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The Stonebreakers

Decent Essays

In the twentieth century, the views of orthodox Marxism spiked a discussion that addressed the socioeconomic contrast between art history and social art history, revolutionizing the process of how art history was researched and interpreted. Until this time, Marxists believed that traditional art historians merely touched surface of the artwork’s background by identifying the artist, the medium, the time period it was created in, and how the piece was a product of its society. From there, they come to a conclusion as to why the details in the paintings hinted toward these cultural normalcies and traditions of whatever specific society they were researching into. However, Marxist art historians dug much deeper than that, researching particular cultural customs and …show more content…

Unlike other paintings of this time, this image was not meant to boost the morale of hard work as much as it was used to depict the affliction of the unappreciated middle-class people of 1850’s France. This concept was apparent in its muted tones, lackluster setting with little atmospheric perspective, and lack of identity in both of the figures, allowing them to be John Does in a world of other middle class workers who dreamt of their own “ideal democratic public” (Marxism and the Social History of Art). This idea was laid out in T.J. Clark’s book, On the Social History of Art, specifically dedicated to Courbet, which was entitled Image of the People:
Owing to the extensive use of machinery and to the division of labour, the work of the proletarians has lost all individual character, and, consequently, all charm for the workman. He becomes an appendage of the machine, and it is only the most simple, most monotonous, and most easily acquired knack, that is required of him. (Life

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