A Comparative Analysis of Gustave Courbet’s ‘A Burial at Ornans’ and Édouard Manet’s ‘Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe’

Posted on May 24, 2024 in Arts and Humanities

Gustave Courbet’s A Burial at Ornans

FC – Formal Context

  • Name: The Burial at Ornans
  • Author: Gustave Courbet
  • Clients: –
  • Date: 1849
  • Relation to Conjuncture: It was presented to the living room, along with others, as “masons,” which created much scandal. Years later, it was rejected; however, this work started the Realist movement.
  • Style: Realism
  • Original Location: The Salon of 1850
  • Current Location: Musée d’Orsay, Paris

D – Descriptive Analysis

  • Medium: Oil on canvas
  • Size: Large
  • Short Description: Represents the moment when attendees at a funeral in the author’s hometown are preparing to say farewell to the deceased.
  • Support: Canvas
  • Figurative/Non-figurative: Figurative

AF – Formal Analysis

  • Drawing: Realistic
  • Color: Color
  • Light: Natural light; places the scene at dawn and serves to give corporeality to the figures.
  • Compositional Elements: Symmetry; disorder; verticality
  • Compositional Lines: —
  • Perspective: Linear perspective; anatomy and proportions are natural in every box, except on the left side, where it is believed the figures are lower than reality.
  • Expression: The faces show intense pain and sadness for the dead; some participants show their tears.
  • Time: Medium
  • Color: Very limited color range to increase the drama; predominance of black, broken only by white, red, and ochre to brownish.
  • Brushwork: Loose, pasty
  • Pictorial Center: The left box, where we find the procession with the priest and a man crouched.
  • Planes: Two planes: 1st plane – people, and 2nd plane – the cliff with the clouds.
  • Clothing: Most were dressed in black for mourning, except those on the left side, who wear whites and reds. They are dressed as for burials of the period.
  • Movement: Balanced, calm, and shows rationality, despite the sadness and tears.
  • Rhythm: The figures’ positions create a sense of rhythm.
  • Real/Surreal/Effective: Real
  • Details/Secondary Elements: There are few details; we highlight two: the cross and the dog at the edge of the pit; shows many details of nature, such as the cliffs.

IMCI – Meaning, Context, and Influence

  • Relation to Other Works by the Author: Along with The Painter’s Studio (or The Artist’s Studio), it was rejected by the Paris Exhibition of 1850.
  • Relation to Other Works of the Period or Style: Shares similarities with The Gleaners by Millet and The Vicaria by Fortuny.
  • Style Depth: 1) Represents reality as it is, death as trivial. 2) The artist does not seek beauty. 2) Frames and casual character of the people and the humble class.
  • Innovation: Believed that the artist had a right to choose to know the details of nature capable of expressing what is essential. Initiates the Realist movement.
  • Influences: The Burial of the Count of Orgaz by El Greco and the works of Velázquez, who was influential in the beginning.

IIC – Iconographic and Iconological Interpretation

  • Genre: Genre painting (depicting everyday life)
  • Iconographic Signs: Represents a funeral ceremony, the people are from the author’s hometown.
  • Iconological Signs: He used as models family, friends, and neighbors. Hanging on the right side of the box are his three sisters: Juliette, Zoé, and Zélie. The characters of this collective portrait were prepared without any hierarchy. The only goal of Courbet is represented by the burial of a peasant.

FIF – Function and Intention

  • Purpose: To challenge traditional art and social conventions; to initiate Realism.
  • Relation of the Work with its Time: Reflects the philosophical positivism of the time; frame similar to photography; reality is the center of social concerns.
  • Influence: Influenced Monet in his search for reality through studies on light and inspired a version of Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon.

Édouard Manet’s Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe (Luncheon on the Grass)

FC – Formal Context

  • Name: Luncheon on the Grass (originally titled Le Bain (The Bath))
  • Author: Édouard Manet
  • Clients: –
  • Relation to Conjuncture: –
  • Date: Second half of the 19th century (1863)
  • Style: French Impressionism
  • Original Location: Salon des Refusés (Salon of the Rejected). It was not accepted into the official Salon.
  • Current Location: Musée d’Orsay, Paris

D – Descriptive Analysis

  • Medium: Oil on canvas
  • Size: Large
  • Short Description: In a park in Paris, a group of people are conversing with each other. Two men are fully dressed, but the woman with them is naked. In the background, another scantily clad woman bathes in a stream. In the foreground are the woman’s clothes and the remains of a picnic breakfast.
  • Support: Canvas
  • Figurative/Non-figurative: Figurative

AF – Formal Analysis

  • Drawing: Realistic with some Impressionistic elements
  • Color: Color
  • Colors: Bright colors, applied in blocks without much blending. Predominant green.
  • Light: No traditional chiaroscuro; uses color to create lighting effects.
  • Brushwork: Light, fast, and visible
  • Compositional Elements: Slight asymmetry, disorder in the figures’ positions, balance between verticality (trees) and horizontality (humans).
  • Compositional Lines: Human pyramid in the foreground
  • Pictorial Center: The nude woman or the man’s hand on the right
  • Perspective: Breaks traditional perspective rules; the woman in the background seems to float and appears higher than she should. The distance is not blurred.
  • Planes: Three planes: 1) Food remains (repoussoir effect), 2) the main group, and 3) the background landscape.
  • Anatomy and Proportions: Generally accurate, according to aesthetic canons, except for the female anatomy, which is somewhat stylized.
  • Clothing: Contemporary fashion, typical of the Parisian bourgeoisie
  • Expression: Figures appear indifferent to each other. The nude woman stares directly at the viewer.
  • Movement: Minimal, balanced
  • Time: Medium
  • Rhythm: No strong rhythmic elements
  • Real/Surreal/Effective: Realistic except for the nude woman, which caused a sensation
  • Details/Secondary Elements: Not much detail overall, but some attention is paid to the food remains.

IMCI – Meaning, Context, and Influence

  • Relation to Other Works by the Author: Olympia (1863) also caused a scandal at the time, depicting a nude woman, an ordinary prostitute, who challenges the viewer with her gaze.
  • Relation to Other Works of the Period or Style: Shares similarities with Impressionist works like Bal du moulin de la Galette by Renoir and Impression, Sunrise by Monet.
  • Style Depth: 1) Interest in light and color. 2) Perceptive art (based on visual experience) replaces conceptual art (idealized). 3) Landscape subjected to a process of abstraction. 4) Importance of water and the effects it causes in light. 5) Predominant color over drawing. 6) Colors are not mixed on the canvas.
  • Innovation: Breaks with traditional pictorial techniques. Uses bold colors, rejects chiaroscuro, and depicts unrelated figures in a seemingly casual composition.
  • Influences: Japanese woodblock prints (flat colors), Diego Velázquez

IIC – Iconographic and Iconological Interpretation

  • Genre: Genre painting (depicting everyday life)
  • Iconographic Signs: Represents a seemingly casual picnic in a park in Paris, but the presence of the nude woman disrupts the typical genre scene. Inspired by two paintings of mythological themes: Titian’s Pastoral Concert and Giorgione’s The Judgement of Paris, both of which feature nude women alongside clothed men in natural settings.
  • Iconological Signs: Manet subverts the traditional use of mythology in art. His figures are ordinary Parisians, which shocked contemporary audiences. The painting’s modernity is further emphasized by its loose brushwork and unconventional composition. Manet used his brother, future brother-in-law, and favorite model as models for the painting.

FIF – Function and Intention

  • Purpose: To explore new artistic paths and challenge the conventions of academic painting.
  • Relation of the Work with its Time: Reflects the changing social landscape of Paris, with the rise of parks and leisure activities. The art world was undergoing significant changes, with the Salon system being challenged by independent exhibitions. The theory of color by chemist Michel Eugène Chevreul influenced Manet and other artists.
  • Influence: Considered a pivotal work in the development of Impressionism. It had a profound influence on Pablo Picasso, who created several variations on its theme.