Courbet began to paint a picture in 1849, in a cramped attic in Ornans. The work of the artist caused a commotion among the local society that fell into her heroes - many inhabitants of these places were present at it: from the mayor and justice of the peace to Courbet's relatives and friends. But this commotion could not be compared with the controversy that flared up after the canvas was exhibited in the Salon.

Bewilderment and misunderstanding caused its very size. They agreed that an ordinary rural funeral should not be the subject of such a large-scale work. One of the critics wrote: "The funeral of a peasant can touch us ... But this event should not be so localized." However, for the realists, it was precisely this "localization" that was extremely important. Courbet created a modern, easily recognizable image, capturing the people and realities of his time on the canvas. In addition, he focused on the very process of a person's funeral, and not on his deeds or on the posthumous fate of his soul (as was done before). At the same time, the identity of the deceased here remains anonymous, turning into a collective image of death. This makes the picture a modernized version of a plot very popular in the Middle Ages, known as the Dance of Death.

Jean Baptiste Camille Corot(Fr. Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot, July 17, 1796, Paris - February 22, 1875, ibid) - French artist, landscape painter. At first he studied studies from nature under the guidance of Michalon (fr. Achille-Etna Michallon, 1796--1822), and then, studying with Bertin (fr. Jean Victor Bertin, 1775--1842), he lost a lot of time in following the academic direction of this artist, until he went to Italy in 1826 and began here again for a direct study of nature. Making studies in the vicinity of Rome, he quickly acquired an understanding, mainly of the general nature of the landscape, although he carefully delved into its details and diligently wrote off rocks, stones, trees, bushes, moss, etc. However, in his first Italian works still noticeable striving for the rhythm of the arrangement of parts and for the style of forms.

Subsequently, he worked in Provence, Normandy, Limousin, Dauphine, around Paris and in Fontainebleau, and his view of nature and performance became freer and more independent. In the paintings painted upon his return from Italy, he does not pursue an exact reproduction of the given area, but tries to convey the only impression of it, using its forms and tones only in order to express his poetic mood with their help.

The figures that he places in his landscapes also contribute to the same goal, making up idyllic, biblical and fantastic scenes from them. Although he was reproached for being too sentimental, many of his works also exude a genuinely bright, cheerful feeling. He was, for the most part, a painter of silently sleeping waters, wide, poor horizons, mist-shrouded skies, dormant forests and groves - a real Theocritus of landscape painting. In addition to her, he was engaged in engraving with a needle and "strong vodka". His best paintings are “View of the Riva” (1835; in the Marseille Museum), Italian Morning (1842; in the Avignon Museum),

• "Memories of Lake Nemi" (1865),
• "Idyll"
• Sunrise at Ville d'Avre (1868; in the Rouen Museum),
• “Nymphs and satyrs greet the sunrise with a dance” (1851; Louvre),
• · "Morning" and "View in the environs of Albano" (ibid.).
• · In the collection of the former Kushelev Gallery there were two samples of Karo's painting: "Morning" and "Evening". Jean Francois Millem(Fr. Jean-François Millet, October 4, 1814 - January 20, 1875) - French artist, one of the founders of the Barbizon school.
• · Millet was born into a wealthy peasant family from the small village of Grushy on the banks of the English Channel near Cherbourg. His artistic abilities were perceived by the family as a gift from above. His parents gave him money and allowed him to study painting. In 1837 he arrived in Paris and worked for two years in the workshop of the painter Paul Delaroche (1797-1856). Since 1840, the young artist began to exhibit his work at the Salon. In 1849 the artist settled in Barbizon and lived there until the end of his days. The theme of peasant life and nature became the main one for Millet. “I am a peasant and nothing more than a peasant,” he said of himself. "The Gatherers of Ears"The hard work of the peasants, their poverty and humility were reflected in the painting "The Gatherers of Ears" (1857). The figures of women on the background of the field are bent in a low bow - this is the only way they will be able to collect the ears left after the harvest. The whole picture is filled with sun and air. The work caused different assessments of the public and criticism, which forced the master to temporarily turn to the more poetic aspects of peasant life.
• · The painting "Angelus" (1859) showed that Millet is able to convey subtle emotional experiences in his works. Two lonely figures froze in the field - a husband and wife, having heard the evening bell ringing, quietly pray for the dead. The soft brownish tones of the landscape, illuminated by the rays of the setting sun, create a feeling of peace. "Angelus" In 1859, Millet, commissioned by the French government, painted the painting "Peasant Woman Grazing a Cow." A frosty morning, hoarfrost is silver on the ground, a woman slowly wanders after a cow, her figure has almost disappeared into the morning mist. Critics called this picture a manifesto of poverty.
• · At the end of his life, the artist, under the influence of the Barbizons, became interested in landscape. In Winter Landscape with Crows (1866) there are no peasants, they have long since left, leaving the arable land where crows roam. The earth is beautiful, sad and lonely. "Spring" (1868-1873) is Millet's last work. full of life and love for nature, shining with bright colors after the rain, it was completed shortly before the death of the artist. On January 20, 1875, the artist, at the age of 60, died in Barbizon and was buried near the village of Schally, next to his friend Theodore Rousseau. Millais never painted from nature. He liked to walk through the woods and make little sketches, and then reproduce the motive he liked from memory. The artist chose colors for his paintings, trying not only to accurately reproduce the landscape, but also to achieve harmony in color.

Picturesque craftsmanship, the desire to show rural life without embellishment, put Jean-Francois Millet on a par with the barbizonies and realistic artists who worked in the second half of the 19th century.

François Millet in literature: Mark Twain wrote the story "Is he alive or dead?" in which he humorously described the story of how a group of artists, tired of poverty, decided to publicize and then stage the death of one of them in order to raise the prices of his paintings. The artists were guided by the statement that the money spent on the funerals and epitaphs of the masters who died of starvation would be more than enough for them to live comfortably. The choice fell on Francois Millet. Having painted several paintings and several bags of sketches, he "died after a severe and prolonged illness." It is noteworthy that in the story, Francois Millet himself carried "his" coffin. The price of paintings immediately jumped and the artists were able to achieve their goal - to get a real price for their paintings during their lifetime.

The French art school at the turn of the 17th and 18th century can be called the leading European school, it was in France at that time that art styles such as rococo, romanticism, classicism, realism, impressionism and post-impressionism were born.

Francois Boucher, Antoine Watteau, Jean Honore Fragonard worked in the Rococo style.

Jean Baptiste Greuze, Nicolas Poussin, Jean Baptiste Chardin, Jean Dominique Ingres, Jacques-Louis David worked in the style of classicism.

Francisco de Goya, Eugene Delacroix, Theodore Gericault, William Blake worked in the style of romanticism.

The birth of realism in painting is most often associated with the work of the French artist Gustave Courbet, who opened his personal exhibition "Pavilion of Realism" in Paris in 1855, although even before him the artists of the Barbizon school Theodore Rousseau, Jean-Francois Millet, Jules Breton worked in a realistic manner . In the 1870s realism was divided into two main areas - naturalism and impressionism.

Realistic painting has become widespread throughout the world. In the style of realism of an acute social orientation in Russia of the 19th century, the Wanderers worked.

Edgar Degas, Edouard Manet, Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, Auguste Renoir, Georges Seurat, Alfred Sisley and others worked in the style of impressionism.

Post-impressionism gave rise to such areas of art as expressionism, symbolism and modernity.

Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, Paul Cezanne, Toulouse-Lautrec worked in the style of post-impressionism.

Let us consider in more detail impressionism and post-impressionism on the example of the work of individual masters of France of the 19th century.

Starting with strict historical paintings and portraits, in the 1870s Degas became close to representatives of impressionism and turned to depicting modern urban life - streets, cafes, theatrical performances.

In Degas's paintings, dynamic, often asymmetrical composition, accurate flexible drawing, unexpected angles, active interaction between figure and space are carefully thought out and verified.

The favorite pastel technique allowed Edgar Degas to most fully show his talent as a draftsman. Saturated tones and “shimmering” touches of pastels helped the artist to create that special colorful atmosphere, that iridescent airiness that so distinguishes all his works.

Edgar Degas can be called a subtle colorist, his pastels are surprisingly harmonious, sometimes delicate and light, sometimes built on sharp color contrasts. Degas's manner was remarkable for its amazing freedom, he applied pastels with bold, broken strokes, sometimes leaving the tone of paper appearing through the pastel or adding strokes in oil or watercolor. Color in Degas's paintings arises from an iridescent radiance, from a flowing stream of iridescent lines that give rise to form.

Late works by Degas are distinguished by the intensity and richness of color, which are complemented by the effects of artificial lighting, enlarged, almost flat forms, and the constraint of space, which gives them a tense and dramatic character. In that

It should be noted that the use of green, yellow, ocher, pink and red tones to depict the skin shocked the public of that time, unprepared for the perception of the fact that the shadows should be colored, filled with light.

In the 1880s, the so-called "Ingres period" began in Renoir's work. The most famous work of this period is The Great Bathers. For the first time, Renoir began to use sketches and sketches to build a composition, the lines of the drawing became clear and defined, the colors lost their former brightness and saturation, the painting as a whole began to look more restrained and colder.

In the early 1890s, new changes took place in Renoir art. In a painterly manner, an iridescence of color appears, which is why this period is sometimes called "pearl", then this period gives way to "red", so named because of the preference for shades of reddish and pink flowers.

In The Yellow Christ, Gauguin depicted a crucifix against the backdrop of a typical French rural landscape, the suffering Jesus is surrounded by three Breton peasant women. Peace in the air, calm submissive poses of women, a landscape saturated with sunny yellow color with trees in red autumn foliage, a peasant busy in the distance with his affairs, cannot but conflict with what is happening on the cross. The environment contrasts sharply with Jesus, on whose face that stage of suffering is displayed, which borders on apathy, indifference to everything around him. The contradiction of the boundless torments accepted by Christ and the "unnoticed" of this sacrifice by people - that's main topic this work of Gauguin.

on the shore, two sisters - they have just swum, and now their bodies are spread out on the sand in casual voluptuous poses - are talking about love, one memory causes contention: “How? Are you jealous!".

In painting the juicy full-blooded beauty of tropical nature, natural people unspoiled by civilization, Gauguin depicted a utopian dream of an earthly paradise, of human life in harmony with nature. Gauguin's Polynesian canvases resemble panels in terms of decorative color, flatness and monumentality of the composition, generalization of the stylized pattern.

P. Gauguin. Where did we come from? Who are we? Where are we going? 1897-1898

The picture "Where did we come from? Who are we? Where are we going?" Gauguin considered the sublime culmination of his reflections. According to the artist's intention, the picture should be read from right to left: three main groups of figures illustrate the questions posed in the title. The group of women with a child on the right side of the picture represent the beginning of life; the middle group symbolizes the daily existence of maturity; in the extreme left group, Gauguin depicted human old age, approaching death; the blue idol in the background symbolizes the other world. This painting is the pinnacle of Gauguin's innovative post-impressionist style; his style combined a clear use of colors, decorative color and compositional solutions, flatness and monumentality of the image with emotional expressiveness.

Gauguin's work anticipated many features of the Art Nouveau style that developed during this period and influenced the formation of the masters of the Nabis group and other painters of the early 20th century.

In 1888, Van Gogh moved to Arles, where the originality of his creative manner was finally determined. A fiery artistic temperament, a painful impulse towards harmony, beauty and happiness, and, at the same time, a fear of forces hostile to man, are embodied either in landscapes shining with sunny colors of the south (“Yellow House”, “Harvest. La Crot Valley”), or in sinister , reminiscent of a nightmare images ("Night Cafe Terrace"); dynamics of color and stroke

Van Gogh's intense work in recent years was accompanied by bouts of mental illness, which led him to the hospital for the mentally ill in Arles, then in Saint-Remy (1889-1890) and in Auvers-sur-Oise (1890), where he committed suicide. The work of the last two years of the artist’s life is marked by ecstatic obsession, extremely heightened expression of color combinations, abrupt mood swings – from frenzied despair and gloomy visionary (“Road with cypresses and stars”) to a quivering feeling of enlightenment and peace (“Landscape in Auvers after the rain”) .

W. Van Gogh. Wheat field with crows. 1890

“Wheatfield with Crows” is a painting by Van Gogh, painted by the artist in July 1890 and is one of his most famous works. The painting was supposedly finished on July 10, 1890, 19 days before his death in Auvers-sur-Oise. There is a version that Van Gogh committed suicide in the process of painting this picture (going out into the open air with drawing materials, he shot himself from a pistol purchased to scare away bird flocks in the heart area, then independently reached the hospital, where he died from loss blood).

French realism of the 19th century goes through two stages in its development. The first stage - the formation and establishment of realism as the leading trend in literature (late 20s - 40s) - is represented by the work of Beranger, Merimet, Stendhal, Balzac. The second (50-70s) is associated with the name of Flaubert - the heir to realism of the Balzac-Stendhal type and the forerunner of the "naturalistic realism" of the Zola school.

The history of realism in France begins with the songwriting of Beranger, which is quite natural and logical. The song is a small and therefore the most mobile genre of literature, instantly reacting to all the remarkable phenomena of our time. In the period of the formation of realism, the song gives way to the primacy of the social novel. It is this genre, due to its specificity, that opens up rich opportunities for the writer to broadly depict and in-depth analysis of reality, allowing Balzac and Stendhal to solve their main creative task - to capture in their creations the living image of contemporary France in all its completeness and historical uniqueness. A more modest, but also very significant place in the general hierarchy of realistic genres is occupied by a short story, the unsurpassed master of which in those years Merimee is rightfully considered.

The formation of realism as a method takes place in the second half of the 1920s, i.e., at a time when romantics play a leading role in the literary process. Next to them, in the mainstream of romanticism, Merimee, Stendhal, Balzac begin their writing journey. All of them are close to the creative associations of romantics and actively participate in their struggle against the classicists. It was the classicists of the first decades of the 19th century, patronized by the monarchical government of the Bourbons, who in these years were the main opponents of the emerging realistic art. Almost simultaneously published the manifesto of the French Romantics - the Preface to the drama "Cromwell" by Hugo and Stendhal's aesthetic treatise "Racine and Shakespeare" have a common critical focus, being two decisive blows to the code of laws of classic art that has long since become obsolete. In these most important historical and literary documents, both Hugo and Stendhal, rejecting the aesthetics of classicism, stand up for expanding the subject matter in art, for the abolition of forbidden plots and themes, for representing life in all its fullness and inconsistency. At the same time, for both, the highest model, which should be guided by when creating new art, is the great master of the Renaissance Shakespeare (perceived, however, by the romantic Hugo and the realist Stendhal in different ways). Finally, the first realists of France and the romantics of the 1920s are also brought together by a common socio-political orientation, which is revealed not only in opposition to the Bourbon monarchy, but also in a sharply critical perception of bourgeois relations being established before their eyes.

After the revolution of 1830, which was a significant milestone in the history of France, the paths of realists and romantics will diverge, which, in particular, will be reflected in their controversy in the early 30s (see, for example, two critical articles by Balzac on Hugo's drama "Ernani" and his article "Romantic akathists"). Romanticism will be forced to yield its primacy in the literary process to realism as a trend that most fully meets the requirements of the new time. However, even after 1830, the contacts of yesterday's allies in the fight against the classicists would continue. Remaining true to the fundamental principle of their aesthetics, the romantics will successfully master the experience of the artistic discoveries of the realists (especially Balzac), supporting them in almost all the most important creative undertakings. The realists, in their turn, will also follow with interest the work of the romantics, meeting with invariable satisfaction each of their victories (such, in particular, will be Balzac's relations with Hugo and J. Sand).

Realists of the second half of the 19th century. will reproach their predecessors for the "residual romanticism" found in Mérimée, for example, in his cult of the exotic (the so-called exotic novels such as "Mateo Falcone", "Colombes" or "Carmen"), in Stendhal's predilection for depicting bright personalities and exceptional in its strength of passions (“Parma Monastery”, “Italian Chronicles”), Balzac’s craving for adventurous plots (“History of Thirteen”) and the use of fantasy techniques in philosophical stories and the novel Shagreen Skin. These accusations are not without foundation. The fact is that between French realism of the first period - and this is one of its specific features - and romanticism there is a complex "family" relationship, which is revealed, in particular, in the inheritance of techniques characteristic of romantic art and even individual themes and motives (the theme of lost illusions , disappointment motive, etc.).

Note that in those days there was no delimitation of the terms "romanticism" and "realism". Throughout the first half of the nineteenth century. the realists were almost invariably called romantics. Only in the 1950s - already after the death of Stendhal and Balzac - French writers Chanfleury and Duranty proposed the term "realism" in special declarations. However, it is important to emphasize that the method, the theoretical substantiation of which they devoted many works to, was already significantly different from the method of Stendhal, Balzac, Mérimée, which bears the imprint of its historical origin and the resulting dialectical connection with the art of romanticism.

The importance of romanticism as the forerunner of realistic art in France can hardly be overestimated. It was the romantics who were the first critics of bourgeois society. They also have the merit of discovering a new type of hero who enters into confrontation with this society. Consistent, uncompromising criticism of bourgeois relations from the high positions of humanism will forte French realists, who expanded and enriched the experience of their predecessors in this direction and, most importantly, gave anti-bourgeois criticism a new, social character.

One of the most significant achievements of the Romantics is rightfully seen in their art of psychological analysis, in their discovery of the inexhaustible depth and complexity of the individual personality. This achievement of romance also did a great service to the realists, paving the way for them to new heights in knowledge. inner peace person. Special discoveries in this direction were to be made by Stendhal, who, relying on the experience of contemporary medicine (in particular, psychiatry), would significantly refine the knowledge of literature on the spiritual side of human life and connect the psychology of the individual with his social being, and present the inner world of a person in dynamics, in evolution, due to the active influence on the personality of the complex environment in which this personality resides.

Of particular importance in connection with the problem of literary continuity is the principle of historicism, inherited by realists, the most important of the principles of romantic aesthetics. It is known that this principle involves considering the life of mankind as a continuous process in which all its stages are dialectically interconnected, each of which has its own specifics. It was her, named by the romantics as historical color, that the artists were called upon to reveal the word in their works. However, the principle of historicism among the romantics, which was formed in a fierce polemic with the classicists, had an idealistic basis. It acquires a fundamentally different content from the realists. Based on the discoveries of the school of contemporary historians (Thierry, Michelet, Guizot), who proved that the main engine of history is the struggle of classes, and the force that decides the outcome of this struggle is the people, the realists proposed a new, materialistic reading of history. This is what stimulated their special interest both in the economic structures of society and in the social psychology of the broad masses of the people (it is no coincidence that Balzac's Human Comedy begins with Chouans, and one of her last novels is Peasants; these works reflect the experience artistic study of the psychology of the masses). Finally, speaking of the complex transformation of the principle of historicism discovered by the romantics in realistic art, it must be emphasized that this principle is put into practice by realists when depicting not long ago eras (which is typical for romantics), but modern bourgeois reality, shown in their works as a certain stage in historical development of France.

The heyday of French realism, represented by the work of Balzac, Stendhal and Mérimée, falls on the 1830s and 1840s. This was the period of the so-called July Monarchy, when France, having done away with feudalism, establishes, in the words of Engels, “the pure rule of the bourgeoisie with such classical clarity as no other European country. And the struggle of the proletariat, which is raising its head against the ruling bourgeoisie, also appears here in such a sharp form, which is unknown to other countries. The "classical clarity" of bourgeois relations, the particularly "sharp form" of the antagonistic contradictions that have come to light in them, is what paves the way for exceptional accuracy and depth of social analysis in the works of the great realists. The sober look at modern France is a characteristic feature of Balzac, Stendhal, Merimee.

The great realists see their main task in the artistic reproduction of reality as it is, in the knowledge of the internal laws of this reality, which determine its dialectics and variety of forms. “The French society itself was supposed to be the historian, I had only to be its secretary,” says Balzac in the Preface to The Human Comedy, proclaiming the principle of objectivity in the approach to depicting reality as the most important principle of realistic art. But the objective reflection of the world as it is - in the understanding of the realists of the first half of the 19th century - is not a passive-mirror reflection of this world. For sometimes, Stendhal notes, “nature shows unusual spectacles, sublime contrasts; they may remain incomprehensible to the mirror, which unconsciously reproduces them. And, as if picking up Stendhal's thought, Balzac continues: "The task of art is not to copy nature, but to express it!" The categorical rejection of planar empiricism (which some realists of the second half of the 19th century would sin against) is one of the notable features of classical realism of the 1830s and 1840s. That is why the most important of the installations - the recreation of life in the forms of life itself - by no means excludes for Balzac, Stendhal, Merimee such romantic devices as fantasy, grotesque, symbol, allegory, subordinate, however, to the realistic basis of their works.

The objective reflection of reality in realistic art always organically includes the subjective principle, which is revealed primarily in the author's concept of reality. The artist, according to Balzac, is not a simple chronicler of his era. He is a researcher of her morals, a scientist-analyst, a politician and a poet. Therefore, the question of the worldview of a realist writer always remains the most important for a literary historian who studies his work. It happens that the personal sympathies of the artist come into conflict with the truth he discovers. The specificity and strength of a realist lies in the ability to overcome this subjective in the name of the highest truth of life for him.

Of the theoretical works devoted to substantiating the principles of realistic art, one should especially highlight Stendhal's pamphlet "Racine and Shakespeare" created during the formation of realism and Balzac's works of the 1840s "Letters on Literature, Theater and Art", "Etude on Bayle" and especially - Preface to The Human Comedy. If the former, as it were, precedes the onset of the era of realism in France, declaring its main postulates, then the latter generalize the richest experience of the artistic conquests of realism, comprehensively and convincingly motivating its aesthetic code.

The realism of the second half of the 19th century, represented by the work of Flaubert, differs from the realism of the first stage. There is a final break with the romantic tradition, officially declared already in the novel Madame Bovary (1856). And although bourgeois reality remains the main object of depiction in art, the scale and principles of its depiction are changing. The bright personalities of the heroes of a realistic novel of the 1930s and 1940s are being replaced by ordinary, unremarkable people. The multi-colored world of truly Shakespearean passions, cruel fights, heartbreaking dramas, captured in Balzac's The Human Comedy, the works of Stendhal and Merimee, gives way to the "world of moldy color", the most remarkable event in which is adultery, vulgar adultery.

Fundamental changes are marked, in comparison with the realism of the first stage, and the relationship of the artist with the world in which he lives and which is the object of his image. If Balzac, Stendhal, Merimee showed an ardent interest in the destinies of this world and constantly, according to Balzac, “felt the pulse of their era, felt its illnesses, observed its physiognomy”, that is, they felt like artists deeply involved in the life of our time, then Flaubert declares a fundamental detachment from bourgeois reality, which is unacceptable to him. However, obsessed with the dream of breaking all the threads that bind him to the “mildew-colored world”, and hiding in the “ivory tower”, devoting himself to the service of high art, Flaubert is almost fatally riveted to his modernity, remaining its strict analyst and objective judge all his life. Brings him closer to the realists of the first half of the XIX century. and anti-bourgeois orientation of creativity.

It is precisely the deep, uncompromising criticism of the inhumane and socially unjust foundations of the bourgeois system, established on the ruins of the feudal monarchy, that constitutes the main strength of the realism of the 19th century.

However, one should not forget that the principle of historicism, which formed the basis of the creative method of the great masters of the last century, always determines the depiction of reality in continuous development, a movement that involves not only a retrospective, but also a perspective display of life. Hence the ability of Balzac to see the people of the future in the republicans fighting for social justice against the bourgeois oligarchy, and the life-affirming principle that permeates his work. With all the paramount importance that the critical analysis of reality acquires, one of the most important problems for the great masters of realism remains the problem of the positive hero. Being aware of the complexity of its solution, Balzac notes: “... vice is more effective; it catches the eye ... virtue, on the contrary, shows the artist's brushes only unusually thin lines. Virtue is absolute, it is one and indivisible, like the Republic; vice is diverse, multi-colored, uneven, bizarre. The "diverse and multicolored" negative characters of Balzac's "Human Comedy" are always confronted by positive characters, at first glance, not very, perhaps, "winning and catchy." It is in them that the artist embodies his unshakable faith in man, the inexhaustible treasures of his soul, the limitless possibilities of his mind, fortitude and courage, willpower and energy. It is this "positive charge" of "The Human Comedy" that gives a special moral force to Balzac's creation, which has absorbed the specific features of the realistic method in its apex classical version.