Gustave Courbet (1819–1877)
Le Rêve or Le Rêve de jeune fille/ The hammock, c. 1844
Oil on canvas
Height: 70.5 cm (27.7 in); Width: 97 cm (38.1 in)
Kunst Museum Winterthur
Jean Désiré Gustave Courbet (10 June 1819 – 31 December 1877) was a French painter who led the Realism movement in 19th-century French painting. Committed to painting only what he could see, he rejected academic convention and the Romanticism of the previous generation of visual artists.
Attributed to Gustave Courbet
Woman with a basket of flowers
Oil on paper mounted on canvas
99 x 79 cm
Private collection
Courbet went to Paris in 1839 and worked at the studio of Steuben and Hesse. An independent spirit, he soon left, preferring to develop his own style by studying the paintings of Spanish, Flemish and French masters in the Louvre, and painting copies of their work.
Gustave Courbet
Femme endormie aux cheveux roux, 1864
Oil on canvas
22 3/8 x 27 ½ in. (56.8 x 69.9 cm.)
Private collection
Courbet's first works were an Odalisque inspired by the writing of Victor Hugo and a Lélia illustrating George Sand, but he soon abandoned literary influences, choosing instead to base his paintings on observed reality. Among his paintings of the early 1840s are several self-portraits, Romantic in conception, in which the artist portrayed himself in various roles. These include Self-Portrait with Black Dog (c. 1842–44, accepted for exhibition at the 1844 Paris Salon), the theatrical Self-Portrait which is also known as Desperate Man (c. 1843–45) (See below), Lovers in the Countryside (1844, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lyon) (See below), The Sculptor (1845) (See below), The Wounded Man (1844–54, Musée d'Orsay, Paris) (See below), The Cellist, Self-Portrait (1847, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, shown at the 1848 Salon) (See below), and Man with a Pipe (1848–49, Musée Fabre, Montpellier).
Gustave Courbet (1819–1877)
Le Désespéré/ The Desperate Man, c. 1841
Oil on canvas
Height: 89 cm (35 in)
Private collection
The famously overwrought self-portrait The Desperate Man (1843–45) by the French Realist Gustave Courbet remained in the artist’s studio until his death. In the modestly sized painting, the 24-year-old stares wild-eyed out at the viewer, his hands tearing at his flowing, unkempt hair. In his blousy white shirt and blue smock, Courbet here appears the quintessential Romantic artist—a tortured genius struggling for recognition and a bite to eat. More on this painting
Gustave Courbet (1819–1877)
The Happy Lovers, c. 1844
Oil on canvas
Height: 77 cm (30.3 in); Width: 60 cm (23.6 in)
Museum of Fine Arts of Lyon
The Happy Lovers by Gustave Courbet, now in the musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon. One of its earlier titles when exhibited in 1855 at the Pavillon Courbet in Paris was The Waltz.
This was the prototype for a second version produced around the same time, under the title The Lovers in the Countryside – Sentiments of youth, which was given to the Petit Palais in Paris in 1909 by Juliette Courbet. Both works show the artist and a woman in profile (See below). More on this painting
Gustave Courbet (1819–1877)
Lovers in the Country, Sentiments of the Young Age, c. after 1844
Oil on canvas
Height: 61 cm (24 in); Width: 51 cm (20 in)
Petit Palais
Gustave Courbet (1819–1877)
The Sculptor, c. 1845
Oil on canvas
Height: 55 cm (21.6 in); Width: 41 cm (16.1 in)
Private collection
Gustave Courbet (1819–1877)
The Wounded Man/ L'homme blessé, c. 1840
Oil on canvas
Height: 81.5 cm (32 in); Width: 97.5 cm (38.3 in)
Musée d'Orsay
Courbet is painted himself in a romantic theme as a suffering heroic man. Originally, there was a woman leaning on the artist's shoulder. She has been replaced by a sword at the end of a love affair, in 1854. He also added a red bloodstain on his shirt. That creates a contrast, because the calm face expression isn't reflecting his bleeding. More on this painting
Gustave Courbet (1819–1877)
The Cellist (Self-portrait), c. 1847
Oil on canvas
Height: 117 cm (46 in); Width: 90 cm (35.4 in)
Nationalmuseum, Sweden
Gustave Courbet (1819–1877)
Une après-dinée à Ornans/ After Dinner at Ornans, c. 1849
Oil on canvas
Height: 195 cm (76.7 in); Width: 275 cm (108.2 in)
Collection
Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille
This is the first painting in which Courbet announced his project of presenting particular observations of provincial life on a scale and with a sense of importance commensurate with that of academic history painting. The life-sized figures grouped around the small country dining table are engaged in no activity that could be translated into narrative or dramatic terms; each is focused on his own inner consciousness of that which they have in common, the experience of music. Yet the solidity and scale of the figures and the seriousness of their joint nonaction, their mutual inwardness, can carry the conviction that this is a painting that commands the highest attention. More on this painting
Courbet achieved his first Salon success in 1849 with his painting After Dinner at Ornans (See above). The work earned Courbet a gold medal and was purchased by the state. The gold medal meant that his works would no longer require jury approval for exhibition at the Salon; an exemption Courbet enjoyed until 1857 (when the rule changed).
Courbet believed that "the artists of one century [are] basically incapable of reproducing the aspect of a past or future century ..." Instead, he maintained that the only possible source for living art is the artist's own experience. He and Jean-Francois Millet would find inspiration painting the life of peasants and workers.
Courbet achieved his first Salon success in 1849 with his painting After Dinner at Ornans (See above). The work earned Courbet a gold medal and was purchased by the state. The gold medal meant that his works would no longer require jury approval for exhibition at the Salon; an exemption Courbet enjoyed until 1857 (when the rule changed).
Gustave Courbet (French, Ornans 1819–1877 La Tour-de-Peilz)
Young Ladies of the Village, c. 1851–52
Oil on canvas
76 3/4 x 102 3/4 in. (194.9 x 261 cm)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
This painting, which initiated a series of pictures devoted to the lives of women, shows Courbet’s three sisters—Zélie, Juliette, and Zoé—strolling in the Communal, a small valley near his native village of Ornans. One of the girls offers alms to a young cowherd. Courbet had high hopes for the work, but when it was exhibited at the Salon of 1852, critics attacked it as tasteless and clumsy. They reviled the models’ common features and countrified costumes, the "ridiculous" little dog and cattle, and the overall lack of unity, including traditional perspective and scale. More on this painting
Gustave Courbet (1819–1877)
Peasants from Flagey back from the Fair, c. 1850
Oil on canvas
Height: 208.5 cm (82 in); Width: 275.5 cm (108.4 in)
Musée des Beaux-Arts et d'Archéologie de Besançon
Presented at the Salon of 1850 - 1851, this painting is part of the trilogy which triggers criticism and public indignation. Courbet represents, in dimensions hitherto reserved for religious and historical scenes, peasants returning from the Salins fair. Among them, at the center of the composition on the horse, Courbet's father, Régis, landowner in Flagey. More on this painting
Gustave Courbet (1819–1877)
The Wheat Sifters/ Les Cribleuses de blé, c. 1854
Oil on canvas
Height: 131 cm (51.5 in); Width: 167 cm (65.7 in)
Nantes Museum of Arts
The Wheat Sifters was exhibited at the Salon of 1855 in Paris, then in 1861 at the ninth exhibition of the Society of Friends of the Art of Nantes, which then bought the painting for the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nantes.
Both young women are probably the two sisters of Courbet: Zoe (in the center) and Juliet (seated). The boy could be Désiré Binet, the illegitimate son of the painter. More on this painting
In 1849–50, Courbet painted The Stone Breakers (destroyed in the Allied Bombing of Dresden in 1945) (See below), which Proudhon admired as an icon of peasant life; it has been called "the first of his great works". The painting was inspired by a scene Courbet witnessed on the roadside. He later explained to Champfleury and the writer Francis Wey: "It is not often that one encounters so complete an expression of poverty and so, right then and there I got the idea for a painting. I told them to come to my studio the next morning."
Courbet believed that "the artists of one century [are] basically incapable of reproducing the aspect of a past or future century ..." Instead, he maintained that the only possible source for living art is the artist's own experience. He and Jean-Francois Millet would find inspiration painting the life of peasants and workers.
Gustave Courbet and Studio, 1819 - 1877
Le Moulin de Scey-en-Varais, circa 1872-73
Oil on canvas
19 ¾ by 24 ¼ in. (50.2 by 61.5 cm)
Private collection
Courbet began the present work in exile; however, after his arrest, the work was completed by his studio at the artist’s request. At this time, Courbet had collected an international demand, and thus his studio became responsible for completing the works he was unable to finish while serving his sentence of six months. Shortly after the completion of this work, Courbet arrived in Switzerland where he remained in exile until his death in 1877.
Le Moulin de Scey-en-Varais depicts a quaint mill at the edge of a flowing river. To the left of the pale structure is an ample waterfall, highlighting the movement of the painting. The loose brush strokes create a feeling of wonder, inviting viewers into a scene void of any human figures or animals, a technique often employed by the artist. Courbet often liked to project a fantasy of his own image onto the subjects he painted, especially in representations of strong, sturdy trees, a form in which he saw his own reflection. More on this painting
Courbet painted figurative compositions, landscapes, seascapes, and still lifes. He courted controversy by addressing social issues in his work, and by painting subjects that were considered vulgar, such as the rural bourgeoisie, peasants, and working conditions of the poor. His work, along with that of Honoré Daumier and Jean-François Millet, became known as Realism. He depicted the harshness in life, and in doing so challenged contemporary academic ideas of art.
Gustave Courbet (1819–1877)
The Stonebreakers, c. 1849
Oil on canvas
Height: 165 cm (64.9 in); Width: 257 cm (101.1 in)
Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister/ Old Masters Picture Gallery
Painting was lost due to fire in 1945, Dresden, Germany
Gustave Courbet (1819–1877)
A Burial at Ornans, c. 1849-50
Oil on canvas
Height: 315 cm (10.3 ft); Width: 668 cm (21.9 ft)
Musée d'Orsay
Courbet had no sooner finished The Stonebreakers than he began the epic Burial at Ornans and had to invite half the village into his studio to complete it. Courbet could not reconstitute the entire scene in his studio for lack of space; there were simply too many "walk-on parts" to allow this. "Fifty life-size figures, with a background of landscape and sky, on a canvas twenty feet wide and ten feet high," he proudly announced to Champfleury; this was the format customarily used for battle-scenes. In the Salon entry registers, Courbet noted that it was "A picture of human figures, a historical record of a burial at Ornans." He had some hesitations about how to place the cortege relative to the tomb, but the definitive composition showed a country burial at the moment of leave-taking. The men, for the most part, take this fairly calmly but the grief in the women is more melodramatic, while the cure and the pallbearers wear an expression of routine detachment. More on this painting
During this period, Courbet met someone who would have a decisive influence on the rest of his career. Alfred Bruyas (1821-1877), a rich collector originally from Montpellier, bought The Bathers (See below). He went on to become a patron of the artist, who was then able to live independently through his painting. Recognition also came from abroad. By 1854, they were fighting in Berlin and Vienna for the honour of exhibiting Courbet.
Gustave Courbet (1819–1877)
The Bathers/ Les Baigneuses, circa 1853
Oil on canvas
227x193 cm
Fabre museum
This is one of Courbet's three provocative works, the other two being the Wrestlers and the Sleeping Woman. The picture itself was larger than usual. He challenged the typical depictions of a nude body, with dirty feet and heavy figure.
Courbet's highest achievement in this period was The Artist's Studio (1854-1855) (See below), a true manifesto painting in which Courbet declared his artistic and political choices. Furthermore, Courbet gave this painting, measuring almost four metres by six, the evocative subtitle A real allegory summing up seven years of my artistic and moral life.
Gustave Courbet (1819–1877)
The Painter's Studio, c. 1855
Oil on canvas
Height: 361 cm (11.8 ft); Width: 598 cm (19.6 ft)
Musée d'Orsay
Courbet painted The Painter's Studio in Ornans, France in 1855.[1] "The world comes to be painted at my studio," said Courbet of the Realist work. The figures in the painting are allegorical representations of various influences on Courbet's artistic life. On the left are human figures from all levels of society. In the center, Courbet works on a landscape, while turned away from a nude model who is a symbol of Academic art. On the right are friends and associates of Courbet, mainly elite Parisian society figures, including Charles Baudelaire, Champfleury, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, and Courbet's most prominent patron, Alfred Bruyas. On the left are figures (priest, prostitute, grave digger, merchant and others) who represent what Courbet described in a letter to Champfleury as "the other world of trivial life, the people, misery, poverty, wealth, the exploited and the exploiters, the people who live off death." More on this painting
The jury at the 1855 Salon accepted more than ten of Courbet's paintings, but refused his Studio because of its size. This decision prompted Courbet to organise a personal exhibition alongside the Universal Exhibition, in a building which he had built at his own expense, and which he called "The Pavilion of Realism".
Gustave Courbet (1819–1877)
Les demoiselles des bords de la Seine (été)/ Young Ladies Beside the Seine, c. 1857
Oil on canvas Edit this at Wikidata
Height: 205.5 cm (80.9 in); Width: 239 cm (94 in)
Musée des Beaux-Arts de la ville de Paris
Young Ladies on the Banks of the Seine, painted in 1856, provoked a scandal. Art critics accustomed to conventional, "timeless" nude women in landscapes were shocked by Courbet's depiction of modern women casually displaying their undergarments.
Gustave Courbet (1819–1877)
The Quarry/ La Curée, c. 1857
Oil on canvas
Height: 210.2 cm (82.7 in); Width: 183.5 cm (72.2 in)
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Gustave Courbet (French, Ornans 1819–1877 La Tour-de-Peilz)
Hunting Dogs with Dead Hare, c. 1857
Oil on canvas
36 1/2 x 58 1/2 in. (92.7 x 148.6 cm)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
This picture dates to the same year that Courbet debuted his hunting scenes at the Paris Salon of 1857. It invites comparison to the slightly earlier The Quarry (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston) (See above) which includes the same pair of hunting dogs, accompanied by a dead stag instead of a hare. The present work was apparently described by the German painter Otto Scholderer (1834–1902), whose studio was above the one Courbet rented in Frankfurt in the winter of 1858–59. Scholderer noted that Courbet painted the dogs and the landscape from memory but modelled the hare from life. More on this painting
Gustave Courbet (French, Ornans 1819–1877 La Tour-de-Peilz)
After the Hunt, ca. 1859
Oil on canvas
93 x 73 1/4 in. (236.2 x 186.1 cm)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
In style, scale, and composition, this work strongly resembles Courbet’s first hunting scene, The Quarry (See above), a great success at the Salon of 1857. The present canvas is distinguished by the assortment of dead game, including a wild boar, a partridge, a deer, and a hare, a presentation recalling precedents in seventeenth-century Flemish painting. An avid sportsman, Courbet ultimately devoted some eighty pictures to subject of the hunt. More on this painting
In the Salon of 1857, Courbet showed six paintings, including the first of many hunting scenes Courbet was to paint during the remainder of his life: Hind at Bay in the Snow (See below) and The Quarry (See above).
Follower of Gustave Courbet (French, 1819-1877) (Artist)
Hind Forced Down in the Snow, after 1857
Oil on canvas
H: 24 7/16 x W: 32 1/2 in. (62 x 82.5
Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore, USA
Gustave Courbet
Femme nue au chien/ Naked woman with dog, c. 1861/1862
Oil on canvas
H. 65.5; L. 81.0 cm
Orsay museum, Paris, France
Courbet always works with a very fine color gamut, so that the nude representations never appear pornographic, but artistic. This is also the case with this painting. In fine amber tones both the figures and the landscape are kept in the background. Since there are many dark shadows in the picture, the scene at the lake seems to be playing in the evening. The woman seems to recover from a swim in the lake and to deal with her dog, who has been waiting for her on the shore. Such everyday scenes - paired with a nude representation - are typical of the time of classic realism - and the style of the painter Courbet. Again and again, the image of fine white is broken, which is reflected in the clouds, the foam of the waves and in the fur of the dog. But even the skin of the naked woman shimmers whitish. More on this painting
The Source of the Loue is the name of several mid-19th century paintings by French artist Gustav Courbet. Done in oil on canvas, the paintings depict the Loue river in eastern France.
Gustave Courbet (1819–1877)
The Source, c. 1868
Oil on canvas
Height: 128.0 cm; Width: 97.0 cm
Orsay Museum
On the right of the painting, a naked woman seen from behind and with hair pulled back in a bun, is leaning on a rock covered with moss and stretching out her hand under a trickle of water. His feet are partly in the water which collects in a basin. The whole is surrounded by shrubs and deciduous trees, expressed in dark colors.
This painting, built vertically, is one of the painter's last great nudes, a form of culmination that concludes with this painting more than ten years devoted to this genre.
This painting was not presented at the official Paris Salon, but in the private space that Courbet had built in 1867 on the Place de l'Alma. The context is also for the painter that of an exhausting fight against the censorship which struck his canvas Le Rêve. Venus and Psyche (1867), which first seduced the Emperor's house, which then retracted under pressure from the Catholic Virtue League. More on this painting
Gustave Courbet (French, Ornans 1819–1877 La Tour-de-Peilz)
The Source, c. 1862
Medium: Oil on canvas
47 1/4 x 29 1/4 in. (120 x 74.3 cm)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Rejecting the convention of showing an idealized, statuesque female figure based on classical models, in this work Courbet dropped the trappings of an academic allegory or, indeed, of a picture with a high-minded pretext. His picture of a woman embracing a cascade of water may have been a response to a work by Ingres exhibited in Paris the previous year, which depicts a hyper-idealized nude holding a jar from which water pours as an allusion to spring or a river source. More on this painting
Gustave Courbet (French, Ornans 1819–1877 La Tour-de-Peilz)
Woman with a Parrot, c. 1866
Oil on canvas
51 x 77 in. (129.5 x 195.6 cm)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
When this painting was shown in the Salon of 1866, critics censured Courbet's "lack of taste" as well as his model's "ungainly" pose and "disheveled hair." Yet the provocative picture found favor with a younger generation of artists who shared Courbet’s disregard for academic standards. Manet began his version of the subject the same year; and Cézanne apparently carried a small photograph of the present work in his wallet. More on this painting
Courbet died, aged 58, in La Tour-de-Peilz, Switzerland, of a liver disease aggravated by heavy drinking. More on Gustave Courbet
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