Genre Painting
Guide to History, Types, Development, Famous Artists.
Visual Arts Guide

Genre Painting

In the history of art, the term 'genre-painting' (also called 'genre scenes or views') refers to pictures depicting situations and scenes of everyday life. Subjects typically include domestic settings, interiors, mealtimes, celebrations, tavern or peasant scenes, markets and other street scenes. In general, the key feature of a genre-painting is that the scene is presented in a non-idealized way, in contrast to the traditional classical approach of infusing scenes with heroic, noble or dramatic characteristics. Contrast for example the unvarnished characters in peasant scenes by Gustave Courbet, with the idealized street urchins portrayed by the Seville artist Murillo. The greatest exponents of genre painting were the Dutch Realist school, led by Jan Vermeer. For genre-works from Ireland, see Irish Genre Painters.

Note: Rather confusingly, the term 'genre' when used on its own, refers to any homogeneous category of painting, such as history painting, portrait art, landscape painting, still life or indeed genre-scenes.

Difference Between Genre Views, Landscapes and Still Lifes

When does a landscape become a genre painting, and vice versa? Its not easy to be precise, as the line between this type of art and other genres is often blurred. For example, the great French Realist Jean Francois Millet (1814-75) painted a number of rural scenes (eg. The Angelus) which could be interpreted as either landscapes or genre-paintings, or both. Likewise, a picture of an 'interior' - like Peter Vilhelm Ilsted's Interior (1896) - might be considered to be a still life or a genre scene.

Narrative As Well As Decorative

Many genre scenes were created and prized for their feel-good, decorative or nostalgic qualities, as well as the virtuosity of the artist. But (like still lifes) some genre works contained an allegorical moral tale. Sometimes this can only be deciphered by examining the symbolism on the canvas. In any event, contrary to the 'academic' view, still life paintings are perfectly capable of conveying moralistic messages, albeit composed in a more subtle form than 'history' paintings.

At the Moulin Rouge (1890) by the
Impressionist genre painter
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.

Emergence of Genre Paintings

Renaissance Art - upon which most of Western visual arts are based - was predominantly public art, commissioned by Popes, churches and secular leaders to inspire the masses with religious and moral values. Thus most artworks (frescoes, altar pieces, sculpture) were deliberately large-scale pictorial presentations of uplifting messages, easily viewable and comprehensible to spectators. The beautiful Italian churches provided plenty of display space, and the fine weather was ideal for the use of fresco paint.

Then in 1517 came the Reformation - the revolt of the Protestant countries like Holland, Germany and Flanders against the Church of Rome - with the result that religious or quasi-religious works of art abruptly declined in importance across much of Northern Europe. At the same time, Northern European artists because enthusiastic users of the new method of oil painting (more suited to the damper climate), which permitted greater accuracy and finer detail on the canvas.

These twin factors led to the emergence of small-scale genre-paintings (as well as interiors, still lifes and easel-portraits) which quickly became popular from 1600 among the merchants and political leaders of Holland and Northern Germany. Early examples of genre scenes include works by Marinus as well as: The Money Lender and his Wife (1514) by Quentin Massys, Peasant Wedding Feast (1566), and Peasant Dance (1568) by Pieter Bruegel the Elder.

True, genre-painting was not unknown in Italy - small touches of genre can be found in 14th century and 15th century Italian artworks (like those of the Venetian Vittore Carpaccio) - it was more background or context for the predominant religious themes on display. And even though it was developed somewhat by later Italians such as Caravaggio, Giuseppe Maria Crespi and Ceruti, it plays a minor role until the appearance of the 18th century Venetian artist Pietro Longhi (1702-1785).

In short, genre-painting grew up as an independent art form in cities and towns of Protestant Northern Europe. The first great exponents of genre painting were the 17th century Dutch Realist school whose foremost practitioner was the Old Master Jan Vermeer (1632-1675).

European Genre Painting (Outside Holland)

As explained, this form of painting initially took hold in Northern Europe (principally Holland), during the Baroque era of the seventeenth century. This was as a result of the Reformation (1517) which led to a decline in Church patronage for religious and other types of narrative painting. Nevertheless, once established by the Dutch Realists, the art form spread to Flanders, England, Spain, Italy and France, where it was developed by numerous artists of various schools.

Genre Versus History Scenes

In a sense, genre painting provided a counterpoint to, or at least a comparison with, the more refined types of academic art, such as history (istoria) or portrait paintings executed in the grand manner. Once the latter declined in popularity (as it did in the later 19th century), genre scenes lost some of their edge, and even (one could say) merged into the artistic melting pot of the 20th century, along with Expressionist, Cubist, Realist and other more contemporary art forms.

Genre Artists

Among the famous artists in Europe who painted genre scenes were: the Italian Pietro Longhi, the Frenchmen Jean Chardin, Jean-Francois Millet and Gustave Courbet, the English artists William Hogarth and Walter Sickert, along with the Camden Town Group, the Euston Road Painters and the New Realists.

In France, an early practitioner of genre painting was Louis Le Nain (c.1593-1648) in company with his brothers Antoine (c.1588-1648) and Mathieu (c.1607-77). They were known for their small-scale interior settings of dignified peasant groups. Their works include: A Landscape with Peasants (1640) and Four Figures at a Table (c.1643). They were followed by Jean Chardin (1699-1779), one of the greatest 18th century artists, who produced a number of highly polished still-lifes and genre views with incredible reality, such as Soap Bubbles (1734), The Young Schoolmistress (c.1735), The Draughtsman (1737), The Governess (1739), and The Messenger (1739). His contemporary Jean-Baptist Greuse (1725-1805) specialized initially in pictures with sentimental moral narrative, such as Broken Eggs (1756), Le Geste Napolitain (1757), Boy with Lesson Book (1757) and The Laundress (1761).

Although Italy remained strongly influenced by the Grand Humanist traditions of the Renaissance, genre painting finally emerged in the 18th century, not least because of the Venetian artist Pietro Longhi (1702-85) who devoted a lifetime to it, portraying scenes of aristocrats and low-life in pictures like: Theatrical Scene (1752, and The Display of the Elephant (1774).

In England, an early exponent of genre painting was William Hogarth (1697-1764). His scenes of contemporary life, such as the series The Rake's Progress and Marriage a la Mode, depicts human behaviour with a clear moral message. By comparison, the paintings of Thomas Gainsborough (1727-88) apply a refined veneer to scenes of bourgeois rural gentility and satisfaction.

Nineteenth Century Genre Paintings

As religious and historical painting declined during the 19th century, more and more artists sought inspiration from the everyday lives of ordinary people. Realists, especially in France, went further by placing their everyday genre scenes on large scale canvases - previously reserved for more highbrow or refined history works everyday life of ordinary people.

In England, one of the most popular genre painters of 19th century was William Powell Frith (1819-1909). Admired by the Queen, Frith was a chronicler of Victorian life at the races, at the seaside and when travelling, in paintings like Derby Day (1858) and The Railway Station (1862). By comparison, Walter Sickert (1860-1942) - the leading British painter of the Impressionist and Post-Impressionist age - selected more humble subjects, such as street scenes, cheap interiors, prostitutes and musical halls, portraying them without glamour in a palette of muddy colours.

In France, in the first half of the 19th century, the two great genre painters were the Realists Jean-Francois Millet (1814-1875) and Gustave Courbet (1819-77). While the farmer's son Millet concentrated on scenes of rural France in which he depicted the hard but dignified life of the peasantry in works like The Gleaners (1857) and The Walk to Work (1851), Courbet widened the focus to include scenes from all provincial life: his most famous works being The Stone Breakers (1849), A Burial at Ornans (c.1850), and The Painter's Studio (1855). Honore Daumier (1808-79) the acute observer and caricaturist of the French Second Empire, used prints, watercolours and sketches to record the everyday lives of men and women. Among his huge number of works are: The Laundress (1860) and The Third Class Carriage (1864).

One could argue that genre painting reached its apogee during French Impressionism. Aside from plein-air purists, most Impressionists focused on everyday scenes of Parisian or provincial life. These beautiful Impressionist genre paintings include: The Bar at the Folies-Bergere (1882) by Manet; The Boating Party by Pierre Renoir; Pictures of French ballet dancers as well as his other pictures including Nude Wiping Her Left Foot (1886) and The Absinthe Drinker (1876) by Edgar Degas; Women in the Garden (1867) by Claude Monet; Sunday afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jette (1886), and Bathers at Asnieres (1884) by Georges Seurat; and Henri Toulouse Lautrec's night club scenes like At the Moulin Rouge (1892). In addition, little known masterpieces include: In the Garden (1894) by Edouard Vuillard; A Country Brasserie, Brannenburg Bavaria (1894) by Max Liebermann; and Interior (1896) by Peter Vilhelm Ilsted.

Twentieth Century Genre Paintings

During the earlier part of the 20th century, artists of various schools continued to produce genre scenes of a high quality, ranging from quiet pictures such as: Interior with a Girl at the Clavier (1901) by Wilhelm Hammershoi; The Cafe Royal in London (1912) by Sir William Orpen; and Flag over the Town Hall (1924) by Maurice Utrillo; to richer works like Dinner Table/Harmony in Red (1908) by Henri Matisse; Girls from Dalarna Having a Bath (1908) by Anders Zorn; and bold Cubist and Expressionist masterpieces like: Les Demoiselles D'Avignon (1907) by Pablo Picassco; Berlin Street Scene (1913) by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner; and Otto Dix: Pimp With Prostitutes (1922). Other unique art styles emerged, as in the example of LS Lowry, Coming from the Mill (1930). In addition, specific genre schools emerged, like the London-based movements: the Camden Town Group and the Euston Road Painters.

The later part of the twentieth century and early 21st century has witnessed a rise in stylistic abstraction degrading genre art in the process. Edward Hopper (1882-1967) is a rare exception, with masterpieces like Nighthawks (1942).

• For more about the different types of painting (portraits, landscapes, still-lifes etc) see: Painting Genres.
• For details of landscape and portraiture in Ireland, see: Irish Art Guide

• How to Update This Mini Review of Genre Painting

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