A ship in the Golden Horn of Istanbul, a panoramic market on the waterfront, scenes from Damascus and Turkey, and the ever-present seller of green watermelons.
realism
From the late 1850s he travelled extensively in Persia, Armenia, Turkey, Egypt and the Arabian Peninsula, painting detailed realist views of markets and more.
Start with genre paintings from the Dutch Golden Age, add Géricault’s ‘Raft of the Medusa’, Courbet and Millet’s social realism, Manet and Lhermitte and you’ve made Naturalism.
Themes of exhausted mothers with sick children, the tired out seamstress and her descent into prostitution, the failure of law enforcement, and documenting those living in Skagen.
In his later career he returned to rural themes, although his last major work showed Les Halles, the main market in Paris at the time.
A precocious artist whose Naturalist paintings showed the harsh realities of rural poverty and hard labour. A friend of Zola, he also painted leading figures in science.
From dice shooters in a rough tavern, through Bastien-Lepage’s Little Chimneysweep, to poverty in Catania, and destitution in Paris.
In narrative, including Degas’ ‘Waiting’, as a sign of wind, as an arc of colour, or simply to tell the viewer that it’s raining.
By the end of the 19th century, 80% of those in Europe lived in towns and cities, drawn there by the promise of material riches that were not available to them in the country. This new series explores what they faced.
From detailed realism in a Barbizon style around 1880, his paintings steadily filled with rich light, through Impressionism the 1890s.
The Eclectic Light Company 