When writing this essay you should be able to provide specific facts about who is represented in each painting and things such as titles, artists, and dates.
How does these prints painting reflect some of the ways people thought in the 19th century? How might it relate to the excerpts out of Flaubert’s A Simple Heart and the excerpts you read from Hugo?
The lithograph, Rue Transnonain Le 15 Avril 1834 is a social commentary by Honore Daumier. This print depicts a scene after a people's demonstration where a government guard is shot and killed. The quards enter the building where they believe the shot came from and in retaliation slaughter everyone in the building including the sleeping family of father, mother, grandfather, and child. Many of Daumier's works were published in weekly satirial magazines, anti-monarchist pro-reblublican magazines, as well as the first daily newspaper illustrated with litographs.
ReplyDelete"The Stonebreaker" by Gustave Courbet portrays hardworking "everyday" people during the mid 1800's. Corbet's work showed his political commitment to the the poor and ordinary people during the Revolution of 1848.
Daumier's art relates to Victor Hugo's "Les Miserables" as Hugo tells of the people who are led by a red bearded man in the rise of the city during the French Revolution. The people yell, "Long live the Polytechnique! Long live the Republic!" The squardrons of the throne's soldiers gallop throught the town killing everyone in their path.The fighting begins with rocks and ends with gunfire.
Gustave Flaubert's "A simple Heart", one of my favorite readings in "Liaisons" relates to Corbet's "The Stonebreaker" as it tells the story of Felicite who lives her life in wanting nothing more than belonging and working at manual labor and as a nanny to "pay her way". She has had many trials and tribulations during her lifetime. Felicite is a very religious woman which helps her get through many heart breaks in her life. She is not a fighter but does the best to live life on life's terms. She was known to help the Polish refugees. Hope and unconditional friendship come to Felicite in the form of a parrot. As Felicite leaves this realistic life, she brings the parrot who has died through the gates of heaven with her. Quite the tear jerker! Laurie Ericson Art 103B