The textbook offers a concise coverage of issues related to the development of French and English literature in this aesthetic direction. In addition to the presentation of historical and literary material, the manual contains fragments from works of art, which become the subject of a detailed analytical analysis.

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The following excerpt from the book History of foreign literature of the 19th century: Realism (O. N. Turysheva, 2014) provided by our book partner - the company LitRes.

FRENCH REALISM

Initially, let us recall the main events of French history, which are the subject of reflection in the literature of realism or with which its very development is connected.

1804–1814 - the period of the reign of Napoleon (First Empire).

1814–1830 - the period of the Restoration (restoration on the throne of the Bourbon dynasty, overthrown by the Great French Revolution).

1830 - the fall of the Restoration regime as a result of the July Revolution and the establishment of the July Monarchy.

1848 - the fall of the July Monarchy as a result of the February Revolution and the creation of the Second Republic.

1851 - the establishment of the Second Empire as a result of a coup d'état and the coming to power of Napoleon III.

1870 - defeat in the war with Prussia, the removal of Napoleon III from power and the proclamation of the Third Republic.

1871 - Paris Commune.

The formation of French realism falls on the 30-40s. At that time, realism did not yet oppose itself to romanticism, but fruitfully interacted with it: in the words of A.V. Karelsky, it "came out of romanticism, as from its childhood or youth." The relationship of early French realism with romanticism is clear in the early and mature work of Frederic Stendhal and Honore de Balzac, who, by the way, did not call themselves realists. The term "realism" in relation to the phenomenon under consideration in the literature arose much later - in the late 50s. Therefore, it was retrospectively transferred to the work of Stendhal and Balzac. These authors began to be considered the founders of realistic aesthetics, although they did not break with romanticism at all: they used romantic techniques to create images of heroes and developed a universal theme of romantic literature - the theme of the individual's protest against society. Stendhal generally called himself a romantic, although the interpretation of romanticism he proposed is very specific and obviously anticipates the formation of a new, later called realistic, trend in French literature. Thus, in the treatise Racine and Shakespeare, he defined romanticism as an art that should satisfy the public's needs for an understanding of modern life itself.

Open polemics with romanticism and the rejection of romantic poetics arise later - within the framework of the next period in the development of realistic literature. This period, whose chronological framework is 50–60s, is separated from early realism by the February Revolution of 1848, the so-called “democratic protest”, which aimed at limiting the power of the aristocracy and was defeated. The defeat of the revolution, the establishment of the Second Empire, and the advent of the era of conservatism and reaction after 1850 caused serious changes in the attitude of French writers and poets, finally discrediting the romantic view of the world. We will consider the reflection of this worldview shift in literature on the example of the work of Gustave Flaubert and Charles Baudelaire.

French Realism 1830s–1840s

Frederik Stendhal (1783–1842)

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Stendhal was born in the provincial town of Grenoble. Having left his native city at the age of 16 in the vain hope of making a metropolitan career, at the age of 17 he enters the service in the Napoleonic army and, as an auditor and intendant, participates in all of Napoleon's European companies, starting with his Italian campaigns and ending with the war against Russia in 1812 . He witnessed the Battle of Borodino and personally experienced all the horrors of Napoleon's retreat from Russia, which he described in detail in his diaries, however, quite ironically. So, he compared his participation in the Russian campaign with a sip of lemonade. Stendhal's biographers explain such irony in describing deeply tragic events as a defensive reaction of a shocked consciousness, trying to cope with a traumatic experience in irony and bravado.

The "Napoleonic" period ended with Stendhal's seven-year "emigration" to Italy. A deep knowledge of Italian art and admiration for the Italian national character determined the most important and cross-cutting theme of Stendhal's subsequent work: the opposition of Italians as carriers of an integral, passionate nature to the French, in whose national nature vanity, according to Stendhal, destroyed the ability to disinterestedness and passion. This idea is developed in detail in the treatise On Love (1821), where Stendhal contrasts love-passion (the Italian type of love) with love-vanity (the French type of feeling).

After the establishment of the July Monarchy, Stendhal served as the French consul in Italy, alternating diplomatic duties with literary activities. In addition to art criticism, autobiographical, biographical and travel journalism, Stendhal owns novelistic works (the collection "Italian Chronicles" (1829)) and novels, the most famous of which are "Red and Black" (1830), "Red and White" (not finished. ), "Parma Convent" (1839).

The aesthetics of Stendhal was formed under the influence of the experience that was the result of his participation in the Russian campaign of Napoleon. The main aesthetic work of Stendhal is the treatise "Racine and Shakespeare" (1825). In it, the defeat of Napoleon is interpreted as a turning point in the history of literature: according to Stendhal, a nation that survived the collapse of the emperor needs new literature. This should be literature aimed at a truthful, objective depiction of modern life and the comprehension of the deep laws of its tragic development.

Stendhal's reflections on how to achieve this goal (the goal of an objective depiction of modernity) are already contained in his early diaries (1803-1804). Here Stendhal formulated the doctrine of personal self-realization in literature. Its name - "Beylism" - he formed from his own name Henri Beyle ("Stendal" - one of the many pseudonyms of the writer). Within the framework of Beylism, literary creativity is considered as a form of scientific knowledge about a person, that is, as a way of studying the objective content of the life of the human soul. From Stendhal's point of view, such knowledge can be provided by positive sciences, and first of all by mathematics. "To apply mathematics to the human heart" - this is how the writer formulates the essence of his method. Mathematics in this phrase means a strictly logical, rational, analytical approach to the study of the human psyche. According to Stendhal, following this path, it is possible to identify those objective factors under the influence of which the inner life of a person is formed. Reflecting on such factors, Stendhal especially insists on the role of climate, historical circumstances, social laws and cultural traditions. The most striking example of the application of the "mathematical" method to the sphere of feelings is the treatise "On Love" (1821), where Stendhal analyzes love from the point of view of the universal laws of its development. One of the central ideas of this treatise connects the peculiarities of experiencing a love feeling with belonging to a national culture. A man in love is considered by Stendhal as a carrier of a national character, which almost completely determines his love behavior.

Thus, the analysis of human psychology through the study of the external determinants of his behavior based on the achievements and methods of science is, according to Stendhal, a necessary condition for the implementation of the project of literature as a form of objective knowledge about the essence of real life. It is precisely such literature that contemporaries who survived the revolution and the defeat of Napoleon need. These events in French history, according to Stendhal, canceled both the relevance of classicism (after all, it is not characteristic of plausibility in depicting conflicts) and the relevance of romantic writing (it idealizes life). Stendhal, however, also calls himself a romantic, but he puts a different meaning into this self-name than that which was assigned to romanticism in the 1820s and 30s. For him, romanticism is an art that can say something significant about modern life, its problems and contradictions.

The declaration of such an understanding of literature, which polemicizes with the romantic refusal to depict the prose of life, is also carried out by Stendhal in the novel Red and Black.

The plot of the novel consists of a description of five years in the life of Julien Sorel, a young man of low social origin, obsessed with the conceited intention to take a worthy place in society. Its goal is not just social well-being, but the fulfillment of the “heroic duty” prescribed to itself. Julien Sorel associates this duty with high self-realization, an example of which he finds in the figure of Napoleon - "an unknown and poor lieutenant", who "became the master of the world." The desire to match his idol and "win" society are the main motives of the hero's behavior. Having started his career as a tutor for the children of the mayor of the provincial town of Verrieres, he reaches the post of secretary of the Parisian aristocrat Marquis de La Mole, becomes the fiancé of his daughter Matilda, but dies on the guillotine, being convicted of attempted murder of his first lover, the mother of his Verrieres students Madame de Renal, who involuntarily exposed him in the eyes of M. de La Mole as a selfish seducer of his daughter. The story about this albeit exceptional, but private history is accompanied by the subtitle "Chronicle of the 19th century." Such a subtitle gives the tragedy of Julien Sorel a huge typical sound: it is not about the fate of an individual, but about the very essence of a person's position in the French society of the Restoration era. Julien Sorel chooses hypocrisy as a means of realizing his ambitious claims. The hero does not suggest any other way of self-affirmation in society, which puts human rights in direct dependence on his social origin. However, his chosen "tactics" come into conflict with his natural morality and high sensitivity. Feeling disgusted with the chosen means to achieve the goal, the hero nevertheless practices them, counting on the fact that the role played by him will ensure his successful socialization. The internal conflict experienced by the hero can be described as a confrontation in his mind between two models - Napoleon and Tartuffe: Julien Sorel considers Napoleon to be a model for the implementation of "heroic duty", but he calls Tartuffe his "teacher", whose tactics he reproduces.

However, this conflict in the mind of the hero still finds its gradual resolution. This occurs in the episodes describing his crime and the imprisonment and trial that followed. The depiction of the crime itself in the novel is unusual: it is not accompanied by any explanatory comment on the part of the author, so the motives for Julien Sorel's attempt on Madame de Renal seem incomprehensible. Researchers of Stendhal's work offer a number of versions. According to one of them, the shot at Madame de Renal is the hero's impulsive reaction to the revelation, the justice of which he cannot but admit, and at the same time an impulsive expression of disappointment in the "angelic soul" of Madame de Renal. In a state of evil despair, the hero, they say, for the first time commits an act that is not controlled by the mind, and for the first time acts in accordance with his passionate, “Italian” nature, the manifestations of which until now he has suppressed for the sake of career goals.

Within the framework of another version, the hero's crime is interpreted as a conscious choice, a conscious attempt in a situation of catastrophic exposure to nevertheless fulfill the duty of high self-realization assigned to oneself. In accordance with this interpretation, the hero consciously chooses "heroic" self-destruction: in response to the favorable offer of the Marquis de La Mole, who is ready to pay Julien for the promise to leave Matilda, the hero shoots Madame de Renal. This seemingly insane act, according to the hero's plan, should debunk all suspicions that he was driven by base self-interest. “I was insulted in the most cruel way. I killed,” he will say later, insisting on the high content of his behavior.

Prison reflections of the hero indicate that he is experiencing a reassessment of values. Alone with himself, Sorel admits that the direction of his life was wrong, that he suppressed the only true feeling (feeling for Madame de Renal) for the sake of false goals - the goals of successful socialization, understood as "heroic duty". The result of the “spiritual enlightenment” of the hero (the expression of A. V. Karelsky) is the rejection of life in society, since, according to Julien Sorel, it inevitably dooms a person to hypocrisy and voluntary distortion of his personality. The hero does not accept the possibility of salvation (it is quite achievable at the cost of repentance), and instead of a guilty monologue, he delivers an accusatory speech against modern society, thereby consciously signing his death sentence. So, the collapse of the idea of ​​“heroic duty” turned, on the one hand, into the restoration of the true “I” of the hero, the rejection of the mask and false goal, and on the other hand, total disappointment in public life and a conscious withdrawal from it under the sign of an unconditionally heroic protest.

A distinctive feature of Stendhal's style in the novel "Red and Black" is an in-depth psychological analysis. Its subject is not just the psychology and consciousness of a person in conflict with the social world and with himself, but his self-consciousness, that is, the understanding by the hero himself of the essence of the processes that occur in his soul. Stendhal himself called his style "egoic" because of the focus on the image of the inner life of the reflecting hero. This style finds its expression in the reproduction of the struggle of two opposite principles in the mind of Julien Sorel: the sublime (the natural nobility of the hero's nature) and the base (hypocritical tactics). No wonder the title of the novel contains the opposition of two colors (red and black), perhaps it symbolizes the internal contradiction that the hero is experiencing, as well as his conflict with the world.

The main means of reproducing the hero's psychology are the author's commentary and the hero's internal monologue. As an illustration, let us cite a fragment from the penultimate chapter of the novel describing the experiences of Julien Sorel on the eve of his execution.

“One evening Julien seriously considered killing himself. His soul was tormented by the profound despondency into which Madame de Renal's departure had plunged him. Nothing occupied him any longer, either in real life or in his imagination.<…>Something exalted and unstable appeared in his character, like that of a young German student. He imperceptibly lost ... courageous pride.

The continuation of the fragment forms the hero's internal monologue:

“I loved the truth... And where is it?.. Everywhere one hypocrisy, or at least charlatanism, even among the most virtuous, even among the greatest! And his lips twisted into a grimace of disgust. No, a person cannot trust a person.<…>Where is the truth? In religion, is it...<…>Oh, if only true religion existed in the world!<…>But why am I hypocritical anyway, cursing hypocrisy? After all, it is not death, not prison, not dampness, but the fact that Madame de Renal is not with me - that is what depresses me.<…>

- Here it is, the influence of contemporaries! he said aloud, laughing bitterly. “I am talking alone, to myself, two steps away from death, and yet I am a hypocrite… Oh, the nineteenth century!<…>And he laughed like Mephistopheles. “What madness to talk about these great questions!”

1. I do not cease to be hypocritical, as if there is someone here who listens to me.

2. I forget to live and love when I have so few days left to live ... "

The profound analyticism of this fragment is obvious: it offers both the author's analysis of the psychological state of the hero, and the analysis that the hero himself carries out in relation to his reasoning and experiences. The numbering of theses undertaken by the hero especially emphasizes the analytical nature of his reflections.

Honoré de Balzac (1799–1850)

Basic facts of biography and creativity .

Balzac comes from a family of an official, whose ancestors were peasants named Balssa. His father replaced the family name with the aristocratic variant "Balzac", and the writer himself added the noble prefix "de" to it. According to A. V. Karelsky, the young Balzac belongs to the psychological type that Stendhal depicted in the image of Julien Sorel. Obsessed with a thirst for fame and success, Balzac, despite his legal education, chooses literature as a sphere of self-affirmation, which he initially considers as a good source of income. In the 1920s, under various pseudonyms, he published novels in the Gothic spirit one after another, pursuing high fees as a primary goal. Subsequently, he would call the 1920s a period of "literary swinishness" (in a letter to his sister).

It is believed that genuine Balzac creativity begins in the 30s. Since the beginning of the 1930s, Balzac has been developing an original idea - the idea of ​​\u200b\u200bcombining all the works into a single cycle - with the aim of the widest possible and multifaceted depiction of the life of his contemporary French society. In the early 40s, the name of the cycle was formed - "The Human Comedy". This name implies a multi-valued allusion to Dante's Divine Comedy.

The implementation of such a grandiose idea required a huge, almost sacrificial work: the researchers calculated that Balzac wrote up to 60 pages of text daily, systematically indulging in work, by his own admission, from 18 to 20 hours a day.

Compositionally, The Human Comedy (like Dante's Divine Comedy) consists of three parts:

- "Etudes on Morals" (71 works, the most famous of which are the short story "Gobsek", the novels "Eugen Grandet", "Father Goriot", "Lost Illusions");

– “Philosophical Studies” (22 works, including the novel “Shagreen Skin”, the story “Unknown Masterpiece”);

- "Analytical Studies" (two works, the most famous of which is "The Physiology of Marriage").

The aesthetics of Balzac was formed under the influence of the scientific thought of his time, and first of all, natural science. In the Preface to The Human Comedy (1842), Balzac refers to the concept of Geoffroy de Saint-Hilaire, Darwin's predecessor, a professor of zoology who put forward the idea of ​​the unity of the entire organic world. In accordance with this idea, living nature, with all its diversity, is a single system, which is based on the gradual development of organisms from lower to higher forms. Balzac uses this idea to explain social life. For him, “society is like Nature” (as he writes in the Preface to The Human Comedy), and therefore it is an integral organism that develops according to objective laws and a certain causal logic.

In the center of Balzac's interest is the contemporary, that is, the bourgeois, stage in the evolution of the social world. Balzac's plan is aimed at the search for an objective law that determines the essence of bourgeois life.

The described set of ideas determined the basic aesthetic principles of Balzac's work. Let's list them.

1. Striving for a universal, inclusive depiction of French society. It is expressively presented, for example, in the compositional structure of the first part of the "Human Comedy" - "Etudes on Morals". This cycle of novels includes six sections according to the aspect of social life that they explore: "Scenes of private life", "Scenes of provincial life", "Scenes of Parisian life", "Scenes of military life", "Scenes of political life", " Scenes of village life. In a letter to Evelyn Hanska, Balzac wrote that "Studies on Morals" would depict "all social phenomena, so that [nothing]<…>will not be forgotten."

2. Installation on the image of society as a single system, similar to a natural organism. It finds its expression, for example, in such a feature of the "Human Comedy" as the presence of connections of various kinds between characters located at various levels of the social ladder. So, in the world of Balzac, an aristocrat turns out to be the bearer of the same moral philosophy as a convict. But especially this attitude is demonstrated by the principle of "through" characters: in the "Human Comedy" a number of characters move from work to work. For example, Eugene Rastignac (he appears in almost all "Scenes", as Balzac himself explained), or the convict Vautrin. Such characters just materialize the Balzac idea that social life is not a collection of disparate events, but an organic unity, within which everything is connected to everything.

3. Installation on the study of the life of society in a historical perspective. Reproaching contemporary historical science for the lack of interest in the history of morals, Balzac in the Preface emphasizes the historiographical nature of the Human Comedy. Modernity for him is the result of natural historical development. He considers it necessary to look for its origins in the events of the Great French Revolution of 1789. It is not for nothing that he calls himself a historian of modern bourgeois life, and calls The Human Comedy "a book about France in the 19th century."

End of introductory segment.

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 aimed 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 feelings. 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) at different times of the day 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 barbarian deforestation, Rousseau endows nature with 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 (“The Big 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 only a landscape with a historical plot, taken mainly from ancient history or mythology, is high art. 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 predominantly 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 people who were spiritually close to him, 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 into the family of a glazier who wrote poetry. In 1814, when Daumier was six years old, his family moved to Paris.

The future artist began his career 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 has nevertheless come 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 window of the Aubert company, gathered a whole crowd of spectators, for which the government took revenge on the master, sentenced 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: directly 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”, “Transnonen 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 refers to 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 a denunciatory manner: “The Bachelor’s Day” (1839), “Matrimonial Mores” (1839-1842), “The Best Days of 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 the single name "Lawyers". In these paintings, the same grotesque images appear as in the graphic works of Daumier.

His oil paintings and watercolors, as well as lithographs, are imbued with sarcasm. Daumier paints 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 a close-up, depicting the most necessary objects 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 the 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 plein air, which occupied many painters of that time, does not interest him at all. Even 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, not far from Cherbourg, into a large peasant family that had a small plot of land in Normandy. From childhood, young Millet was surrounded by an atmosphere of diligence and piety. The boy was very smart, 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 the ability to fine arts awakened in Mill very early, 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 subtle powers of observation, and his eyes, 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 of the artist’s early works (“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 plans, 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 sometimes one 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. So, 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 "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 man tired of work 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 capture 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, a 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, having convinced his father of the correctness of the chosen path with great difficulty, 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 is well aware of, 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, the life of a small town, provincial pettiness leave traces of their claws on faces, make eyes go out, forehead wrinkled and meaningless mouth expression. 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 a storm of indignation 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 states his goals: "To be able to convey the customs, ideas, appearance of 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 canvases are “Little Englishwomen at an Open Window on the Seashore” (1865) and “Girl with Seagulls” (1865). A distinctive feature 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 entered a new stage of creativity - "the path to light tone and light." Of particular note are 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.

From the second decade of the 18th century a new period in the development of French art begins. The content of the ideological life of France at that time was determined by the struggle of democratic forces against decaying absolutism; this struggle ideologically prepared the country for the bourgeois revolution of the late 18th century.

The dissatisfaction with the public order that arose among the people, the growing protest of the bourgeoisie, gave the French Enlightenment movement a more irreconcilable and broad democratic character than in other European countries, determined its strength. The French enlighteners spoke not only on behalf of the revolutionary bourgeoisie, but also on behalf of the entire "suffering humanity." The passionate spirit of all-destructive criticism overthrew the dilapidated laws and orders, refreshed the social atmosphere of France, and awakened thought to new darings. At the same time, dreams of the realization of an ideal kingdom of reason, faith in progress, in the fact that the coming social order would bring prosperity to the broad masses, gave rise to the optimism that pervaded the 18th century.
Developing on this soil, French culture enters a period of new upsurge. It is diverse and contrasting in its searches and manifestations. A tense struggle is going on in all its fields, and new theories are being formed. France becomes the center of advanced materialistic philosophy and other sciences. Voltaire, Rousseau, the encyclopedists led by Diderot, the writers Lesage and Beaumarchais gave French culture of the 18th century common European significance. New content bursts into art and literature in a powerful stream, destroying the traditional dilapidated canons. The folk song beginning penetrates the music. A dramatic opera is born, the fair theater is experiencing an upsurge. The range of French art is greatly expanded; artists begin the 18th century. from an appeal to the intimate spheres of human life, from small forms, and complete the century by designing the ideal cities of the future society.

The transitional nature of the era determined the diversity, variability and complexity of the French artistic culture of the 18th century. Its development proceeds under the sign of the struggle and interaction of ideologically significant art, manifested in realistic, pre-romantic and classic forms, and the dominant aristocratic art of Rococo. Realism 18th century most fully expressed itself in the disclosure of the image of man. Among realist artists, the struggle for the liberation of the individual, the growth of her self-awareness, was reflected in a close interest in the image of the “natural person”, in his intimate feelings and experiences, outside the sphere of influence of official norms of life. This also determines the appeal to the themes of the life of a private person, the closeness of a person to nature. Interest in the individual, unique and characteristic is affirmed. A subtle psychological analysis deepens.
The dominant direction of Rococo was not homogeneous. Having lost the drama and energy of the "great style" of the 17th century, the art of the declining noble society was fragile, refined, calling for pleasure, for sensual joys. Turned away from significant problems, it became an ornament to the idle life of the carefree, pampered nobility. However, sensitive to the elegant, Rococo art is imbued with playfulness, mockery and wit, it reflected the free-thinking and frivolity that became the fashion of high society in the 18th century. Rococo painting is more differentiated in shades of mood, refined in color.
A typical phenomenon of the 18th century. there were periodic exhibitions of the Royal Academy - "Salons", arranged in the Louvre, as well as exhibitions of the Academy of St. Bows deployed directly on the squares. New, characteristic of the 18th century. was the development of art criticism, reflecting the struggle of currents in art.

Believing in the possibility of a reasonable reorganization of society with the help of enlightenment and education of morals in the spirit of the "natural man" with his primordial virtues, the enlighteners attached great importance to art. Diderot's critical works - Salons, An Essay on Painting, Rousseau's works - Discourses on the Arts and Sciences and Emile, or On Education - played an important role in the struggle for realism. With particular acuteness, Diderot exposed the frivolity of Rococo art, who defended the artistic ideals of the third estate. Analyzing works of contemporary art, he assessed them from the point of view of realistic integrity and democratic orientation. Along with the demand for truth, content and instructiveness, he put forward before the artists the problem of action, energy, social activity of art.
As the revolutionary upsurge grows, enlightenment criticism passes from the assertion of bourgeois-petty-bourgeois private virtue to the concept of social, revolutionary-heroic, republican virtue.

Architecture

Rococo. With the extinction of the "great century", the monumental architectural style of the second half of the 17th century. is replaced by a new artistic direction - colorful, elegant, exquisite rococo., Formed in the 20s. 18th century, Rococo reaches its peak in the 30s and 40s. At this time, construction from Versailles was finally transferred to Paris, which retained the glory of the richest and most beautiful city in Europe.

Architecture is losing its desire for grandiose ensembles that imitate Versailles, but the boundless craving for luxury takes only a new form. To replace the manor castle of the 17th century. a city house arrives - a "hotel", immersed in the greenery of gardens, a small mansion of the French aristocracy and wealthy usurers. The refined salons and boudoirs of hotels flooded with light become an enchanting backdrop for the life and life of the aristocratic elite, who escaped from the despotic guardianship of the royal court after the death of Louis XIV. In the Rococo mansions, the unity of the solution of the outer volume and the inner space, characteristic of classicism, falls apart. There is a departure from logical clarity and rational subordination of parts to the whole. There is a craving for asymmetric compositions, torn, devoid of a unifying axis. The façade of the hotel often retains the representativeness and austerity of a 17th-century palace. But the proportions become light, the interior layout changes. The principle of ceremonial enfilade is destroyed. The interior space gets a free layout. Small-sized rooms and halls stand apart and become different in shape. Attention is paid not only to luxury finishes, but also to amenities. In contrast to the austere external appearance, the interiors of Rococo hotels amaze with unrestrained luxury, jewelry fineness of decoration. The favored oval shape of the halls, with its curvilinear outlines, destroys the concrete definiteness of the wall, and the decoration system deprives them of materiality. Light stone, pale pink, blue and white tapestries, elegant carved panels reinforce the impression of lightness and cheerfulness.

A typical example of the Rococo interior is the interior of the Hotel Soubise by Shermain Boffrand (1667-1754) (ill. 196). Its oval hall is marked by a light grace of forms and unconstrained elegance. The oval shape of the plan plays an important role in creating a holistic space. Its smooth dynamics finds development in the soft rounded transition from the wall to the plafond, the arches of the windows, in the forms of mirrors, doors, decorative frames, the undulating contours of the picturesque panels, in the exquisite play of the curvilinear asymmetric ornament that forms a thin lace of the decor of the plafond and walls.

The walls, sheathed in light panels, are divided into three parts; the lower rectangular shape of the panel forms a stable base on which an elegant semicircular arch is placed; it ends with a picturesque panel depicting Cupid and Psyche. The borders between the wall and the plafond are hidden by a bizarre weaving of a floral ornament, the radial stripes of which stretch towards the center of the plafond. Fragile, graceful stucco "rocaille" (flat shell shapes) are intertwined with flower garlands and stems, with ribbon-like frames. The whole composition of the decor is permeated with a light, whimsical rhythm. Encased in bizarre frames, mirrors and paintings are woven into the architectural decoration. Placed one against the other, the mirrors give a lot of reflections, deceptively expanding the space of an intimate salon. In the Rococo interior, the architectural image seems to take a person into a world of dreams and illusions.

Furniture was an integral part of the interior: elegant carved console tables on two legs, inlaid chests of drawers and secretaires, comfortable easy chairs and sofas with patterned upholstery, with flexible bizarre outlines of backs and legs. Oriental trinkets and crystal chandeliers, sconces, table girondoles in the form of curly branches, fragile porcelain figurines, tapestries, elegant little things - precious toys made of silver, turtle, mother-of-pearl, enamel, amber, etc. were combined with fashionable Chinese screens. the flowing ornament with its complex rhythm connects all these objects into a single ensemble with the interior. The need for luxury gave rise in France in the 18th century. many craftsmen endowed with imagination, fine taste and wit: carpenters, carvers, casters, jewelers, weavers, etc., who passed on the secrets of their craft from generation to generation.

Classicism. By the mid 1750s. the Rococo style is sharply criticized for the sophistication and complexity of the composition of pictorial and decorative elements. The influence of rationalistic enlightenment ideas is first of all reflected in architecture. The attention of architects is attracted by the severity of ancient, mainly Greek architecture, by the clarity of plans, constructiveness and nobility of proportions. The growing interest in antiquity is facilitated by excavations in Herculaneum, discovered in 1755 by Pompeii with the richest artistic monuments, and the study of ancient architecture in southern Italy.
The first steps of architecture in a new direction are still uncertain and compromised. The academy is trying to lead the emerging movement. Classicism becomes fashionable at court.

Gabriel. The work of Jacques-Ange Gabriel (1699-1782) belongs to the transition period. Rethinking the traditions of architecture of the 17th century. in accordance with the conquests of the 18th century, Gabriel brings her closer to a person, makes her more intimate; he pays attention to subtle decorative details, using antique order and ornamentation. At the same time, Gabriel's activity is closely connected with the expanding urban planning, with the resolution of new tasks for the ensemble, the focus of which is Paris.
The development of capitalist relations poses the task of restructuring the spontaneous, chaotic medieval cities, building new quarters and squares, markets, commercial and public buildings. The threshold of the residence of the king - the square is now turning into the center of city life, into a junction of the main highways.
In the middle of the 18th century Gabriel plans the Place de la Concorde in Paris (ill. 195), which contributes to the formation of the central ensemble. This is the first example of an open area with extensive free space, characteristic of the new time. Creating it, Gabriel influences not with architectural elements, but with the pathos of the organized space of the urban landscape with dynamic prospects of street highways. The rectangular Place de la Concorde is laid out in a vacant lot on the banks of the Seine between an array of green gardens of the Tuileries and the Champs Elysees. Three rays of alleys lead to the square, connecting it with the city. From two sides it turns into greenery, from the third - into the smooth surface of the river, and only on one side it is built up with two administrative buildings. Their architecture is in line with the general ensemble: the horizontally deployed facades are designed in the form of two colonnades of the Corinthian order. Both buildings were turned into wings of the Royal Street, which passes between them and dominates them, subsequently closed by a compact portico of the Madeleine Church. The principle of volumetric-spatial construction of Gabriel's Square was further developed in the architecture of mature classicism.

In a new way, Gabriel solves the theme of a country palace. His Petit Trianon (1762-1768) in Versailles is one of the first buildings in the style of classicism of the 18th century. (ill. 194). This is not a palace, but rather a country mansion with a classic portico connecting two floors. Strict in geometrical forms, square in plan, the Petit Trianon is both intimate and formal.
The graceful proportions of the building, exquisite in detail, connected with the surrounding park, are guided by the "natural man". The spatial composition of Trianon is emphasized by the independent significance of each side of its facade, by low parapets that form the wings of the building, and by four staircases grouped in pairs. All this gives the features of severity and monumentality to the building of a very small size.

In the buildings of the 1760-1770s. decorative elements are banished. Columns, entablature, pediments return to their constructive value. The regular artificial park is being replaced by a freely laid out park with secluded corners, with groves and ponds, with small pavilions called “temples of friendship”.
Souflo. The architecture of the pre-revolutionary decades is dominated by public buildings. In Paris, Bordeaux, Besancon, theaters designed for a wide range of spectators are being built, business trading buildings, an exchange, etc. appear. The largest building of this time is the Pantheon temple in Paris, built by Jacques-Germain Souflot (1713-1780). Conceived as the church of St. Genevieve, the patroness of Paris, it is a building of great public resonance and in 1791 it was turned into a necropolis for the great people of France. The cruciform building is crowned with a grandiose dome with a lantern on a drum, surrounded by columns. The main facade is emphasized by a six-column portico with a pediment. His composition is built on a clear demarcation of parts, on the gradual relief of the masses from a heavy portico to a light, egg-shaped dome, which gives rise to the impression of calm grandeur. Souflot introduces Corinthian columns into the interior with clear lines and regular volumes, thus creating a spectacular perspective. The Pantheon is perceived as a monument to enlightenment, a bright mind, and citizenship.

Painting

In the same direction as architecture, French painting is evolving: from the beginning of the 18th century. the tradition of ceremonial academic style is gradually losing its significance. Rococo painting, closely associated with the interior of the "hotel", is being developed in decorative and easel chamber forms. Mythological and “gallant” themes predominate in the paintings of plafonds, walls, above-door panels (dessude port), in tapestries, depicting the intimate life of the aristocracy. In decorative painting, the image of a person loses its independent meaning, the figure turns into a detail of the ornamental decoration of the interior. A subtle culture of color, the ability to build a composition with continuous decorative spots, the achievement of general lightness, emphasized by a light palette, are inherent in rococo artists who prefer faded, silvery-bluish, golden and pink hues. In easel painting, a gallant and pastoral genre (shepherd scenes) is established, an idealized portrait depicting a model in the image of a mythological hero.

Simultaneously with the development of rococo painting, the role of the realistic trend is increasing; the portrait, still life, everyday genre reach their peak. In this regard, there is an interest in Dutch and Flemish realistic painting, in the Venetians.

Watteau. Early 18th century marked by the work of Antoine Watteau (1684-1721) - the creator of the gallant genre, intimate mood painting, a singer of subtle spiritual movements and feelings. The work of Watteau, complex and contradictory, flourished in the years of a turning point, at the crossroads of two roads, along which the French art of the 18th century followed. His best works marked the conquests of realistic painting, but Watteau's art remained aloof from oppositional aristocracy circles. From the art of Watteau, who affirmed the role of the contemporary plot in art, threads stretch not only to the realism of Chardin, but also to the thoughtless hedonistic painting of the rococo - to Boucher. The art of Watteau often takes on a romantic coloring, sometimes skeptical, sometimes melancholic intonations sound in it.

In the paintings and in the numerous, full of unique charms of Watteau's drawings, there is a wide range of characteristic types observed in life. This is the motley wandering population of France, barefoot peasants, artisans, itinerant musicians, soldiers, beggars, actors and, as a contrast to them, secular ladies and gentlemen, black servants. In the motley crowd, Watteau finds inexhaustible material for subtle psychological sketches. He is attracted by the elusive variability of the hero's appearance and fleetingly grasped, changing situations, an area of ​​indefinite and melancholy feelings.
Watteau was born in Valenciennes, a town on the border of Flanders, the son of a roofer. At the age of eighteen, he went to Paris, where he went through a difficult school of life. Sickly, withdrawn, prone to melancholy, Watteau was constantly dissatisfied with his work.

He began his career by depicting small genre scenes inspired by the life of Valenciennes devastated by the war. Developing the genre line of Callot and Louis Le Nain, he showed his understanding of the theme in the paintings The Burdens of War (c. 1716, Leningrad, the Hermitage), Bivouac (c. 1710, Moscow, the Pushkin Museum), written with the persuasiveness of a truthful story, elegant and poetic. In "Savoyar" (c. 1709, Leningrad, Hermitage), the lyrical interpretation of the image of a wandering village teenager is shaded with features of ingenuous humor. An emotionally interpreted autumn landscape with a cold blue sky, a yellowing meadow and the gabled roofs of a small town stretching into the distance corresponds to the mood of a sad loneliness of a teenager. In the future, the landscape will be the constant emotional environment of Watteau's heroes.

The creative maturity of Watteau comes in 1710-1717. C. Gillot, Watteau's teacher, arouses in him an interest in theatrical themes. The theater for Watteau was no less a school than the painting of Rubens, which he studied at the Luxembourg Gallery, where access was opened to him by K. Odran, his second teacher. Human passions, typical characters in the theater are more naked and purified from the accidental. Watteau reveals the theme by juxtaposing characters and feelings. He loves to depict parades and exits of actors to the public, sometimes turning his paintings into original group portraits. In masks of Italian comedy (Pierrot, Harlequin, etc.), Watteau gives vivid portrait images (“Actors of Italian Comedy”, ca. 1712, Leningrad, Hermitage). In the painting “Love in the Italian Theater” (c. 1717), the actors are not united by the action, but the free grouping of characters performing a nightly serenade, the uneven lighting of the figures with a torch, the temperament of the game make it possible to feel the originality of their improvisation. Secular restraint and grace, a slow rhythm of movements distinguish the actors of the French theater in the film "Love in the French Theater" (c. 1717-1718, Berlin, Museum).

The most poetic works of Watteau, "Gallant Festivities", themes of which could be inspired by the novels of that time, as well as live observations, come into contact with theatrical scenes. Visiting the house of the philanthropist Crozat, Watteau saw theatrical performances in the bosom of nature, in the park, watched the gallant festivities that were fashionable at that time in Paris - the entertainment of the nobles: concerts, pantomimes, dances, masquerades. Watteau's "gallant festivities" are imbued with contradictory moods, they sound sometimes gentle, sometimes slyly ironic, sometimes sad intonations, sometimes a poetic dream of an unattainable beauty.
In the painting "Society in the Park" (Paris, Louvre), smart girls and boys are talking peacefully, as if enchanted by the poetic beauty of nature, consonant with their mood. A pensive silence reigns in the landscape. The characters of Watteau are not characterized by violent manifestations of feelings. His characters move in slow motion, barely noticeable half-smiles, glances, movements, you can guess about their experiences. Watteau notices their inherent grace and delicacy, depicting quiet conversations, explanations, walks, dances. The change of subtle shades of feelings, barely noticeable hints are the means of revealing the plot.

Often the artist turns into an outside ironic observer. Admiring the picturesqueness of the spectacle unfolding before him, he notices the empty vanity and vanity of secular life (“Society in the Park”, ca. 1719, Dresden, Art Gallery).
Everything that cannot be expressed in the language of gesture and gaze is revealed by means of color, quivering, unsteady, with a slight vibrating movement of the brush. Watteau painted with light, delicate translucent colors, achieving consonance of faded pink, blue, golden, greenish hues and subtle overflows, and enhanced the depth of tones with separate energetic colorful strikes of black and blue-black spots. Colors are either born from one another, or they contrast.

The famous "Pilgrimage to the Island of Cythera" (1717, Paris, Louvre) (ill. 197) completes the search for previous years. Against the backdrop of a romantic landscape permeated with light, with transparent crowns of trees, graceful couples follow one another; their light, graceful movements form a wavy line that takes the gaze away from the foreground deep into the misty distance, from which the vague outlines of an imaginary island of happiness emerge. The artist captured the subtle play of changing feelings, starting with the indecisive emergence of mutual sympathy. The composition is permeated with a quivering rhythm, the color is dominated by golden hues, softly uniting bright spots. The viewer catches the mood of unconscious melancholy and languor, a feeling of the unfulfillment of a romantic dream.

Watteau often turns to the image of a lonely hero, either sympathizing with him, or ironically over him. Such is "Gilles" (1720, Paris, Louvre) - a lonely, sad dreamer and loser, in which the artist reveals deep human feelings.

Watteau's last major work, The Sign of Gersin (c. 1721, Berlin) (ill. 198), executed for his friend's antique shop, where it remained only a few days. This is the interior of a shop in which buyers - secular ladies and gentlemen - look at paintings, clerks pack purchases. Psychological subtlety, ironic sharpness distinguishes the characteristics of buyers and servants. The artist traced the various attitudes towards the art of those present, completing the string of characters with the image of a beautiful lady, selflessly contemplating a masterpiece. The composition is distinguished by the plastic richness of movements, the rhythmic alternation of mise-en-scenes and spatial pauses. The color scheme is based on radiant pearly tones, iridescent in a variety of blacks, browns, grays and whites. “The Sign of Gersin” is not only a kind of chronicle of Paris in the 18th century, it reveals the artist’s inexhaustible love for art, for the beauty that he is. able to notice in everyday life.

Bush. In the 20-30s. 18th century the Rococo style develops, reaching its peak in the 40s. Francois Boucher (1703-1770), a decorator, creator of thoughtlessly festive art, based not so much on observation of life as on improvisation, leading into the world of love affairs, was a prominent representative of it. The first artist of the king, a favorite of the aristocracy, director of the Academy, Boucher designed books, executed decorative panels for interiors, cardboard for tapestries, headed weaving factories, created scenery and costumes for the Paris Opera, etc. Boucher turns to mythology, allegory and pastoral, in which sometimes show signs of sentimentality and sweetness. Coquettish Venus and nymphs, carelessly playful cupids, pastoral characters indulging in the pleasures of love are the heroes of his paintings. The artist captures their pale pink bodies, piquant faces, graceful movements, often falling into mannerisms. He builds compositions on a complex interweaving of curly lines and figures, brilliantly manages angles, effectively uses draperies, garlands, flowers, swirling clouds, surrounding the heroes with them. Not devoid of observation, as evidenced by his drawings and genre paintings, Boucher does not strive for the truthfulness of images, in his interpretation of sensually idealized and monotonous.

By the time of the heyday of Boucher's work is the painting "The Birth of Venus", a composition imbued with a wave-like rhythm; cheerfulness and serenity reign in it. The Shepherd Scene (Leningrad, Hermitage) gives an idea of ​​Bush's pastorals, entertaining and playful, filled with irony. The lyrical features of Boucher's talent are manifested in his landscapes with the motive of rural nature, with intimate corners near dilapidated mills and huts.

Since the second half of the 50s. 18th century Boucher's work becomes cold, painting is rigid, false pathos appears in the compositions. The decline of Boucher's work reflects the degradation of the Rococo style caused by the general decline of aristocratic culture.
Chardin. The realistic trend, which developed in parallel with the art of the rococo, mainly expressed the ideals of the third estate and was different in its manifestations. The greatest realist of the 18th century. Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin (1699-1779), by his origin, way of life and art, was associated with the craft environment, with the patriarchal life and traditions of the guild system. In the modest dwellings of artisans, the artist found themes for everyday paintings, still lifes and portraits. Chardin did not receive an academic education. Work from nature was the basis of his work. He felt poetry and warmth of feelings in the little things of household use. In the "low" genres, from the point of view of the Academy of Arts, Chardin achieved such perfection that he was accepted as a member.

The central theme of Chardin is still life. Inspired by the Dutch, Chardin acquires complete creative independence in this genre, reaches the significance and richness that his predecessors did not know. Chardin's still life is a world of domestic, habitable things that have become part of his intimate sphere of thoughts and feelings. Dead nature turns under his brush into a living spiritualized matter, woven from the finest colorful shades and reflexes. With his painting, the artist discovered the beauty of the ordinary. In his early still lifes, Chardin is fond of decorative effects (Scat, 1728, Paris, Louvre). At the time of maturity, he reaches the classical clarity of the composition; sparingly selects objects, seeks to reveal the essential in each - its structure, form, material characteristic (“Still Life with a Hare”, until 1741, Stockholm, Museum) (ill. 199). Baskets, pots, vats, jugs, bottles, vegetables, fruits, dead game appear on his canvases. Most often, the compositions of Chardin's still lifes, deployed horizontally, which allows objects to be placed parallel to the plane of the picture, are naturally free, but they feel a strict internal pattern, construction. Masses and color spots are balanced, rhythmically ordered. The world of objects surrounding a person is full of harmony and solemnity. In the good quality of simple, used things, the cult of the hearth comes through (“Copper Pot”, ca. 1733, Paris, Louvre). Through a system of light reflections, objects are connected with each other and the environment into a pictorial unity. Written in small strokes, sometimes with dense, sometimes with liquid paints of various luminosity, things seem to be surrounded by an airy environment, permeated with light. Chardin, often without mixing paint on the palette, applied them in separate strokes to the canvas. He took into account their impact on each other when viewed from a distance.

40s - the heyday of Chardin's genre painting. Subtly feeling the poetry of the hearth with its quiet joys, everyday worries and peaceful labor, the artist recreates the whole structure of life of the third estate. Healthy moral principles reign here. In understanding morality and the family, Chardin approaches Rousseau, who opposes the spoiled mores of an aristocratic society with the purity and immediacy of feelings preserved among the common people. In cozy interiors, the artist depicts mothers full of care for children and the household, diligent maids, concentrated quiet children preparing lessons, going to school, playing (“House of Cards”, 1735, Florence, Uffizi). The images of Chardin are revealed in habitual poses, in concentrated faces, glances, in the silence around them, in order. In the everyday life of ordinary people, he finds harmony (“Prayer before dinner”, 1744, “Laundress”, ca. 1737 - both in Leningrad, the Hermitage). Chardin builds his compositions in a shallow space, sparingly gives expressive details that aptly characterize the inhabitants. The composition of the painting "Laundress" (ill. 200) is simple and measured in rhythm, the color range is restrained, soft. Humid air softens the contours, connects the forms with the environment. The viewer's gaze consistently passes from object to object, from the washerwoman to the baby blowing bubbles, to the woman hanging clothes in the yard, discovering everywhere the poetic charm of the ordinary.
In the 70s. Chardin turns to the portrait, he lays the foundation for a new understanding of it, reveals the intimate world of a person, creates a type of person of the third estate. In "Self-Portrait with a Green Visor" (1775, Paris, Louvre), the artist is depicted in his working suit, in a vividly grasped turn. The shadow from the green visor enhances the focus of the penetrating and determined gaze turned towards the viewer. The close frame gives the impression of a cozy interior and at the same time emphasizes the volume of the figure, its monumentality. The senile face is full of severity, purity, cordiality. "Self-portrait" is a masterpiece of pastel technique, in which Chardin prefers to work towards the end of his life.

Latour. The deepening of realism in the middle of the 18th century. expressed in the increased interest in the portrait. The awakening sense of personality, the growth of individualism are reflected in the disclosure of unique character traits and appearance. Many portrait painters turned to the pastel technique. Among them, Maurice Quentin de Latour (1704-1788) stood out, who had no equal in using the possibilities of pastels. His portrait of Duval de L "Epinay (c. 1745, Rothschild collection) was nicknamed "the king of pastels."
A friend of the Encyclopedists, a man of independent and sharp critical mind, Latour did not flatter his models. Dispassionately analyzing the person being portrayed, he sought to convey his profession and social status, to expose his inner world. Most of all, the artist is interested in live facial expressions, poisoning the movement of human passions and thoughts. The best part of Latour's heritage is his "preparations", executed in the technique of pencil, sanguine or pastel, with a dynamic nervous touch and light contrasts that emphasize the variability of facial expressions.

Latour introduces a close point of view that enhances the possibility of communication with the person being portrayed; he accentuates the look, catches its fleeting shades. Heroes of Latour are internally active natures with intense intellectual life. Their characters are revealed in perky, excited faces from the conversation, in mocking, skeptical-philosophical smiles. Such is Voltaire with an ironic look, a nervous mobile mouth, numerous self-portraits of Latour (ill. 201). One of the sharpest "Self-portrait in a beret" (c. 1741, Saint Quentin, Musée Latour).

Among the finished pastels, the portrait of Abbé Hubert (Geneva, Museum) stands out with a dynamic genre-interpreted composition that reveals the character of an active, free-thinking, sensual person. In the ceremonial full-length portrait of Madame Pompadour (1755, Paris, Louvre), the image is resolved in accordance with the ideals of the Enlightenment. The all-powerful favorite is presented among the volumes of the Encyclopedia and works of art. The characters of Latour are far from the patriarchal atmosphere in which the modest heroes of Chardin lived, they are not characterized by the spiritual integrity and warmth of his images, but they are distinguished by the liveliness of insightful thought, most often they are people of the secular salons of Paris, representatives of the Enlightenment culture.

Dreams. Jean-Baptiste Greuze (1725-1805) devoted his art to the third estate, its family virtues. The contemplativeness of Chardin gives way in his work to sentimental melodramatism, sharpened moralization. The focus of the artist's attention is a "sensitive person", inspired by the ideas of Rousseau and the then fashionable "tearful comedy". In an effort to preach the noble feelings and high moral deeds of the common people, in the desire to arouse anger against evil in the viewer and inspire sympathy for the good, Greuze falls into rhetoric, resorts to deliberateness, theatricality, often using the techniques of academic composition for this. The characteristic features of Greuze's work are manifested in multi-figured genre compositions: "The Village Bride" (Paris, Louvre), "The Paralytic" (1763, Leningrad, the Hermitage). In the latter, exaggerations in expressions of feelings, sugary facial expressions, deliberate touching poses, spectacular but artificial mise-en-scenes deprive the work of persuasiveness and genuine artistry. A primitive understanding of the educational role of art led Greuze to the features of naivety and conventionality. But the journalistic tendencies of his work were a direct response to the demands of the times. The strengths of Greuze's work manifested themselves in drawings and magnificent portraits in painting. The image of the engraver Bill (1763, Paris, Jaquemart André Museum) is full of that energy and self-consciousness, in which the traits of a man of revolutionary years are foreseen. Conquests in the field of portraiture will be further developed in the work of David, the Dream genre will find admirers in the 19th century. only among the singers of petty-bourgeois life.
Fragonard. The largest painter of the second half of the 18th century. was Honoré Fragonard (1732-1806). A student of Boucher and Chardin, he combined the decorative elegance of execution with a poetic perception of the world, with the observation of a realist. The life-affirming hedonism of his art is transformed by a lively, mocking mind.

The connection with Rococo is manifested in Fragonard's paintings "Swing" (1767, London, Wallace collection), "Stealth Kiss" (1780s, Leningrad, Hermitage) (ill. 203). The artist strives to convey the intense brilliance of the real world, loves the warm golden scale, the play of light. Over the years, the manner of his writing becomes dynamic and more expressive. Fragonard turns to themes from folk life ("Washerwomen", Amiens). He is attracted by nature, as the realm of life and movement, joyful being, striking in its grandeur ("Large cypresses in the gardens of Villa d" Este. Drawing, 1760, Vienna, Albertina). He is a master of a fleeting sketch from nature and a sketch from imagination.

In portraits, Fragonard seeks to capture emotional excitement, the passion of experiences, which must inevitably turn into action, take them beyond the limits of everyday life, from the intimate sphere of life. The artist boldly destroys the canons of the aristocratic portrait of the 18th century. In the “Portrait of Diderot” (Paris, private collection), he captures the philosopher in a moment of inner insight, torn off from reading, with his gaze turned into the distance. The image “Inspiration” (1769, Paris, Louvre) goes beyond the limits of the portrait genre, subordinated to one passion - the pathetic rise of thought, dreams. In the intimate and lyrical portraits of Fragonard, trends have emerged that have become characteristic of romanticism in the 19th century.

Sculpture

Since the beginning of the century, sculpture has largely developed depending on the principles of the decorative Rococo interior. Just as in painting, there is a transition to secular ease and refined grace, to an intimate psychological interpretation of the image. But from the middle of the 18th century. a desire for simplicity, rigor and conciseness is born. The turn to realism is accompanied by a search for heroic images, an appeal to antiquity; however, French sculptors are not inclined to canonize it, they strive, according to Falcone, "to take off the mask, to see and know nature and to express the beautiful regardless of any fashion."
Falcone. High achievements of the French monumental sculpture of the 18th century. belong primarily to Etienne-Maurice Falcone (1716-1791) - a friend of Diderot, a freethinker-democrat, whose vigorous activity is marked by the seal of tireless quest, the desire to philosophically comprehend artistic work. A master of the lyrical-idyllic genre in France, he glorified himself by creating a bronze statue of Peter I in St. Petersburg - the famous "Bronze Horseman" (1766-1782). The social upsurge that Russia was experiencing at that time, the criticism of absolutism by the great Russian enlighteners, their dreams of a radical change in the social structure and life of the Russian people inspired Falcone. The image of Peter is interpreted by him in the broadest sense as the embodiment of the bold daring of human thought and action, as a strong-willed impulse into a brighter future. Peter the Great is shown riding a rearing horse, suddenly stopping at the edge of a steep cliff. In the guiding gesture of his outstretched hand - an expression of striving forward and all-conquering will; the head is proudly thrown up, the face is illuminated by the light of lofty thought. Monumental strength is combined here with naturalness and freedom, impetuous movement - with a state of rest. The silhouette of a mighty rider, conquering the elements, dominates the square and at the same time is included in the panorama of the city, rushing into endless expanses. The plastic richness of the image is revealed as it is viewed from various points of view.
In The Bronze Horseman, Falcone created the image of an ideal personality, the creator and legislator of his country, which the enlighteners of the 18th century dreamed of.

Houdon. The work of Jean-Antoine Houdon (1741-1828) is directly connected with the revolutionary era. The versatility of characteristics, in-depth psychologism, harsh truth and faith in man distinguish the sculptural portraits he created. Accurately reproducing the appearance of the model, capturing the variability of moods, the sculptor did not forget about maintaining the stable integrity of the image. The heroes of Houdon are efficient, purposeful, live a busy life. Frowning, with a feverish look, Rousseau appears; as if listening, ready to enter into conversation Diderot; tribune 1789 Mirabeau, with a haughty look, seems to hover over the crowd, to which he addresses with a speech; a courageous fighter for the independence of the North American colonies of England, Washington is the whole embodiment of self-discipline and self-denial. The breath of a great era is fanned by the poetically elevated image of the composer Gluck (1775, Weimar). Full of spontaneity and feminine charm, the image of the artist's wife (c. 1787, Paris, Louvre) is a rare example of a plastically finished interpretation of laughter.

Houdon's masterpiece is a marble statue of the eighty-four-year-old Voltaire (1781, Leningrad, Hermitage) (ill. 202). The philosopher is depicted sitting in an armchair, slightly leaning forward. The pyramidal construction of the composition gives it a monumental balance. The likeness of an ancient toga with wide folds drapes his feeble body and brings a touch of civic glorification into the interpretation of the image. From a distance, Voltaire seems to be deep in thought. In the features of the face there are traces of fatigue, senile fragility. When approaching him, the image of the philosopher-sage changes dramatically - Voltaire is full of intense expression. Behind the folds of clothes, in the nervous hands clinging to the chair, one feels a jerky movement. The face is full of inner fire and polemical enthusiasm, illuminated by an ironic smile. The power of a sharp look, his insight is striking. The image of Voltaire, the giant of human thought, grows to a generalization of the era.

On the eve of the revolution, new images enter the art of classicism. The monumental and heroic pathos intensifies in them. In the works of the historical genre, parallels between the events of ancient history and modern times are increasingly indicated.

The art of France, a highly politicized country, invariably responded to events affecting the deep foundations of the world order. Therefore, the country, in the XIX century. survived the fall of the empire, the restoration of the Bourbons, two revolutions, participated in many wars, no longer needed an artistic presentation of power. People wanted to see, and the masters wanted to create canvases inhabited by contemporaries acting in real circumstances. The work of the great artist Honore Daumier (1808 - 1879) reflected the era of the 19th century, full of social upheavals. Widely known, having become a kind of chronicle of the life and customs of the era, was the graphics of Daumier, the master of political caricature, denouncing the monarchy, social injustice, militarism. Daumier's picturesque talent was revealed in the 1840s. The artist himself did not seek to exhibit his paintings. Only a few close people saw his canvases - Delacroix and Baudelaire, Corot and Daubigny, Balzac and Michelet. It was they who were the first to highly appreciate Daumier's pictorial talent, which is often called "sculptural". In an effort to bring his creations to perfection, the artist often sculpted figurines from clay, enhancing characteristic features or exaggerating natural proportions. Then he took a brush and, using this "nature", created picturesque images. In Daumier's painting, grotesque-satirical, lyrical, heroic, epic lines are usually distinguished.

The most significant place in the development of Western European realism belongs to French art. And this is no coincidence. Already from the end of the 18th century, France played a leading role in the socio-political life of Europe, and the class struggle between the nobility, the bourgeoisie and the proletariat took clear classical forms in it. Hiding behind the royal and imperial robes or asserting its power in the open, the bourgeoisie triumphed. “Industry and trade have grown to immense proportions,” K. Marx wrote about France in the 1950s and 1960s, “exchange speculation was celebrating its cosmopolitan orgies; the poverty of the masses stood out sharply next to the impudent brilliance of dissolute luxury acquired by fraud and crime.
The democratic and proletarian movement in the middle of the 19th century assumed wide scope in France. The revolution of 1830 is followed by the revolution of 1848; in the political arena, the proletariat, leading the broad masses of the people, comes out more and more decisively. In June 1848, he openly rises against the bourgeoisie, and in 1871, proclaiming the Paris Commune, he makes the first heroic attempt in history to take political power into his own hands.
The aggravation of social contradictions, grandiose class battles, new social problems, the issues of the democratic reorganization of society could not but excite progressive minds, forcing them to analyze the phenomena of reality, to look for new ways in art. In France, which gives the clearest picture of the formation and development of the main trends of the 19th century, the rise of realism is observed earlier than in other countries, the realistic trend is most closely associated with socio-political life, it puts forward the largest representatives of the art of the 19th century.
The July Revolution of 1830 was a milestone in the development of French art. Under its influence, romantic illusions are being eradicated, interest in social topics is growing, and an independent theoretical program of realism is being developed. The main requirements for the new art were formulated by Laviron and Galbaccio in the Salon of 1833. They were further developed in the works of major theoreticians-defenders of realism: Thoré-Burget, Chanfleury, Duranty, Castagnari and others. All these critics - representatives of the generation of 1848 - brought to the fore the question of the educational role of art. Art, they argued, should contribute to the development of society along the path of progress, should be a "teacher of life", and for this it needs to be relevant, socially saturated, understandable to the people. Art should help people to understand the world around them, to understand its contradictions. It will be able to do this, throwing aside any idealization, embellishment of life. The veracity of the image is put forward as one of the necessary conditions for creativity - the artist writes what he knows, what he sees in front of him. The call for the rejection of generally accepted models and for the affirmation of the truth of life in art helped progressive artists master new ways and means of artistic expression, opened up broad prospects for creative quests. At the same time, some critics of the mid-19th century sometimes reduced the concept of realism to the external reliability of the image, the illusory nature of the transmission of the visible world, which, of course, disorientated the artists.
Philip Jeanron. Among the forerunners of the great realist painters, some less significant masters deserve mention. Lacking the gifts of their followers, they prepared the ground for them. Among them is Philippe Jeanron (1809-1877). He was a participant in the revolutions of 1830 and 1848, and often spoke in print defending realistic principles. Already in the early work "Children at the Barricade" (1831, Museum at Caen), Jeanron turned to the direct depiction of revolutionary events. In later works, he gave a social analysis of reality, opposing each other representatives of various classes of modern society: the nobility, the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. When depicting workers, the artist emphasized their poverty and suffering, without avoiding some sentimentality. Genron is also known as a portrait painter. He left expressive portraits of the leading people of his time - representatives of the republican intelligentsia.

Realism in France and England (literature and art in the 19th century)

By the middle of the century, realism becomes the dominant trend in European culture.

Realism arose in France and England under the conditions of established capitalist relations. The social contradictions and shortcomings of the capitalist system determined the sharply critical attitude of realist writers towards it. They denounced money-grubbing, flagrant inequality, selfishness, hypocrisy. In its ideological focus, it becomes critical realism. At the same time, the work of the great realist writers is permeated with the ideas of humanism and social justice.

Literature of France. The model of realistic poetry in France in the 19th century was the poet Pierre Jean de Beranger (1780-1857). He spoke during the period of the Napoleonic monarchy and in 1813 in the song "King Yveto" condemned Napoleon's military adventures and his tax policy. During the Restoration, he became a real poet-fighter. His fervent songs during this period ridicule the rich and prosperous philistines. Beranger's political song is saturated with democracy, marked by the stamp of lively national humor.

A brilliant representative of critical realism was Stendhal(owned by Henri Bayle, 1783-1842). The admiration of the writer was caused by people with an active, strong character. He saw such heroes among the figures of the Renaissance (“Italian Chronicles”), in Shakespeare, among his contemporaries.

One of the greatest novels Stendhal- "Red and Black" (1830). The hero of the novel is Julien Sorel, a passionate admirer of the Napoleonic era, a man with an elevated and sensitive soul, striving to conquer the inert social environment. However, he does not succeed, because the ruling classes did not accept him - a plebeian by birth. In the novel The Parma Monastery, the writer condemns the reactionary era, which predetermined the tragedy of smart, talented, deeply feeling people.

The pinnacle, the highest point in the development of Western European realism is the work of Honore de Balzac(1799 -1850). As conceived by Balzac, his main work - the epic "The Human Comedy" was supposed to consist of 143 books, reflecting all aspects of the life of French society. Balzac gave all his strength to this titanic work, he created 90 novels and short stories.

In this epic novels are connected by a common idea and many characters. It includes such novels as "The Unknown Masterpiece", "Shagreen Skin", "Eugenia Grande", "Father Goriot", "Caesar Biroto", "Lost Illusions", "Cousin Betta" and many others. The epic is a realistic picture, grandiose in breadth of scope, reflecting the mores and contradictions of the social life of France. Balzac endows his heroes with intelligence, talent, strong character. His works are deeply dramatic, they depict the power of the “monetary principle”, which decomposes old patriarchal ties and family ties, kindling the flame of selfish passions.

The master of the novel was Prosper Merimee(1803-1870), an outstanding realist writer. His short stories are concise, strict, elegant. They have strong and vivid characters, whole natures capable of strong feelings - Carmen (which served as the basis for Bizet's opera of the same name), Colomba, Falcombe. Even in those short stories where the writer depicts romantic heroes and romantic situations, the action is not translated into a romantic plane, but a realistic motivation is given.

Wrote Merimee and plays. One of the outstanding works of the writer is the play-chronicle "Jacquerie", reflecting the peasant movement of the XIV century. He wrote the only big novel, Chronicle of the Times of Charles IX, which tells about the struggle between Catholics and Protestants and the events of Bartholomew's Night. The author debunks fanatical intolerance.

In connection with the change in the political position of the bourgeoisie after the revolution of 1848 and its refusal to cooperate with the working class, a new type of critical realism is emerging in the literature of France - writers refuse to create powerful images, and the concept of the typical is reduced to the most common, ordinary. In general, art is even closer to life.

The largest representative of the new stage of realism was Gustave Flaubert(1821-1880). The attitude of the writer to the social strata of the population was contradictory: he hated the bourgeoisie all his life, treated the masses with contempt, considered political activity meaningless. Therefore, Flaubert calls on the artist to "go to the ivory tower", to serve beauty. Despite the inconsistency of such a position, Flaubert gave a remarkable critical portrayal of bourgeois vulgarity, without remaining aloof from the social struggle. One of the outstanding works Flaubert- The novel "Madame Bovary". In the center of the novel is the image of a woman from a bourgeois environment. Brought up by romantic literature, she perishes in a collision with petty-bourgeois reality. The novel "Education of Senses" depicts the mores of the provinces and Paris, the moral insignificance of the bourgeois. This novel developed the theme of a young man, sluggish, inert, incapable of vigorous activity. Historical plots are based on the novels "Salambo", "The Legend of St. Julian the Merciful" and "Herodias", in which the situation of distant eras is restored with scientific objectivity. The writer has achieved scrupulous accuracy in reproducing realistic details, the depth of psychological analysis, revealed through an internal monologue.

England:

Literature of England. The Scottish writer Walter Scott (1771-1832) was drawn closer to the Romantics by his interest in the Middle Ages. At the beginning of his career, he collected Scottish folklore and wrote romantic poems. World-wide fame brought him realistic prose.

Walter Skol is the creator of the historical novel genre, which combines romantic and realistic tendencies. The death of the Scottish tribal clan is displayed by the writer in the novels Waverley, Rob Roy. The novels "Ivanhoe", "Quentin Dorward" paint a picture of medieval England and France. The novels The Puritans and The Legend of Monrose cover the class struggle that unfolded in England in the 17th-18th centuries.

The work of W. Scott is characterized by a special composition of novels, predetermined by the promotion of the description of the life, life and customs of the people themselves, and not of kings, generals, nobles. At the same time, depicting private life, the writer reproduces a picture of historical events.

One of the great artists of world literature - Charles Dickens(1812-- 1870), he is the founder and leader of the critical realism of English literature, an outstanding satirist and humorist. In his early work, The Pickwick Papers, still patriarchal England is depicted. Laughing at the beautiful soul, gullibility, naivety of his hero, Dickens sympathizes with him, emphasizing his disinterestedness, honesty, faith in goodness.

Already in the next novel, The Adventures of Oliver Twist, a capitalist city with its slums and the life of the poor is depicted. The writer, believing in the triumph of justice, forces his hero to overcome all obstacles and achieve personal happiness.

However, works Dickens full of deep drama. The writer gave a whole gallery of carriers of social evil, which are the representatives of the bourgeois class. These are the usurer Ralph Nickleby, the cruel teacher Okvirs, the hypocrite Pecksniff, the misanthrope Scrooge, the capitalist Bounderby. The greatest achievement of Dickens is the image of Mr. Dombey (the novel "Dombey and Son") - a man in whom all feelings have died, and his complacency, stupidity, selfishness, callousness are generated by belonging to the world of owners.

Such qualities of Dickens as indestructible optimism, bright and very national humor, a sober, realistic outlook on life - all this makes him the greatest folk writer in England after Shakespeare.

A contemporary of Dickens - William Thackeray(1811-1863) in the best novel "Vanity Fair" vividly and figuratively exposes the vices of bourgeois society. In this society, everyone plays their assigned role. Thackeray does not see positive characters, he has only two categories of characters - deceivers or deceived. But the writer strives for psychological truth, avoids the grotesque and exaggeration characteristic of Dickens. Thackeray treats the bourgeois-noble elite with contempt, but he is indifferent to the life of the lower classes. He is a pessimist, a skeptic.

At the end of the XIX century. The realist trend in English literature was represented mainly by the work of three world famous writers: John Galsworthy (1867-1933), George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950), Herbert George Wells (1866-1946).

So, D. Galsworthy in the trilogy "The Forsyte Saga" and "Modern Comedy" gave an epic picture of the mores of bourgeois England in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. revealing the destructive role of possessiveness in both public and private life. They wrote dramas. He was engaged in journalism, where he defended the principles of realism. But in the End of the Chapter trilogy, conservative tendencies emerged.

D. B. Shaw is one of the founders and first members of the socialist "Fabian Society", the creator of drama discussions, in the center of which is the clash of hostile ideologies, an uncompromising solution of social and ethical problems ("Widower's House", "Miss Warren's Profession", " Applecart"). Shaw's creative method is characterized by paradox as a means of overthrowing dogmatism and bias ("Androcles and the Lion", "Pygmalion"), traditional representations (historical plays "Caesar and Cleopatra", "Saint Joan").

G. D. Wells is a classic of science fiction literature. In the novels "The Time Machine", "The Invisible Man", "The War of the Worlds", the writer relied on the latest scientific concepts. The writer connects the problems that people face in connection with scientific and technological progress with social and moral forecasts for the development of society: “The history of mankind is becoming more and more a competition between education and catastrophe.”

Musical art. In Italy and in the XIX century. in the conditions of political reaction, the opera proved to be the most popular and democratic genre of theatrical art. The pinnacle of realism in the musical opera art of the 19th century. - the work of the great Italian composer Giusete Verdi (1813-1901), closely associated with the Italian liberation movement ("Nabucco", "Lombards in the first crusade"). In such operatic works as "Ernani", "Macbeth", "The Battle of Legnano", a protest is expressed against all violence and oppression. Performances of Verdi's operas, imbued with the ideas of the struggle for the liberation and unification of Italy, were accompanied by stormy patriotic demonstrations.

Masterpieces of operatic realism - Verdi's operas "Aida", "Othello" and "Falstaff". These are musical dramas with continuous development of action. The scenes are built freely, with a flexible transition from recitative to monologue, from solo to ensemble. An important place is given to the orchestra. Verdi has a complete fusion of music with dramatic action. Democracy, deep humanity of Verdi's work brought him great popularity. His operas are constantly in the repertoire of opera houses around the world.

Italian operas brought to life new principles of vocal and stage performance: the dramatic expressiveness of singing, the acting skills of the singer, the historical accuracy of scenery and costumes. Remarkable vocalists, representatives of bel canto with world fame were the singers A. Patti, J. Pasta, I. Colbran and others, the singers M. Battistini, F. Galdi and others.

In the same period, a new direction appeared in the opera - the right one (nt. verismo, from vero - true, truthful). Its representatives are the composers R. Leoncavallo (1857-1919), P. Mascagni (1863-1945), Um. Giordanno (1867 -1948), G. Puccini (1858-1924). At the heart of the works of these masters are life-reliant plots; a true reflection of the spiritual world of ordinary people; emotionally expressive music, the absence of a high social idea. There was also a certain performing style - exaggerated expression, sentimental anguish, sharp drama. The best works of this direction are Mascagni's Rural Honor, Leoncavallo's Pagliacci. Thanks to the psychological depth, the work of G. Puccini, who wrote "La Boheme", "Tosca", "Cio-Cio-San", overcomes the limits of verism.

In France, the lyric opera has developed, which differs from the grand opera in more intimate themes and plots borrowed from classical literature. These are the operas "Manon" and "Werther" by J. Massenet, "Faust" and "Romeo and Juliet" by C. Gounod, "Hamlet" by A. Thomas and others. Lyric operas were created on exotic oriental subjects. These are “Lakme” by L. Delibes, “The Pearl Seekers” and “Jamile” by J. Bizet, “Samson and Delilah” by C. Saint-Saens. In lyrical operas, human experiences are truly and subtly embodied. The depiction of everyday life is characterized by poetry. The musical language of these operas is democratic, close to urban folklore.

G. Bizet's opera Carmen is recognized as the pinnacle of realism in French opera. Bizet's work is characterized by sharpness of forms, clarity of presentation. The heroes of the opera are simple people with strong and contradictory characters. This opera embodies the Spanish national musical flavor. It contains a tense course of dramatic events, a variety of folk scenes. This is one of the most popular operas in the world. P.I. Tchaikovsky recognized it as "a masterpiece in the full sense of the word."

Mid 19th century became the time of the birth of a new musical genre - operetta - a light opera, including both dance and dialogue (derived from comic opera). The birthplace of the operetta is France, and the founders are the composers F. Herve and J. Offenbach.

In A in with t r and at the beginning of the XIX century. along with Vienna, Salzburg, Seizenstadt, Esterhaz and others became musical centers. The Vienna Court Opera was opened in 1869, this theater became the country's leading musical theater. His repertoire was dominated by French and Italian operas. In the last third of the XIX century. received the development of venet "operetta. Its founders: F. Zuppe (1819-1895), who wrote "The Beautiful Galatea", "Boccaccio" and one of his best operettas - "Donna Juanita"; I. Strauss (son) (1825 -1849) - his best creations "The Gypsy Baron", "The Bat", etc. A major composer of this genre - K. Mialeker (1842-1899) - author of the operettas "The Beggar Student", "Gasparon "," Poor Jonathan.

The works of these composers widely use folk melodies, dance rhythms, and operettas are distinguished by their melodiousness.

The Viennese waltzes (“The Blue Danube”, “Tales of the Vienna Woods”, etc.) also brought world fame to I. Strauss, thanks to which he received the name “king of waltzes”.

Despite the fact that for the work of English composers of the XIX century. in general, the absence of a pronounced national character is characteristic; opera culture in England grew intensively. The Covent Garden Theater was the largest in England, it hosted performances of the Italian Royal Opera. In 1856 the Royal English Opera was formed. At the end of the XIX century. there comes a period that went down in history under the name of the English musical Renaissance, - the interest of composers in national themes increases.

Art. In this kind of art, the main sign of realism is the comprehension of the social character of a person. However, in painting, realism is more closely associated with pictorial means than in literature, which create the illusion of visual authenticity.

The realistic trend in French painting strengthened its position in the middle of the 19th century. after the revolution of 1848. In the history of French art, the struggle between two camps, two fundamentally opposed artistic cultures, has never been as sharp as during this period. The best features of the French people and their advanced art were embodied by such artists as Millet, Courbet, Manet, Carpa. They were not allowed to exhibitions, they were persecuted in newspapers and magazines. They were opposed by a mass of art dealers, favorites of Napoleon III and the entire reactionary bourgeoisie of the Second Empire.

J. F. Mimet (1814-1875) in his epic monumental and life-filled paintings showed the French peasantry, its work, its moral strength (“The Gatherers”, “Angelus”).

Millet and Courbet became the forerunners of Impressionism. The works of Edouard Manet (1832-1883) are dedicated to Paris. He is one of the brilliant colorists of world art. In his paintings, with amazing vigilance and freshness, a true characterization of all kinds of inhabitants of Paris (“Breakfast in the Studio”, “Reading”, “In the Boat”, “Dana”) is conveyed, which convey to our days the appearance of the then France. Although Manet in the first paintings tried to rethink the images and plots of the old masters in the spirit of modernity (“Breakfast on the Grass”, “Olympia”), then he began to create paintings on everyday, historical, revolutionary themes. The strongest page in the history of French critical realism - his last painting "The Bar at the Folies Bergère" - is about the loneliness of human existence. Anticipating impressionism, he turned to light plein air painting (“Argenteuil”) (plein air (French plein air, lit. - open air) - in painting, the reproduction of changes in the air environment due to sunlight and the state of the atmosphere).

The heyday of English painting falls in the 19th century. for the first third of the century. It is associated with the development of brilliant landscape painting.

One of the most original artists of his time was William Termu (1775-1851). He traveled extensively in Europe, and his landscapes took on a romantic focus ("Shipwreck"). Bold in coloristic and light-air searches, with a distorted scale of objects, his paintings are, as it were, the forerunners of impressionism (“Rain, steam and speed”). He also became famous as a historical painter who created landscapes with mythological or historical scenes (“Garden of the Hesperides”, “Dido building Carthage”, etc.)

Creativity F. Goya. After the death of Velázquez in 1660, for a hundred years, Spanish art was in a state of deep decline. And only in the late XVIII - early XIX centuries. backward Spain unexpectedly put forward a brilliant artist who became not only one of the greatest painters and graphic artists of Spain, but also had a profound influence on all European art of the 19th and 20th centuries - Francisco Goya (1746 - 1828). He created a huge number of beautiful frescoes, paintings, etchings, lithographs, drawings. (Etching (from French nitric acid) is a type of engraving where a drawing is scratched with an engraving needle in a layer of acid-resistant varnish covering a metal plate. The scratched places are etched with acid, and the resulting in-depth image is filled with paint and dragged onto paper.)

Theater. In politically fragmented Germany, theatrical life was also concentrated in small towns, in which the court theaters played the classical repertoire.

The abolition in 1869 of the monopolies of court theaters led to the emergence of many commercial theaters and a decrease in the artistic level of the repertoire. The struggle for the creation of performances as a single stage work was started by the Meiningen Theater, which in 1871 became the city theater. The largest actors in Germany in the middle and end of the XIX century. were B. Davison, A. Mashkovsky, E. Possart.

In the plays by G. Ibsen, G. Hauptmann, the great tragedians I. Kaina and A. Zorma shone.

At the turn of the century, Berlin became the theatrical center of Germany. In 1883, the German Theater was opened, in 1889 - the Free Theater, which promoted the dramaturgy of Ibsen, Hauptmann, E. Zola, L. Tolstoy.

At the beginning of the XIX century. Theatrical life of A. in s t r and was marked by a great creative flourishing of the theaters of the suburbs, which was associated with the activities of the playwright F. Raimund and the actor I. N. Motley. However, after the revolution of 1848, these theaters lose their democratic character, and entertaining plays predominate in their repertoire.

In the second half of the XIX century. The leading place in the theatrical life of Austria was occupied by the Burg Theatre. Its leader G. Laube approved the classics on the stage. In 70-8Q-e. the theater was directed by F. Dilgenshtedt, who staged a series of Shakespearean tragedies, plays by Ibsen, Gogol, Turgenev, L. Tolstoy.

Ballet. The birthplace of modern European ballet is Et a l and I. Italian ballet was based on the traditions of ancient pantomime and dance and the rich culture of folk dance. At the turn of the XVIII-XIX centuries. in the development of Italian ballet, a new stage began, coinciding with the period of the liberation struggle of the Italian people. Performances were created based on the principle of effective ballet, saturated with drama, dynamics, and expression. Such ballets were staged by G. John and S. Vshit, and pantomime dancers performed in them.

The La Scala theater was considered the largest center of ballet art in Europe; in 1813, a ballet school was established at the theater.

In the second half of the XIX century. in Italy, as well as in other countries of Western Europe, there was a decline in ballet art. At this time, a virtuoso style of performance is being established. Attention is focused on overcoming technical difficulties, and dramatic expressiveness is relegated to the background. In the 80s of the XIX century. predominantly enchanting performances were staged, which were cumbersome and, as a rule, devoid of ideological content.

Baudelaire Charles- French poet. B.'s poetic activity coincided with the flourishing of romantic and Parnassian trends in French literature. After the storm of the French Revolution and the epic of the Napoleonic Wars, a bourgeois order was established in France, which did not fulfill not only the aspirations of the broad masses of the people, but also the aspirations of the middle strata, that petty bourgeoisie, which produced the largest number of artists in general and in particular writers and poets.

It should also be noted that in the era of 1848, when a strong revolutionary convulsion shook the bourgeois world, Baudelaire, as it were, woke up. By this time belong his works - "Twilight", "Dawn" and "Rag-Pickers' Feast". Democratic and slightly revolutionary notes began to appear in B.'s poetry, but they soon died out in even more gloomy disappointment.

His main work is “Flowers of Evil” (Les fleurs du mal, 1857; there are Russian translations by Yakubovich-Melshin and Ellis; many other poets translated it: Sologub, Vyacheslav Ivanov and others). "Flowers of Evil" is the quintessence of those moods, about which we spoke above. A contemporary of the Parnassians, who demanded an unusual filigree of poetic form, firmness of structure, economy in words, strict rhythm and a choice of images and a deep correspondence to them in expressions, B. not only obeyed all these conditions, but turned out to be one of the greatest masters of this, classical in his own way, form verse. B. belongs to the breed of poet-sculptors. He carves or forges his poems. His works are solid, every word stands definitely in its place. The craftsmanship here is manly.

Realism as an independent trend established itself in the 40s of the 19th century, later passing into the form of critical realism (the highest point of realism is the denunciation of the vices of society). The development of realism was accompanied by the development of the capitalist mode of production, and, consequently, the growth of social contradictions, which was reflected in the art of that time.

Realism in art of the 19th century. unites with romanticism

Disappointment in the results of revolutions

Negative attitude towards bourgeois reality

Appeal to the spiritual world of man

The struggle for self-assertion of personality

The topic of nationality is close

However, unlike the romantics, who flee from reality, considering emergency situations, extraordinary personalities, heroic situations, stormy life of passions, realism penetrates deeply into reality, into social life.

New approaches of realist artists of the 19th century. in reflecting what is really happening "here and now". Artists were convinced of the possibility of knowing the objectively existing world by means of art. They turned to the scenes of bourgeois life, illuminated the life of the peasants, the working life of the urban lower classes.

One of the first realists in French painting was Gustave Courbet, who addressed the theme of labor ("Stone Crushers"), painted social canvases based on real motives ("Funeral in Ornan"). Courbet's "prosaism" is an open challenge to official criticism.

Francois Millet- a peasant genre, without melodramatic and ethnographic shades, but through the transmission of postures, gestures, body movements, revealed the nature of the labor process, the strength and dexterity of the peasants ("Peasant women with brushwood", "Gatherers") - epic monumental canvases, full of vitality and truth .

Honoré Daumier is an artist of critical realism who, like O. Balzac, created the "Human Comedy" of the era in thousands of lithographs, drawings and paintings - caricatures of King Louis Philippe in the satirical magazines "Caricature" and "Sharivari" ("Down the Curtain" ), its main genre is a satire of morals: the philistine world of swindlers, fools, provincials in the capital (“Judges of Justice”). "Laundress" is not a portrait, but a collective image of all Parisian laundresses; a portrait in which the author expressed all his love for the people. A series of illustrations for Don Quixote, where in the image of the protagonist the artist tried to reflect his own position in society, the theme of human suffering. The social sharpness of his stories is a counterbalance to forbidden censorship.

French national landscape:

Jean Baptiste Camille Corot- poetic spirituality of nature; favorite motif - "after the rain", i.e. changing state of nature; the silvery tonality of his painting is "the gray haze of Koro".

barbizon school- the main goal: the image of the originality of the national landscape, the transfer of the changing states of nature, the rejection of compositional canons. Theodor Russo- "Landscape with a bridge" - a landscape from nature, special attention to form, all trees are individual, picturesque modeling makes them voluminous and almost sculptural, their monumentality is emphasized by a low horizon.

Jules Dupre- “Autumn landscape” - the effect of the setting sun emphasizes the contrast of the colors of the autumn landscape after the rain, the trees dominating the composition are especially solemn.

Charles Daubigny- river landscapes ("Banks of the Oise River"), the desire to catch the slightest changes in the state of nature, a subtle pictorial transmission of light enveloping objects.

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 aimed 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 feelings. 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) at different times of the day 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 barbarian deforestation, Rousseau endows nature with 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, and 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.

Rousseau's art 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.

Well-known masters of the Barbizon school were Jules Dupre, whose landscapes contain features of romantic art (“The Big Oak”, 1844–1855; “Landscape with Cows”, 1850), and Narcissus Diaz, who inhabited the forest of Fontainebleau with nude 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 boat-workshop, on which he sailed along the river, stopping at the most attractive places.

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

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.

French realism is associated primarily with the names of Stendhal and Balzac, and this is historically true. However, we must not forget that they had talented predecessors, in whose works the realistic principles of writing were identified very clearly. We are talking about the poet Pierre-Jean Beranger, who became widely known for his songs, and the prose writer Paul-Louis Courier, the famous pamphleteer, who returned the French language, according to Stendhal, "the former simplicity." Beranger's songs and Courier's pamphlets contributed to the development of realistic poetics. The same goal was pursued by everyday, moralistic and "physiological" essays, which were the mass school of French realism.

In the first half of the 19th century, great writers appeared on the literary arena of France, who brought her world fame: Frederic Stendhal (pseudonym of Henri-Marie Beyle; 1783-1842), Honore de Balzac (real name - Balsa; 1799-1850) and Prosper Mérimée (1803 -1870).

Stendhal (the novels "Armane", "Red and Black", "Parma Monastery", "Lucien Levin", "Lamiel", the story "Memoirs of an Egoist", the short story "Vanina Vanini", the books "The Life of Haydn, Mozart and Metastasio", " History of Painting in Italy”, “Rome, Naples and Florence”, “On Love”, “The Life of Rossini”, “Racine and Shakespeare” and other works) was the creator of the realistic psychological novel. This was his main merit, by which the world literary movement did not pass.

Stendhal was a democrat who looked for the causes of phenomena in the surrounding reality. He had an exceptional interest in the human mind and its connections with the senses. Stendhal used to think that at the basis of all human actions lies a personal, egoistic desire, which, however, must be subordinated to a moral sense. He attached great importance to the will and considered it one of the main forces of the personality.

In works of art, Stendhal, unlike other realists, in particular Balzac, makes a stronger emphasis on the inner world of a person than on society and on the external environment of the hero. A person attracts him not so much as a social product, but as the life of his consciousness. But still, Stendhal does not renounce socio-historical determinism. So, surrounding Pietro, the hero of the novel "Vanina Vanini", with a romantic halo, Stendhal motivates his passion with nationality (Italian), the special role of religion in his mind (after the defeat, he, a patriot, feels punished and resorts to religion), social feeling, commanding him to prefer the love of a woman to the love of his homeland. Outlining the principles of creativity, Stendhal uses his experience and draws the characters he depicts from among people who are familiar to him: “I take one of the people I knew and I say to myself: this person has acquired certain habits, going every morning to hunt for happiness, and then I give it a little more intelligence." Stendhal believed that a person (and in many ways society) is ruled by passions. The most important of them is love, which has become the center of his artistic interest.

Stendhal identifies four love passions (“On Love”): “passion-love”, “passion-ambition”, “passion-attraction”, “physical passion”. Primary attention is paid to the first two, of which “passion-love” is true and eternal, and “passion-ambition” is hypocritical and born in the 19th century.

Stendhal's psychologism is based on the contrast of "passion-love" and "passion-ambition", on the one hand, and on the contrast of passions and reason, on the other. The hero of Stendhal, like Lermontov's Pechorin later, notices that two persons seem to exist in him in one person: one lives and acts, and the other watches him. From the experience of contemplation, the writer draws an important conclusion: "The soul has only states, it has no stable properties." The most profound way to reveal the inner world, the life of the soul is the internal monologue, characteristic of all the main characters of the writer - Julien Sorel, Lucien Levin, Fabrizio del Dongo, etc.

In the spiritual life of Stendhal, the movement of thought is of interest, since passions are permeated with a rational principle. The writer stops before the study of mental states, only pointing to them. However, the actions of the characters are always depicted by him in conjunction with reactions to them, and this gives an idea of ​​the infinite individuality of the rational and sensual experience of people.