Realism
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Glasgow Museums has an important collection of some 70 oils and watercolours and around 120 prints by nineteenth century French artists associated with Realism. Realism is the term given to artists who chose to paint subjects from everyday life in a vigorous and naturalistic way. The main artists represented in the collection include François Bonvin, Gustave Courbet, Honoré Daumier and Théodule Ribot. One of the first purchases for the collection was of Jules Bastien-Lepage’s Poor Fauvette, 1881. A contemporary of the Realists and the Impressionists, Bastien’s naturalist style had a powerful influence on Scottish art in the late nineteenth century, particularly that of the Glasgow Boys. The collection also holds the important and beautiful Baskets of Flowers, 1863 by Courbet. William Burrell favoured realistic paintings with their dark and earthy colours and purchased groups of work by Bonvin, Courbet, Daumier and Ribot. The Realist works range from Daumier’s small The Print Collector, 1860–63 to Courbet’s monumental The Charity of a Beggar at Ornans, 1868. Other important Realist paintings in Burrell’s collection include Bonvin’s Still life with Game, 1874 and Ribot’s figural works, The Accountant, about 1878 and The Studious Servant, about 1871.
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