Possibilities and Victory

What another fast week! I've been on my toes trying to keep up with everything! We finished painting Victory and its looks amazing! And we have almost finished Possibilities! Possibilities has been a fun show to work on, and I've been able to take a biggish role on the direction of the look as Jude and Rosé where finishing off Merry Wives of Windsor.

Notable Painters in the Realism Movement

Notable Realist painters of the 19^th Century

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• Gustave Courbet, 10 June 1819 – 31 December 1877
  
• Most notable painting: Burial at Ornans (1849-50)

• Jean-François Millet, October 4, 1814 – January 20, 1875
  
• Most notable painting: The Gleaners (1857)

• Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, July 16, 1796 – February 22, 1875
  
• Most notable painting: Souvenir de Mortefontaine (1864)

• Édouard Manet, 23 January 1832 – 30 April 1883
  
• Most notable painting: Le Dejeuner sur l'herbe (1863)
  
• Ilya Repin, 5 August 1844 - 29 September 1930
• Barge Haulers on the River Volga 1870 -1873

• Jules Breton, 1 May 1827 – 5 July 1906

• Most notable painting: The Songs of Lark (1844)

Source:

Nineteenth Century Art: A critical History - Stephen Eisenam and Thomas Crow

Gustave Courbet

I think it would be wrong not to do a post about Gustave Courbet when researching into Realism. Courbet, led the movement in the 19^th and believed that ‘the only possible source for a living art is the artists own experience'

Oil and Opera

There hasn't been much production work this week - just the odd bits and bobs to do for Merry Wives of Windsor and Victory. Therefore we were able to do personal projects in the free time we had.

Bo Barlett, Self Portrait 1996

I decided to start painting a portrait that Gary has asked me to do for a leaving present. It is a self portrait by an american artist called Bo Barlett. As I have never worked with oil paints I thought I would try and use them to challenge myself.

Under Layer done in Acrylics

I was pretty nervous when I started to use the oil paints at first, however I am really enjoying them and much prefer them to acrylics. They give a nicer high quality finish, blend really easily and if you make a mistake it's much more forgiving then acrylics as it takes forever to try. I've only worked on it for two days so still have a bit to go!

Stage I am at so far

We also had a paintcall on Friday nights, we got a lot done but there was a few things in the list we didn't manage to do. I have to say the set looks pretty amazing, I think it is one of my favourite designs I have worked on during my 3 years at RCS.

Merry Wives of Windsor

Peredvizhnikia

Peredvizhnikia, alson known as ‘The Wanderers’ were a group of Russian realist artist who went against classical academy training and formed an artist’ cooperative. They created the Association of Traveling Art Exhibits to bring the Arts to the masses and educate ordinary people throughout Russia to appreciate Art.

Victory

Victory Model Piece

Can't believe the first week has all ready finished! We have been working on 'Victory' which is one of the shows for The Tron Theatre. My good friend Sophie Martin is the designer and I have had a really great time working on the set.

MACCT

Well the Easter Holidays just flew by! I can't believe now I only have 17 days until I have finished all my credits for this Academic Year ... freaking out!

Anyways I'll blog about my freak out after I've updated what I've been up to!

Jean-Francois Millet

Jean-Francois Millet (1814-1875) was one of the founders of the Barbizon School and was part the Realistic movement and Naturalism. He was a son of farmer and is known for painting the scenes of everyday farming life. Despite living with landscape painters of the Barbizon painter, he preferred to paint the ordinary lives of the peasant workers, showing their hardship in rural society and everyday life.

Characteristics of the Realism Movement

Young Ladies of The Village 1852, Gustave Courbet

Subject Matters:

• Rural and Urban working class life
• Scenes of street life
• Scenes of cafes
• Frank approach to the body, nudity and sensual subjects

Source:
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/rlsm/hd_rlsm.htm

Merry Wives of Windsor

So my next disaster was wallpapering the Second Angled wall. I had another challenge to face because there was two walls it meant my wall paper had to match up with the first wall. Once again I had to use maths and it took for ages. However, once Rosé and I did all the problem solving the wall papering went really quick and the overall finish to the walls ended up looking fab.

The Gauze

Well I have to admit that I have been very lazy for not blogging all through the production of Merry Wives of Windsor which is the summer Opera for this year. Cordelia Chisholm is the designer again, I love her designs they are so beautiful and elegant (she is also from Motley!) So I'm going to make up for it now!

Carrousel

Carrousel has to be one of the most stress free productions I have ever worked on. So hats of to my friend and head scenic artist of this production, Rosé Sims!

Realism in Theatre and Opera

Realism in theatre was a general movement during the 19^th century, which aimed to show ordinary life on sage through text and performances. It was similar to the ‘naturalism’ movement and focused on everyday drama, normal speech, and mundane settings.

The Origins of Realism

Before realism, many art schools such as the Royal Academy believed that Art should be informative, morally uplifting, sophisticated and beautiful, all inspired by the Classical tradition. However, during the 19^th century, the world was changing at a fast pace, countries throughout Europe where wanting a revolution, the Industrial revolution had already sparked a modern era with lighting, technology, food and transportation. Artists and sculptors no longer wanted to make Art praising the Classical era or biblical stories, instead they wanted to create art which related to the present, their own perceptions in life and their contemporary environment. A new artistic movement was born, Realism, lead by Gustave Courbet who believed if he could not see something, he would not paint it and instead his art would have a social consciousness which would portray the real world, in with no fabrications or longing for the past.

Biblical Art - Leonardo da Vinci, The Last Super 1495-1498

Bonjour, Monsieur Courbet 1854

Sources:
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/rlsm/hd_rlsm.htm
 

http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/glossary/realist-movement

Realism

In a nutshell Realism was the mid 19th century European art and Literature movement that was stems from the 1848 French Revolution. The movement was a reaction against Romantic and Classical idealisation, and favoured them of everyday life and ordinary social settings.



 Jean Francois Millet Sheperdess with her Flock

 

Source:

 

http://www.nga.gov/collection/sfp/noflash/realism/1941_6_1.htm