The realist movement was a movement that appeared just after the romantic movement. This movement was spearheaded by Theodore Gericault and Eugene Delacroix. The romantic movement concentrated on paintings that were pleasing to the eye. Gustave brought a new approach.
The world of art and painting is as old as history. Since the earliest times, painting and art have dominated the ethos of man. Thus there are ancient cave paintings from prehistoric times to the modern art of the present era. One aspect that has dominated the art is painting a nude woman. This is one of the greatest gifts from God and obviously painters have tried to do justice to this aspect by painting nude women.

A look at nude paintings from almost 2000 years and even more, you can see that 99% of them were devoid of human hair. The women were presented as porcelain models that had no hair. Thus, Greek and Roman paintings, including those of Egypt and India, depicted women without hair. The famous paintings of the Greek era show the beautiful Greek goddesses as hairless beauties. Obviously this was something unreal and a new generation of painters in France in the 19th century took it upon themselves to bring realism to their paintings, one of these painters being Gustave Coubert (1819-77). Gustav was part of a new generation of painters who advocated a realistic approach to art. The realist movement in art owes much to him and to Eduard Manet, who in 1863 painted Olympia. This painting, when exhibited at the Paris art exhibition in 1863, required two guards to protect it.

What was the royalist movement? It was a movement that appeared just after the romantic movement. This movement was spearheaded by Theodore Gericault and Eugene Delacroix. The romantic movement concentrated on paintings that were pleasing to the eye. Gustave brought the realist movement where he painted nudes, landscapes, and still lifes seen through the eyes of man. This obviously required painting subjects that some considered vulgar. Gustave painted the harshness of life and also painted women as he saw them full of pubic hair. He questioned the ancient ethics of art.

In 1866, Gustave confronted the church and prudishness by painting one of his most notorious paintings in oil. Titled the Origin of the world. The painting is currently on display at the Musee d’Orsay, Paris. The painting is a close-up view of a naked woman sleeping on a bed. Gustave’s painting is part of what he believed: realism and can be called erotic. Gustave used a live model for this painting, a girl named Joanna Hiffernan. She previously had a love affair with the American painter James Whistler, but after this painting, Joanna and Whistler parted ways.

The 19th century was revolutionary as art took a U-turn. The new generation of painters began painting slums and poor neighborhoods as part of the realist movement. But we must give credit to Gustave Coubert for starting this movement. He is no longer here but he gave an important blow for art and the truth.