Juste milieu, biedermeier, photo PDF

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JUSTE MILIEU, BIEDERMEIER, AND DAUMIER Week 5

Art in Theory Reading o Thomas Couture (1815-1879) from Conversations on Art Methods - Best known for two things: his large painting Romans of the Decadence, the sensation of the Salon of 1847, and the fact that Manet studied at his atelier between 1850 and 1856. - Couture was a prominent figure at the École des Beaux-Arts and his studio was wellattended. However, divisions were caused among his students during the next decade by his identification with the eclecticism of the juste milieu: the attempt to compromise between Classicism and Romanticism in the name of continuing the academic ideal. - His book remains a comprehensive statement of the academic approach to art at the moment when it was beginning to disintegrate. - “…the art of drawing surpasses everything else, and that the qualities of color and light are only secondary to it.” - He believed that “fine colors” came from a better use of them, not the quality of the paint. Also believed that artists should try as much as possible to use their colors pure, without mixing – never go beyond three. - “Knowing how to paint and to use one’s colors rightly has not any connection with originality. This originality consists in properly expressing your own impressions.” Chu Reading and Lecture Notes - Juste milieu began as a political term in 1830 when a new king, Louis-Phillipe, began to rule with a compromise government – juste milieu, “meaning middle of the road” or “compromise.” This government tried to bring together the conservative old government with the bourgeoisie liberals. The church and aristocracy also opposed the idea of capitalism. - The Revolution of 1830 ushered in Louis-Phillipe, a member of the branch of Bourbons known as Órleans. His downfall was caused by his government’s failure to attend to the needs of the lower classes. He did not reign until he died, like other monarch. Another revolution occurred in 1848. - This term came to be applied to the fine arts. Compromise between the academic and conservative with the Romantic. In the space between Classicism and Romanticism operated the doubters, those who were hesitant to go to extremes and preferred to take a safe middle course. Their artistic eclecticism, that is their selective appropriation of what appeared best in both styles, seemed to parallel the juste milieu policy of the July Monarchy government. o Dante and Virgil Encountering the Shades of Francesca da Rimini (1855, copy of 1835 painting) // Scheffer // Juste Milieu - Scheffer was born in Holland and came to France as a young man. Studied at the atelier of Guerin and learned from the Romantics. - The subject of this painting comes from late Medieval Italian literature. It depicts the story of a love affair that transgressed the moral code and they were damned to hell. This painting shows the Romantic interest in the dark and mysterious. But while it is very dark, it is not so dark that we cannot tell what the narrative is about – compromise between Romantic (narrative) and Classical (figures). But it is important to note that not all artists compromised in the same way. - Another Romantic quality is the manipulation of subject matter – Dante and Virgil did not live at the same time. However, there are also Classical references in the idealization of the human figures. - The large scale of this painting is Romantic – ignoring the hierarchy and expected size. This is the size of a history painting, but not a history painting. o The Romans of the Decadence (1847 S) // Couture // Juste Milieu - Couture attended the École des Beaux-Arts and competed for the Prix de Rome, but did not win, although he thought his piece was the best. Couture was so discouraged that the panel chose to give the prize to an older man, whom they thought wouldn’t be able to compete

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again due to the age limit. This made him antagonistic towards the École and the Academy, as many juste milieu artists were. Many of them also never made it into the Academy. - There are many classical references in this painting – subject, drawn from Ancient Roman culture, monumental scale, architecture, space, and classicizing of figures depicting ideal human beauty. - This is not a specific event, but instead, depicts the Romans as sensual taking part in this orgy. This is a moralizing image that reveals what happens to empires – they become immoral. Just as the Roman Empire fell because of the decadence of its ruling class, so France was suffering because of the excesses of its rich and powerful bourgeoisie. - The clothed upright men serve as a contrast to the rest of the figures who are in control of their faculties. - Couture did not bring this painting up to the degree of finish that the Academy expected. Instead, he looked to Northern Renaissance artists of the 17th century, such as Frans Hals. - Artists of the Academy were taught to The contour lines and shadows were normally covered, but Couture did not do this, instead he created his own technique. - Couture wrote about his technique, which was rare, because most artists did not want to share their techniques with others. He even opened his own atelier and intended to rival the École des Beaux-Arts, showing his antagonism towards the École. - His artistic style can be seen as a compromise because he brings aspects of his academic training, but does not accept everything. He also challenges the notion of finish. Biedermeier - In the 1830s, even more than in France, the middle class in Germany developed a culture of its own, distinct from the official one promoted by the country’s various rulers. This German bourgeois culture became known as Biedermeier. - The term is derived from the name of a fictitious poet, Gottlieb Biedermeier, whose poems appeared in a well-known satirical newspaper in Munch in the mid 1850s. “Bieder” means plain, solid, and unpretentious and “meier” refers to an administrator of an estate, that is, a man who has to work for a living but who earns his money with his brains, not with his hands (like a peasant), even suggests the middle class. So, “biedermeier” = un-pretentious middle class. - Biedermeier culture took German Romantic ideas and toned them down to suit a middle-class mentality. Where the Romantics had celebrated profound, extreme emotions, Biedermeier culture embraced sentimentality. - Unlike Romanticism, which put a premium on individualism, Biedermeier culture emphasized community. - Biedermeier made art more comfortable and accessible to the middle class. The term describes the art and the people it was intended for. Granite Bowl in the Pleasure Gardens of Berlin (1831) // Hummel // Biedermeier - Biedermeier paintings depicted not only the domestic life of the bourgeoisie but also its outdoor activities, in both the city and countryside. - This painting depicts the gardens in front of the royal palace in Berlin (now destroyed). The enormous bowl was one of a series of civic improvements carried out in the city before it was lowered into position, when it was still an object of curiosity and wonder – passersby are delighted to see their forms reflected, upside down, in the shiny surface of the highly polished granite. - Civic and aristocratic proximity can be seen. These gardens were for the enjoyment of citizens, but the middle-class in particular, because the upper-class had their own gardens and the working-class didn't have the leisure to visit.

Hummel’s painting is the perfect image of an orderly bourgeois society, in which the dual authority of state and church guarantees its citizens peace and prosperity. There is a strong sense of order, seen in the single uniformed guard. View from the Embankment of Lake Sortedam (1838) // Købke // Biedermeier - By the Danish painter Købke, this painting shows two women standing on a landing plank. The narrative is rather obvious, not sublime, nor beautiful, nor Romantic. While the painting recalls the work of Friedrich, particularly in the use of the rückenfigur, it is more mundane. The figures on the dock seem related to the figures on the boat and to the far off city, but this is clearly not the vast, untamed nature of the Romantics, but nature domesticated and civilized. - This is a more middle-class view of figures in a landscape – Biedermeier. o Daumier and Lithography - Daumier was the leading journalistic illustrator of his time. He also became a painter later on in his life, after he had already created a name for himself in the world of printmaking. - In the 19th century, the most popular printmaking method was lithography. It was invented to fill a need to create a printmaking process that was quicker and less work than intaglio. It also offered more possibility for continuous tone, moving from light to shade seamlessly. The process depended on a type of stone that was very porous, but very heavy. This stone was very solid, but it was reliable and even reusable. The lithographic process reversed images. - Printmaking at this time was primarily made for visual communication. o Rue Transnonain, 15 April 1834 (1834) // Daumier - Not all Daumier’s political lithographs are in a satirical vein. In the spring of 1834 there was great unrest in Paris, fueled by secret republican and socialist societies that opposed the July Monarchy regime. The government sent in troops to end riots that had broken out in the poorer sections of Paris. On April 15 a rioter hiding in a tenement house on Rue Transnonain shot a popular army officer. To avenge him, his soldiers went through each house on the street and killed everyone. - Daumier’s print shows the domestic environment, suggesting violence in the over-turned chair and corpses on the floor. Two of the three figures are partly shown, but man in the center is the focus of the print. He has fallen on his dead child. We can see a family lineage. - This haphazard, unorganized setting suggests an objective, un-biased depiction that is not theatrical or elegant. - Daumier was able to make a range of tones by lithographic means – varied/ atmospheric quality of the shadows. He also emphasizes contour, showing that he is exploring all elements of lithography. - This is a conventional image – no one at the time would have seen it as high art, but that doesn’t mean that it couldn’t evoke emotion. - Lithography was associated with the common people because it was able to depict recent news much quicker. o The Small Inconveniences of the Omnibus (1856) // Daumier - Charivari = a humorous publication - Due to the trouble he got into from depicting the king as a pear and moron, Daumier was forced to concentrate on social rather than political satire. The new imagery focused on specific urban locales, such as the streets of Paris, the theater, or the Salon. - His style also evolved after 1835 – contours are a lot softer and sketchy compared to Rue Transnonain, but that doesn’t mean he spent less time. He can be seen as adapting his style to depict the change in society. -

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