ART IN ANY CLASSROOM
Lesson Plans: Secondary
Realism: Artistic Observation from Acute Observations of Everyday Life
Introduction:
"Artistic expression ... is the only adequate symbolic projection of our insights and feelings. A primary function of art is to make felt tensions of life stand still, so that they can be looked at."
Gilbert Clark
Robert Louis Stevenson painted by John Singer Sargent and The Aesthete in the Louvre by James Tissot are excellent realist movement examples of isolating the tensions of life for the viewer to examine closely.
Concept:
Realism as an art movement made its greatest strides forward during the final quarter of the nineteenth century. The realist believed that art like science was based on factual information, rather than idealism. This philosophy of strict reality required that artistic inspiration come from everyday life experiences and direct observations. John Singer Sargent and James Tissot believed that the exact moment, the instant, the impact and its relationships to facts were superior to dream-like or romanticized responses. The content of paintings that are classified as nineteenth century realist can be focused on perception and viewpoint. The process of creating a work of art first deals with the artist possessing a physical, perceptual and psychological vantage-point of the sitter as a quality of the exact instance. The Aesthete in the Louvre and Robert Louis Stevenson reveal the quality of viewpoint and instance. One painting gives the illusion of the vantage-point of the artist while the other painting reflects the viewpoint of the sitter and the audience.
The Artist and His Art: James Tissot (French, 1836-1902)
James Tissot was born in Nantes, France. He studied in Paris and Antwerp. In Antwerp, he studied with Henrik Leys. Henrik Leys was also the teacher of Lawrence Alma Tadema (Dutch, 1836 - 1912) and both artists began their careers as history painters. Tissot's career has three phases. He began his first phase as a history painter then he became a painter of socialites and fashionable society and ended his career as a religious illustrator. In 1858, he returned to Paris and befriended James McNeill Whistler (American,1834- 1903) and Hilaire Germain Edgar Degas(French, 1834-1917). Between 1858-1871 he worked for Vanity Fair, producing illustrations. In 1871, he moved to London after the fall of the Paris Commune and was well received by London society. He became financially successful and moved into fashionable St. John's Wood. In 1874 he began living with Kathleen Newton, who became a primary subject in his paintings until her death in 1882. Following her death he returned to Paris and began working on a large body of religious works. By 1897, he became reclusive and obsessed by mysticism and spiritism, in an effort to contact Kathleen Newton. His late illustrations of biblical themes were well received by the public, both in Europe and America. James Tissot died on August 8,1902. Tissot's paintings are characterized by their rich detail and sensual textures as illustrated in the beautifully delineated fabrics and elaborately rendered props and settings he employs in his compositions. Tissot's treatment of texture and surface qualities reflects his training as a realist artist. His academic training is also apparent in the anatomical accuracy of his figures and his use of glazes to entrance his tonal values end thus intensify end illuminate the flesh tones of his subjects. His subjects centered on the new leisurely pursuits of English society. His portraits were criticized as vulgar because he captured the leisurely pursuits and fashions of the new social class of English, "nouveau riche." Tissot's depiction of English society is not limited to surface level illustrations of fashionable cress end pursuits; he reveals the psychological consent of his subjects in the manner of eighteenth century artist Jean-Antoine Watteau (French,1684- 1721). Like Watteau, Tissot renders nineteenth century "fete galantes" with a sense of "momento mori." Tissot's compositional arrangements of his subjects reveal an avant-garde treatment of the figure in portraiture that may reflect the influence of the immediacy found in photographic images.
The Art: James Tissot
The Aesthete in the Louvre, 1884
Oil on canvas, 25 1/2 x 17 l/2 in.
The Aesthete in the Louvre was painted by James Tissot, a realist movement artist. The painting depicts a young women sitting in a gallery with a man and a woman painting at an easel. The organization of space in the painting is tightly framed—showing the close proximity of the sculptural urn, pedestal and bust that acts to divide the painter at the easel from the man and woman. There is also tight overlapping of the gilded pedestal against the young women's dress, and the man's head is closely cropped. The tall vertical window frame behind the couple and the use of one-point perspective to render the building across the street also emphasize the sense of tight space, which seems to be pressed against the gallery windows. The Aesthete in the Louvre is a painting that is relative to the artist's viewpoint. The placement of the three figures does not merely imply a group portrait, instead these figures merely complement the surface decoration of the gilded pedestal, the artifacts and antiquities in the space and the environment in which they are placed, thus creating an interesting contrast between modern and ancient society. The gaze of the young lady is not directed toward the viewer or the works of art in the Louvre. Her gaze is direct towards her male companion who leans close to her side. The artist creates an image of intimacy and mild seclusion using the constructed space and sharp diagonals of the floor and pedestals to secure the couple in a snug yet innocent moment. Tissot increased this sense of intimacy through spatial relationships and the warm ochre, red, and umber palette.
The Artist and His Art: John Singer Sargent (American,1856-1925)
John Singer Sargent was born in Florence, Italy. His father was a successful Philadelphia physician who moved to Italy in 1854. His mother was deeply interested in the arts and encouraged John's artistic aspirations. In 1874, Sargent began his artistic studies in Paris at the atelier of Carolus-Duran and the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. By the early 1880s, Sargent began to receive recognition as an important portrait painter and began receiving commissions from European and American clients. In 1884, Sargent's radical portrait of Madame X (Madame Gautreau) caused a scandal due to the flat plane of the subject's dress and pale luminosity of her skin tones. Following a period of critical disdain, Sargent traveled to England and worked on a series of landscapes and portraits that were met with lukewarm reviews. During this time period, he spent the summer in Broadway, England with his friend Henry James. Sargent was introduced to Robert Louis Stevenson and painted three portraits of the writer. Each portrait reveals Sargent's fascination with radical compositional formats and rendering the images with quick brush strokes. The critics often liken his brushstrokes to those of Frans Hals (Dutch, 1581/5-1666 and Diego Rodriguez Velazquez (Spanish, 1599-1660). By 1887, Sargent had regained his prestige as an acclaimed portrait painter. The critics acclaimed his radical placement of the two girls in Carnation, Lily, Lily Rose and the portrait of Robert Louis Stevenson and his Wife. By the time of his death in 1925, Sargent was regarded as the greatest English portrait painter of his age. The critics dubbed him the Van Dyck of Edwardian portrait painting. Sargent's painting style is too complex to characterize by one style or school of painting. His compositions reflect several stylistic approaches. His portraits are realistic and yet the quick decisive brushstrokes are reminiscent of impressionist painting techniques. His use of strong tonal contrasts is associated with the Spanish painting tradition of Velazquez and demonstrates the influence of his teacher Carolus-Duran. In addition, Sargent's compositions reflect the influences of the realists and Edouard Manet (French, 1832-83), as illustrated in his portrait of Robert Louis Stevenson. The artist employs Manet's use of dark areas of mass as a silhouette that emphasizes the sitter's hands and head. In his early career the critics accused him of being "clever" because of this fusion of artistic approaches. Sargent beautifully translated this fusion of styles into a form of artistic expression that embodied modem artistic techniques that reveal spontaneity and energy as well as the expressive and psychological content of his sitters.
The Art: John Singer Sargent
Robert Louis Stevenson, 1887
Oil on canvas, 20 1/16 x 24 5/16 in.
Robert Louis Stevenson was painted in 1884. This is an exceptionally modern realist movement painting for the 1880s in terms of its use of space, gesture and viewpoint. The sitter is slightly in front of the middle ground of the picture plane. Stevenson's posture is relaxed as he sits with one leg crossed over the other, resting his left arm on his leg and smoking a cigarette. His facial expression is casual as if he is involved in a conversation with the artist or viewer. The arrangement of his hair and clothing are as casual as his posture. This relaxed image of Robert Louis Stevenson invites the viewer to take an intimate look at the author.
In examining works of art, it is understood that looking is a way of thinking. The more you see, the more you look and the more you look, the higher the thinking skills you will be able to develop. This thinking or perception is linked to sensory anchoring; one realm is the physical object, where the viewer gets an opportunity to take a revealing look at the author's physical character, his facial expression and hands, which are relaxed. The viewer uses this observation to discover that the author is right-handed. The impression that the author is fully self-confident is supported by the lack of ornamental detailing in the space in which Robert Louis Stevenson is sitting.
The Aesthete in the Louvre and Robert Louis Stevenson contain a sense of mild intimate contact. Tissot's painting portrays a scene depicting a couple that is placed in a slightly secluded space. At the same time, Sargent has created a different portrayal of intimacy, a personal visual encounter with a famous author who gazes directly at the viewer in the sense of a conversational pause. Both paintings were exceptionally modern in the 1880s when Victorian social norms dictated social status and public image. The Aesthete in the Louvre portrays a young couple of the so called "rising" social status. The artist has placed his subjects in a relatively closed space. The depiction of such freedom was a real social challenge for Victorian audiences. Sargent's portrait of Robert Louis Stevenson was strikingly modern in the temporary halt of the author's gestures and the author's carefree glance toward the viewer as if a close friend was photographing him.
The Lesson:
Objective:
Instruction will increase a high school art student's ability to respond to the idea of the exact moment or instance in realist painting. The instruction is designed to aid students in understanding keen observation, repeated color studies and the skill to choose one idea, one action and carry that gesture through as a response to the sitter's actual instantaneous life experience. This concept is relatively complex and requires that the student has had previous experience with a variety of gesture drawing methods and has work in painting media. Students can also be directed to use photography as a parallel drawing technique, but photography should not be used as a complete substitution for drawing and color studies.
Vocabulary:
Alla Prima Directional Light Ground
Blending Glazing Canvas
Pigments Objective Color Earthtones
Oil paint Linseed oil Binders
Solvents Brushes Rapid Strokes
Fat paint Gestural strokes Pentimento
Materials:
Canvas board (or stretched canvas, or rag paper).
Oil Paints Acrylic Paints Gesso
Flat, Round, Filbert brushes Palettes Palette knives
Drawing materials Rags for cleanup Camera
Small jars
Techniques:
Gesture Drawing and Painting Figure Drawing and Painting
Preparing grounds using gesso (optional)
Underpainting Long strokes Short strokes
Blending Modeling Refining
Procedure:
Review the presentation on realism and refer to additional realist artists and writers of the nineteenth century.
Have the students research characteristics of their subject. Encourage them to gather information about the sitter's personality, dress, gestures and interests.
Students should begin a highly focused set of schematic drawings of their sitter, watching and waiting for key gestures that illustrate an instant of the sitter's observable reactions, actions or gestures. Have them collect photographs of the sitter, and begin to make schematic drawings. After the drawings are completed have the students begin color sketches of the sitter.
Instruct students to select one of the color sketches that reveals the personality and momentary experience of the sitter. After a critique of the selected sketches each student can begin to rework and refine their best color sketch into a finished painting.
Museum Connections:
1. Examine the concept of realism and portraiture in nineteenth century painting and find four paintings in the Taft Museum of Art that can be categorized as works from the nineteenth century realist movement.
2. Early in John Singer Sargent's career, the critics accused him of being "clever" because his paintings revealed elements of style and technique that were reminiscent of the works of Velazquez and Hals. Examine the Hals paintings in the Taft Museum of Art and state three reasons for agreeing or disagreeing with Sargent's critics.