Opening up to Reality
Carolus-Duran's first canvases reveal an attentive study of the work of Gustave Courbet who was one of the artists of reference for the young school whose painters were classified as "second generation realists". The first example of Courbet's influence on Carolus-Duran's painting is The Convalescent, the picture for which he was awarded the Wicar Prize, followed by The Sleeping Man, which confirmed Courbet's importance. In fact these two pictures are reminiscent of The Wounded Man, a self-portrait painted by Gustave Courbet between 1844 and 1854. Similarly, Courbet's influence is seen in the picture painted in Italy, The Murdered Man, in which Carolus-Duran gives a genre scene the dimensions of a historical picture.
In several of his canvases, Carolus combines his assimilation of the great masters with the realist aesthetic in vogue in the circles he frequented. Another example is the Portrait of Fantin-Latour and Oulevay which reveals the influence of Spanish painting and particularly of Ribera in the dark black clothes and backgrounds, but reinterpreted according to realist notions. The lessons of his youth endure, perceptible in the way he treats faces in the portraits that established his reputation; Carolus does not embellish them; the demands of truth and faithfulness to nature remain intact and the painter reflects the personality of his models.
This quest for reality led the young generation to the forest at Fontainebleau, a real open-air landscape studio. Carolus often did studies there during his stays between 1858 and 1873, and continued to do so throughout his career. He also painted the full-length portraits of the Barbey couple here, innkeepers at Chailly-en-Bière, in which the lessons of realism are discernible.
The landscape in the Museum of Indianapolis, A Walk in the Wood - Fontainebleau Forest, owes much in its design to the painters of the Barbizon school and its large format betrays the ambition of the young painter. His masterful treatment, particularly of the foliage and the vegetation, does not rule out some awkwardness: the opposition between the blurred foreground and the alert touch in the upper part of the picture which intensifies the conflict between the light and shade, betray hesitation. The introduction of a couple in modern dress into this landscape on the outskirts of Paris brings the painter closer to the future Impressionists and particularly Manet, who took pleasure in depicting the leisure activities of country folk.
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