2/24 avant garde notes

Courbets Oak of Vercingetorix - celebrating his region, but it is also a historic site gaulles versus romans - gaulles resisted their forced assimilation - symbolic for Courbet
(1864)
Origine du monde - Marie-Eulalie Focquet - nude photographs with similar pose. Was
arrested for posing, but was acquitted because the images were deemed erotic rather
than pornographic. depersonalized. woman as object. Closeness/proximity within the
picture plane - seems to impinge upon the viewers space.
Waves - is he romantic or is he realist? power of nature, but physical rather than
metaphysical power.
still life with apples 1871 - oversized apples? wormy? realist version of vanitas?
MANET
absinthe drinker 1859. compare to coutures realist 1865 - colors (matte). detachment
of the legs. unfinished? influence of spanish art velazquez - the philosophy menippus
(painterly freedom, free handling, bold use of color
spanish guitar plater (61) comp, to velazquezs water carrier. simple, quiet realism of V
evoked in still life. Increase in contact with spanish art/culture after napoleonic
conquests. spanish realism (v and goya) - became model for french realists. napoleon iii
(louis) - married a spanish aristocrat, introduced the bullfight to paris. thus, this painting
is very contemporary/topic. vividness of the color. contrast of white and black reminiscent of delacroix.
marginality of his figures - other to manets social class. (absinthe drinker, spaniard).
fantins studio at batignolles (69)
62 - exhibition at martinet - a shift
FROM: old musician: far right - courbets old jew from artists studio, quotation from
watteaus pierrot, murillos boy with a dog, his own absinthe drinker - assembles group
that is representative of the history of realism. staged as a group portrait (rather than

more organic genre painting - they are not interacting or engaged with a central scene).
summary of realism. situated in area of renovation - open picturesque background which
will be developed - symbol of forthcoming change/development. haussmannization.
figures such as his hobo/squatters will be evicted due to renovation.
TO: musique aux tuileries. no longer the marginal characters, but his contemporaries.
baud and guys.
*martinet + lola de valence - the spanish influence and baud.
if manet is the painter of modern life, courbet is the painter of provincial life (modern
provincial).
2/26 manet
cats for champfleurys cats - japanese printmaking. cats as symbol of freedom,
promiscuity, independence, wandering the streets without being tamed.
3/10
Artists exhibiting in 1790 - 258
Artists exhibiting in 1831 - 1280
Artists exhibiting in 1880 - 3190
1861 - 4097 accepted works out of more than 7000
1863 - 2217 accepted works out of 5000
Edgar Degas (1834-1917)
Fathers name: de Gas - de signifies aristocratic origin - wealthy banker. had either
acquired or affected the noble title in the 1830s. De Gas family seems to have elevated
itself under napoleonic nobility acquisition laws. Degas sheds the two-word name due to
his sense of superiority - prefers subtlety
-Portrait of Achille de Gas (1856/57). In costume of Ecole Polytechnique - military
engineers - elite institution. Aloof, blas,
-Self Portrait (1855) holding a black chalk in holder - posing as artist with portfolio.
Shows himself with drawing instrument rather than with the trappings of a painter.
Reference to Ingres self-portrait of 1804 - height of conservatism. Goes to Academie
des Beaux-Arts.
-The Daughters of Jephtha (1859-60). One of a few of his history paintings of the 1850s.
Unfinished - half-finished dog. Unsigned.

-The Bellelli Family (1860-62). Degas aunt Laura, with her Italian husband (Giovanni
Bellelli) with two cousins - living in Florence. Laura is unhappy to be living in exile - in
mourning clothes, just lost her father (degass grandfather - portrait of grandfather painted drawing in the style of holbein on the wall). Paints husband separate from the
rest of the family, turned away, boxed off/closed in corner of clutter. Unhappy with her
husband. Pregnant - case of marital rape (Linda Nochlins reading). Mirror - reflection
of a window - reference to the outside, where Laura might be looking - toward freedom
(pre-raphaelite painting - mirror reflecting window). Clock, burnt out candle - fatigue.
Floor - highly abstracted and intricate (awareness of constructedness, materiality).
Psychological history painting - realist manner of history painting. Dog in lower right
corner - leaving, cut off.
-The Duke and Duchess of Morbilli (1867) - womans right hand, bracelet, sleeve - loser,
more chaotic brushwork. Remind us that we are looking at a staged
production/performance. Opposition to the detail of the dukes hand. While he occupies
a good deal of the foreground and leans easily on his chair, she is cut off, occluded,
dependent upon/leaning on her husband.
-Woman with Chrysanthemums (1865) - might have been made in two stages (first as
still life, then with figure added). Response to Courbet (The Trellis, 1863)? Presence of
gardening gloves. Possibly Valpinons wife - cut off, completely ancillary to the scene.
Glance outside of the frame - suggests that it is cut from a larger reality. Like a fragment.
The artist and his artifice.
-A Carriage at the Races (1870-72). LABOR SCENE! Wet nurse breast-feeding the child
of Mme Valpinon - with husband and dog. Photographic cropping - depth? - parasol
cutting off heads, cane cutting through body, carriage on left, horses/carriage on right.
Cropping inspired less by photography, more by japanese printmaking (hiroshige,
hokusai) - also flat landscape ground. I assure you no art was ever less spontaneous
than mine. What I do is the result of reflection and study of the great masters; of
inspiration, spontaneity, temperament - temperament is the word - I know nothing, A
picture calls for as much cunning, trickery, and vice as the perpetration of crime.
Separates himself from impressionists. One of very few landscapes/images of nature (if
you can call that nature)
-Place de la Concorde, Vicomte Lpic and his Daughters (1875) same compositional
elements as the Carriage at the Races. the flaneur and the passing glance.
-Mademoiselle Fiocre in the Ballet La Source (1868). Famous dancer.
-The Orchestra Pit (1872) - anonymous dancers, with portraits of male musicians.
Advent of footlights - scenery was designed to be entirely illusory, grab audience
attention. House lights would never be turned down, so audience members spent a

great deal of time looking to see who else was there. Ballet represented through its
pieces, its elements that create its illusion. The illusion deconstructed.
- Rehearsal on the Stage. (1874) Backstage view - only members of The Jockey Club
(elite club) had access to backstage/rehearsals. Uncertain perspective.viewpoint perspectival location might not be literal, but rather Degas taking painterly license.
-Ballet seen from a Loge (1879)/Cassatts Woman with Opera Glasses (1880) - theme
of sightseeing and seenness. visual thrills.
-Dance class (75-6)/Foyer de la Danse (72) - playing with perspective, representation of
space. truncated perspective. figures as pawns/elements in his composition - they are
not really his subjects. choreography of painting.
rpoussoir - elements in paintings that forcibly keep the viewers out
-14 yr old dancer. Original in wax and materials - connection to mme toussauds?
Darwin and racialism -monotypes (single print) - would do a second pressing with residual ink, color/paint in
remainder.
-Miss Lala at the Cirque Fernando (1879) - model/entertainer - black woman (much
more obvious in pastel).
-Absinthe, or At the Cafe (1876). Journalistic/quotidian scene. Composition is such that
we are sitting at the table.
-The Pedicure 1873
-The Ironers (1884) prostitutes?
-Frieze of Dancers (1880s) study. comp. to muybridge.

MONET And Impressionism 3/26

influence of peinture claire - painting on a light ground - luminosity. british watercolor
naturalism
monets contact with jongkind.
beginning career on beaches of normandy.
monet caricatures