Ambiguity In Art

The crisis of questioning the status quo of art academies plagued artists and was represented in their art. Artists such as Gustave Courbet was conflicted in his relationship with the art academies claiming that he was sent taught and believed that art was an individual activity. This idea is portrayed in his The Painter’s Studio: A Real Allegory Summing Up Seven Years of My Life as an Artist. While his painting portrayed the persona of abrasive, independent, and self-confident, Eugene Delacroix commented that his art had a sense of ambiguity intertwined within.Édouard Manet’s Olympia was accepted by the 1865 Salon despite its quite scandalous subject. Similar to Courbet, Manet’s piece alluded to art past and present. Although critiques were
mostly negative, Jean Ravenel expressed a type of fondness for the style and the inertia is exhibited. Adolph von Menzel created The Flute Concert at Sanssouci Palace to show Friedrich the Great as versatile ruler. Deemed as a historical genre painting, the painting actually went on to be reinterpreted as a patriotic glorification of Germany’s past. Whether these works were purposefully created as a symbol of rebellion from the art academies, each in a way demonstrated the parting of the art academies and notable works.