REALISM

Realism

Realism

Realism, in contrast to Romanticism, showed an objective, unemotional view of the world. The goal of Realist artists was to record an impartial view of the ideas of French society in the 19th century. The major contributor to the development of Realism was the social and political unrest in Europe in 1848. The French painters reacted to the three-day revolution in February of that year. At the end of the revolution, Louis-Philippe resigned, which led to several consecutive disorganized governments that attempted to lessen the severe unemployment problems. Realism began to depict ordinary workers and farming communities in scenes of everyday life. Realism is an issue that can play a prominent role in the way events can be presented.

Social realism, in art, describes both a specific stylistic approach and an overall attitude toward the subject. Social realism aims toward the not so lovely part of life. Its goal is not to amuse but to show the observer the evils of poverty, immorality and war. Social Realists believed that paintings should describe and express the people, their problems and their times.

Naturalism is an offshoot of realism. Although they are related, they are indeed different. Naturalism presents a deterministic view of man's life and actions, while realism is the way things appear or might appear to be. We see examples of naturalism in Stephen Crane's "The Open Boat" and also in his short story, "The Blue Hotel". "The Blue Hotel" is a story of three men who arrived at a hotel during a snowstorm. Mr. Scully, the owner, and his son Johnnie gladly accepted the men into the hotel. The men sat down to a game of cards with Johnnie and all was going well until one of the newcomers, a Swedish man, began to panic. He stood up and began saying that someone had died in the room that they had been in, and that he too will die in that very room. The other men looked at him as if he were crazy, yet he continued to cry out that he must leave before he gets killed. This man was determined that his fate was death in this house and had almost gone mad. That is when Scully came into the room, brought the Swede upstairs, gave him a drink, and calmed him down. When the Swede returned downstairs he was a completely different person. For he was afraid of the Westerners before he went up as he believed them to be bad and dangerous men, yet this was not the case upon his return. He now had no fear and his whole attitude changed. He demanded the men to play another round of cards and as he played he adopted the well hated fashion of board whacking. During the game he got up and yelled, "you are cheatin" at Johnnie. Johnnie denied this accusation and it caused the two men to go outside and fight. (Barrish, Phillip, 2001)

The term formalism applies to any type of artwork in which the ...