The Stone Breakers (Blog Post 5)

The Stone Breakers, by Gustave Courbet, 1849

     Painted by Gustave Courbet, The Stone Breakers is one of the most important illustrations of poverty in art history.  Committed to the contemporary issues of the working class, Courbet rejected the current art style, known as Romanticism, in favor of Realism.  In fact, he is known as the father of Realism.  While Romanticism emphasized imagination and emotions, often depicting tragedies or the beauty of nature, Realism focused on observation and direct experience, only depicting what could actually be seen in the world.  Therefore, many realist paintings contained peasants and members of the working class.

     In 19th century France, breaking stones was a job reserved for the poorest of the poor.  This alone draw sympathy and compassion from the audience, but the ages of the figures make it even more heart wrenching.  One is an old man, exhausted and hopeless after decades of back breaking labor, while the other is a young man, fettered to his tedious, grueling job and destined to be just like the old man someday.

     If The Stone Breakers were a Romantic painting, the men would clearly be in agony, with dynamic poses, bright colors, and anguished expressions demanding the attention of the audience.  However, Courbet is a Realist, and therefore does none of these things.  He doesn't exaggerate, idealize, or romanticize their labor, preferring instead to convey the dull monotony of their profession through muted colors and relatively static positions.  Furthermore, the viewer is unable to see the men's faces, while the empty background and plain foreground leave them with nowhere else to look, forcing them to focus on the men and their poverty.
 
Finally, the size of the piece itself conveys a clear message.  The Stone Breakers is over 5 feet tall and 8 feet wide, a size that was reserved for portraits of the upper class.  By depicting poor people on such a huge scale, Courbet elevated the common people to the same level as the upper class, in addition to confronting society with the issue and destroying the notion that poverty "wasn't their problem".

Becky Reals