Help me with my art homework please D:?

Question:Heya!

In art, we need to make a list of all the images, objects, people, background etc. that you see in each painting that we were given a picture of.

One of the pictures I have to review is the Bonjour, Monsieur Courbet painting, viewed here:

http://nga.gov.au/Exhibition/FrenchPaint...

I've described most of it except for the people. Are the men on the left upper-class, and the one on the right lower-class? I really don't know. :[

Thanks in advance!

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Heya!

In art, we need to make a list of all the images, objects, people, background etc. that you see in each painting that we were given a picture of.

One of the pictures I have to review is the Bonjour, Monsieur Courbet painting, viewed here:

http://nga.gov.au/Exhibition/FrenchPaint...

I've described most of it except for the people. Are the men on the left upper-class, and the one on the right lower-class? I really don't know. :[

Thanks in advance!

Let us allow Courbet to introduce himself to us by taking a careful look at his canvas Bonjour Monsieur Courbet, 1854. Courbet has painted himself on the right side. This self-portrait offers a number of significant clues as to how the artist thought of himself or perhaps how he wished to be seen. Rather like dressing in the morning or applying makeup (if you do), a self-portrait allows for a degree of control over the way that others perceive you. Courbet, then, is announcing who he is. Our job is to read the clues that this image offers. Looking closely at the painting, Bonjour Monsieur Courbet, please try to identify clues that tell us about who these three people are. Before you say to yourself, “I don’t know how to do this.” Remember that you are in fact an expert in reading the clues given by the people around you. Everyday you respond to body language, types and styles of clothing, facial expression, hand gesture, and environmental context. Those judgments are based upon your quick and quite sophisticated assessment of these sorts of clues. So look at these figures as actors on a stage or, as Courbet has suggested, people who you’ve run across as you stroll a country road. What do the costumes, the props, the interactions express?

Let’s begin with the costume. The man in the green jacket beside the dog is very well dressed indeed. But is the man in brown next to him? He wears a suit, but it is worn and ill fitting. His name is Calas and he serves the man beside him. The rich man in the center is flanked by both his servent Calas and his dog. Is Courbet trying to draw a connection between this man and the dog as well as a distinction between himself and the group of three? Do you see this as a chance meeting? And what of the angle of the heads? Look closely at the angle of Courbet’s head in relation to the angle of the servant.

The fellow in green is the son of a banker, an industrialist named Alfred Bruyas who is one of Courbet’s patrons and had himself been a painter. Bruyas has also removed his right glove, presumably to shake Courbet’s hand, Courbet has not returned the gesture. The patron and artist, though, are unfairly matched, since Bruyas is on Courbet’s turf. We know that Courbet came from Ornans in eastern France, quite outside of the orbit of Paris where Courbet had moved. But here, Courbet is self-sufficient, he carries on his back a folding easel that contains everything he needs (paint, canvas, palette, oil, turpentine, and rags) to paint directly from nature. Bruyas on the other hand must be trailed by a servant and carries only a small cane. One can imagine that Bruyas and his servant had been transported by the carriage in the background, ill-prepared as they are for the countryside, while Courbet had evidently been making his way on foot. The meeting between the two men represents the vitality of the countryside contrasted to the mannered style of the city. Even the different treatment of Bruyas and Courbet’s beards, though related to each man’s true likeness, further underscores the contrast of the stuffy aesthete to the “worker-artist.”

That works for me.

i agree with you.
the lower class man has a messier beard, while the men on the left have neater hair and beards. the man on the right has much simpler clothes and the other men wear neat, white gloves. also, the men on the left have canes that seem to be bought while the other man seemed to be using a stick.
hope that helps.