.The Stone Breakers
Gustave Courbet. 1849 C.E. (destroyed in 1945). France. Oil canvas
Gustave Courbet. 1849 C.E. (destroyed in 1945). France. Oil canvas
He attempts to be even-handed, attending to faces and rock equally. In these ways, The Stonebreakers seems to lack the basics of art (things like a composition that selects and organizes, aerial perspective and finish) and as a result, it feels more "real.”
Artist: Gustave Courbet
Date: 1849 (destroyed in 1945)
Medium: Oil on canvas
Movement: Realism
Context: Submitted to the Parisian Salon of 1850-1851 as a reaction to the labor unrest of 1848 (people had demanded better working conditions.) Emphasizes two figures, who will be poor their entire lives, to show the unforgiving passage of time and the lack of social mobility for people of the time.
Form: Large canvas sizes were usually reserved for important historical paintings; Courbet instead states the importance of the commonplace workers.
Content: Breaking stones down to rubble for pavement; theme of poverty; tattered, ripped, patched clothing; using hammers and smithing tools.
Function: To "consider two men breaking stones on the side of the highway...to meet the complete expression of poverty." To show poverty and the struggle of working-class peoples in Europe around 1850, especially given recent injustices and the fact that they were never portrayed in art.
