Courbet, Gustave
Courbet, Gustave
(1819-77). The painter Courbet started and dominated the
French movement toward
realism.
Art critics and the public were accustomed to
pretty pictures that made life look better than it was. Courbet, against much
opposition, truthfully portrayed ordinary places and people.
Gustave Courbet was born on June 10, 1819, to a prosperous farming family
in Ornans, France. He went to Paris in 1841, supposedly to study law, but he
soon decided to study painting and learned by copying the pictures of master
artists. In 1844 his self-portrait,
Courbet with a Black Dog,
was accepted by the Salon, an annual public exhibition of art
sponsored by the influential Royal Academy.
In 1848 a political revolution in France foreshadowed a revolution in art,
as people in the arts became more open to new ideas. Courbet's early work was
exhibited successfully in 1849. That same year he visited his family in the
countryside and produced one of his greatest paintings,
The Stone-Breakers,
followed by
Burial at Ornans in 1850. Both were quite unlike the romantic
pictures of the day because they showed peasants in realistic settings
instead of the rich in glamorized situations. In 1855 he completed a huge
canvas,
The Artist's Studio, and, when it was refused for an important
exhibition, Courbet boldly displayed his work himself near the exhibition
hall.
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A Burial at Ornans
1849-50 (130 Kb); Oil on canvas, 314 x 663 cm (10" 3 1/2" x 21' 9");
Musee d'Orsay, Paris
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The Painter's Studio; A Real Allegory
1855 (170 Kb); Oil on canvas, 361 x 598 cm (11' 10 1/4" x 19' 7 1/2");
Musee d'Orsay, Paris
Courbet visited Germany in 1856, where he was welcomed by the artistic
community. By 1859 he was the undisputed leader of the new generation of the
French realist movement. He painted all varieties of subjects, including
admirable portraits and sensuous female nudes but, most of all, scenes of
nature. His series of seascapes with changing storm clouds wafting overhead
begun in 1865 had a great influence on impressionist painters.
Politically a socialist, Courbet took part in some revolutionary
activities for which he was imprisoned for six months in 1871. He was also
fined more than he could pay, so he fled to Switzerland,
where he died in the town of La Tour-de-Peilz on Dec. 31, 1877.
Contributors:
Mark Harden and
Carol Gerten-Jackson.
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Portrait of Juliette Courbet as a Sleeping Child
1841 (110 Kb); Graphite on paper; Musee d'Orsay
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The Wounded Man
1844-54 (60 Kb); Musee d'Orsay
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La Mere Gregoire
1855-59 (40 Kb); Art Institute of Chicago
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Portrait of Gabrielle Borreau (The Dreamer)
1862 (60 Kb); Oil on paper mounted on canvas; Art Institute of Chicago
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A Thicket of Deer at the Stream of Plaisir-Fontaine
1866 (250 Kb); Oil on canvas, 174 x 209 cm (5' 8 1/2" x 6' 10 1/4");
Musee d'Orsay, Paris
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The Source
1868 (180 Kb); Oil on canvas, 128 x 97 cm (4' 2 1/2" x 3' 2 1/4");
Musee d'Orsay, Paris
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The Stormy Sea (or The Wave)
1869 (220 Kb); Oil on canvas, 117 x 160.5 cm (3' 10" x 5' 3 1/2");
Musee d'Orsay, Paris
© 20 May 1996,
Nicolas Pioch -
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