True to Life?

A witty photograph of people in a gallery. They obviously like the picture, and the woman in pink is bending forward (in exactly the same pose as the figure behind her!) to look at the label. What are they saying to each other? What might have made them like the picture in the first place? And what if there were no label there? This course is about our first responses to artworks of all kinds, before we know all the information. In the first hour of each class I will show pairs of related artworks and leave the rest to you; it is a class for discussion, rather than listening and taking notes.

Here is the painting in question, a fairly realistic depiction of a day at the beach. It's not contemporary, though, as you can tell from the clothing and the bathing machines at the water's edge. It is fun because it takes you back in time, and the details seem convincing. But it is timeless too, because that light and that sky could belong to any period; the picture has a bracing feeling that I trust we have all experienced. I think our two gallery visitors might agree it is very true to life. Beyond that, they might go in many possible directions. They might share their personal memories. They might speculate about the woman with the fan, her relationship to the man below, or why she is coming out alone. And if they were interested in art history, they might debate whether to call this an Impressionist painting, how it differs from more familiar artists, and so on. The label (for there is one) would tell them that it is an 1883 work by a minor German master called Franz Skarbina (1849–1910). But does this matter? Not much; the innocent eye often has the best insights.

I suppose this is a course about aesthetics, but not an academic one. Let's start with the idea that there is no wrong answer to the questions posed by a work of art; all the approaches I attribute to the women above are perfectly valid. But we will soon find that some kinds of answer deepen the discussion while others are dead ends. So it is a matter of criteria. At the start, I shall focus on only one: truth. People often say "It is so true to life!" as a term of approval, but there are different kinds of truth. Is the greater amount of detail in the Skarbina picture necessarily more satisfying than the Monet painting of a similar theme below? What does either one have that the other lacks? Monetary worth aside, which would you rather have on the wall of your living room?


Monet: Beach at Trouville (1870)	Franz Skarbina: Ladies' Bathing Place (1883)

This comparison is the start of one avenue that we shall explore in the course. If not in the details, where does the "truth" in the Monet lie—or is truth-to-life simply an irrelevant question to apply to it? If we move towards artists who are even less photographic, is there still some kind of truth that explains why we find one picture more satisfying than another? When truth ceases to be useful as a criterion, what can we use to replace it?

But we can look in the opposite direction too, towards photography, and painting that approaches photography in its realism. I won't explore this further here, but I will give you an example to ponder. Look at the image below for long enough to make up your mind about it, then click on it to reveal a slightly different version of the same subject (click again to restore). Does seeing the second image change what you feel about the first? And if painting can approach photography, can photography not also approach art?


	Gioacchino Passini

	In all the webpages for this course, a star at the bottom corner indicates an image that can be clicked on to reveal one or more comparisons below.


	Gioacchino Passini

	In all the webpages for this course, a star at the bottom corner indicates an image that can be clicked on to reveal one or more comparisons below.

I shall devote the first hour of each class to the visual arts, because images are easier to present than videos and text, and require less time to spark a discussion. In the second hour, however, I will invite you to explore similar themes in other media, such as film, theatre, and music. If there are texts to be read, I will send them out in advance; otherwise there will be no weekly handouts, as I wish the comparisons to come with the minimum of factual information. Once each session is over, however, I will post links to everything seen, heard, or read in class. Thank you for signing up! Roger.

1. Art and the Photograph	April 5

	RESOURCES

Two images either by, or inspired by, Edward Hopper. Which is the painting and which the photo? What details has the photographer, Richard Tuschman, altered? Does his version add anything to make the exercise worthwhile? Conversely, does the photograph change your appreciation of the painting? Would the photograph alone work for somebody who had never seen a Hopper painting?

The word "photographic" is often used as a synonym for "realistic," so it might be profitable to start with a comparison between actual photographs and painted art. We have seen one comparison with the Passini roses above, and this Hopper/Tuschman is another, though a rather curious example in which the photographer has set up his shot to reproduce a painting. In the first hour of the class we shall explore topics like the qualities one medium can provide that the other cannot, and whether a photograph can aspire to some of the non-realistic qualities of painted art. The second hour will extend this exploration to film, both narrative and documentary.

2. In the Blink of an Eye	April 12

Claude Monet	RESOURCES

Two Monet paintings of the seafront at Trouville. What are the differences between them? Can you call either of them realistic? How might they differ from a photograph of the same scene? What can you tell about the weather on each day? How do they fit into the comparison between the other Monet picture and the Skarbina above? If you were making a Ken-Burns-type documentary about French middle-class life in the 1870s, how useful would either of these pictures be as a social record?

This class will ask to what degree French Impressionism is a realistic movement. Impressionist paintings such as the two above are obviously different from photographs, and yet the question "Is it true to life?" is still a useful one; you just have to look for different kinds of truth. Rather surprisingly, some Impressionists such as Edgar Degas were also photographers, and the composition and esthetic of many paintings by him and his colleagues are influenced by photography. In the second hour, we shall explore whether Impressionist qualities can be found in either the music or poetry of the time.

3. Victorian Realism	April 19

George William Joy	RESOURCES

Two later Victorian depictions of passengers in a London omnibus. Are both equally detailed? What is the nature of the detail in each case? Does one look more modern than the other? Why has each artist chosen that particular selection of passengers? Do any of the faces look like portraits? What do you think is the purpose of each painting—or if you like, does either have a message? And again, are these images you could use in a Ken Burns documentary?

Social realism is a continuing thread in European art, especially of the more popular kind, from the mid-nineteenth century well into the twentieth. Much of it is dark, or sentimental, or intended for moral edification, so I thought I'd start with something less gloomy! However, the skill of even the minor Victorian painters is remarkable, as is their ability to address a wide public (via cheap reproductions) and treat often serious issues through simple narrative. In the second hour, we shall look at similar impulses in the novel.

Two depictions of Napoleon. What is the Emperor's attitude in each case? Which picture seems the most realistic in terms of its detail and setting? Which seems the more psychologically realistic? What image does each artist try to convey? Are both images sanctioned by the sitter? Given that Napoleon ruled France between 1804 and 1815 (with a brief hiatus) what is the likely date of each version?

5. The Way We Live	May 3

Pieter de Hooch	RESOURCES

Two Dutch interiors involving a woman drinking wine. What are the similarities and differences between the settings in each picture? Between the lighting in each? What is going on? What difference does it make that the woman is in profile in one picture, and has her back to us in the other? Does it make a difference that there are four figures in one, versus only two in the other? Does either picture imply a story? Does either carry a moral lesson?

Surely no society has been so obsessed with the detailed representation of its everyday life as we find in 17th-century Holland. And no artist so miraculous as Vermeer in transforming the mundane into the timeless. In the first hour, we shall compare iconic Vermeer works with treatments of similar subjects by his contemporaries, and investigate what kind of stories or moral message might lie behind them. In the second hour, we shall read a selection of poems, mostly modern, that deal with everyday life.

6. Imported Reality	May 10

Tracey Emin	RESOURCES

Two artworks involving actual beds. Does either invite you to consider the experience of being in bed, and if so, why? What is the role of the artist in each case? In contrast to the highly organized artworks in the previous class, what is the purpose of the apparent randomness here? If you were to write a detailed description of each work, to what extent could it serve as a substitute for the original, if that were lost or destroyed?

With this last class, we look at a different approach to realism, where actual objects are incorporated into an artwork. We get it, at least in a virtual sense, in the detailed trompe l'oeuil 19th-century paintings of things like letter racks. We get it in the Cubist assemblages of Picasso and Braque, using things like scraps of newspaper and chair-caning. We get it in the Surrealist collages of Max Ernst and others. And it would become a staple of Dada and Pop Art. In the second hour, we look at a different kind of imported modernity, in which Shakespeare and opera are staged amid the realistic trappings of contemporary life.

4. Catching a Likeness	April 26

David (left) and Delaroche (right)	RESOURCES

OSHER AT JHU, COLUMBIA CAMPUS : THURSDAY MORNINGS, APRIL 5 TO MAY 10, 2023

Photo by Stefan Draschan