Gustave Courbet

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Gustave Courbet
Gustave Courbet (portrait by Nadar).
Birth name	Jean Désiré Gustave Courbet
Born	10 June 1819(1819-06-10) Ornans, Doubs, France
Died	31 December 1877 (aged 58) La Tour-de-Peilz, Switzerland
Nationality	French
Field	Painting, Sculpting
Training	Antoine-Jean Gros
Movement	Realism
Works	A Burial At Ornans (1849-1850) L'Origine du monde (1866)
Patrons	Alfred Bruyas
Influenced	Whistler, Cézanne, Hopper
Awards	Gold-Medal winner - 1848 Salon; Nominated to receive the French Legion of Honor in 1870, - Refused.

Jean Désiré Gustave Courbet (10 June 1819 – 31 December 1877) was a French painter who led the Realist movement in 19th-century French painting. The Realist movement bridged the Romantic movement (characterized by the paintings of Théodore Géricault and Eugène Delacroix), with the Barbizon School and the Impressionists. Courbet occupies an important place in 19th century French painting as an innovator and as an artist willing to make bold social commentary in his work.

[edit] Realism

Plage de Normandie. (c. 1872/1875). Washington D.C.: National Gallery of Art.

Courbet was a painter of 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: the rural bourgeoisie and peasantry, and the working conditions of the poor. His work belonged neither to the predominant Romantic nor Neoclassical schools. Rather, Courbet believed the artist's mission was the pursuit of truth, which would help erase social contradictions and imbalances.

His work, along with the work of Honoré Daumier and Jean-François Millet, became known as Realism. For Courbet realism dealt not with the perfection of line and form, but entailed spontaneous and rough handling of paint, suggesting direct observation by the artist while portraying the irregularities in nature. He depicted the harshness in life, and in so doing, challenged contemporary academic ideas of art.

[edit] Biography

Courbet was born in 1819 to Régis and Sylvie Oudot Courbet in Ornans (Doubs). Though a prosperous farming family, anti-monarchical feelings prevailed in the household. (His maternal grandfather fought in the French Revolution.) Courbet's sisters, Zoé, Zélie and Juliette, were his first models for drawing and painting. After moving to Paris he returned home to Ornans often to hunt, fish and find inspiration.^[2]

He 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 Spanish, Flemish and French painters and painting copies of their work.

Self-Portrait (The Desperate Man), c. 1843–1845 (Private collection)

His first works were an Odalisque, suggested by the writing of Victor Hugo, and a Lélia, illustrating George Sand, but he soon abandoned literary influences for the study of real life. 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 the Self-Portrait with Black Dog (c. 1842–1844, accepted for exhibition at the Paris Salon of 1844), the theatrical Self-Portrait, also known as Desperate Man (c. 1843–45), Lovers in the Countryside (1844, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lyon), The Sculptor (1845), The Wounded Man (1844–1854, Musée d'Orsay, Paris), The Cellist, Self-Portrait (1847, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, shown at the Salon of 1848), and The Man with a Pipe (c. 1848–1849, Musée d'Orsay, Paris).

Trips to the Netherlands and Belgium in 1846–1847 strengthened Courbet's belief that painters should portray the life around them, as Rembrandt, Hals, and the other Dutch masters had done. By 1848, he had gained supporters among the younger critics, the Neo-romantics and Realists, notably Champfleury.^[3] Courbet achieved greater recognition after the success of his painting After Dinner at Ornans at the Salon of 1849. This work, reminiscent of Chardin and Le Nain, earned Courbet a gold medal and was purchased by the state.^[4] The gold medal meant that his works would no longer require jury approval for exhibition at the Salon.^[5]

In 1849 Courbet painted Stone-Breakers (destroyed in the British bombing of Dresden in 1945), which was admired by Proudhon as an icon of peasant life, and has been called "the first of his great works".^[6] Courbet was inspired by a scene witnessed on the roadside, as he 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."^[6]

[edit] A Burial at Ornans

Gustave Courbet, A Burial at Ornans, 1849-1850, oil on canvas, 314 x 663 cm., Musee d'Orsay, Paris. Exhibition at the 1850–1851 Paris Salon created an "explosive reaction" and brought Courbet instant fame.^[7]

The Salon of 1850–1851^[8] found him triumphant with Stone-Breakers, the Peasants of Flagey, and A Burial at Ornans. The Burial, one of Courbet's most important works, records an event—the funeral of his grand uncle—which he witnessed in September 1848. People who had attended the funeral were used as models for the painting. Previously, models had been used as actors in historical narratives; here Courbet said that he "painted the very people who had been present at the interment, all the townspeople". The result is a realistic presentation of them, and of life, in Ornans.

The painting, which drew both praise and fierce denunciations from critics and the public, is an enormous work, measuring 10 by 22 feet (3.1 by 6.6 meters), depicting a prosaic ritual on a scale which previously would have been reserved for a religious or royal subject. According to art historian Sarah Faunce, "In Paris the Burial was judged as a work that had thrust itself into the grand tradition of history painting, like an upstart in dirty boots crashing a genteel party, and in terms of that tradition it was of course found wanting."^[9] Then too, the painting lacks the sentimental rhetoric that was expected in a genre work: Courbet's mourners make no theatrical gestures of grief, and their faces seemed more caricatured than ennobled. The critics accused Courbet of a deliberate pursuit of ugliness.^[9] Eventually the public grew more interested in the new Realist approach, and the lavish, decadent fantasy of Romanticism lost popularity. The artist well understood the importance of this painting; as Courbet said: "The Burial at Ornans was in reality the burial of Romanticism."

During the 1850s Courbet painted numerous other figurative works using common folk and friends as his subjects, such as Village Damsels (1852), the Wrestlers (1853), Bathers (1853), The Sleeping Spinner (1853), and The Wheat Sifters (1854).

Courbet associated his ideas of realism in art with anarchism, and, having gained an audience, he promoted democratic and socialist ideas by writing politically motivated essays and dissertations.

To a friend in 1850 he wrote,

[edit] The Artist's Studio

The Artist's Studio (L'Atelier du peintre): A Real Allegory of a Seven Year Phase in my Artistic and Moral Life, 1855, 359 × 598 cm (141.33 × 235.43 in), oil on canvas, Musée d'Orsay, Paris

In 1855, Courbet submitted fourteen paintings for exhibition at the Exposition Universelle. Three were rejected for lack of space, including A Burial at Ornans and his monumental canvas The Artist's Studio.^[11] Refusing to be denied, Courbet took matters into his own hands: he displayed forty of his paintings, including The Artist's Studio, in his own adjacent gallery called The Pavillion of Realism, which was a temporary structure he erected next door to the official Salon like Exposition Universelle.^[11] The public came mostly out of curiosity and to deride him, although artists like Eugène Delacroix were ardent champions of his effort. Attendance and sales were disappointing,^[12] but Courbet's status as a hero to the French avant-garde became assured. He was admired by the American James McNeill Whistler, and he became an inspiration to the younger generation of French artists including Édouard Manet and the Impressionist painters many of whom were still in art school at the time. The painting itself was recognized as a masterpiece by Delacroix, Baudelaire, and Champfleury. It is an allegory of his life as a painter, seen as an heroic venture, in which he is flanked by friends and admirers on the right, and challenges and opposition to the left. Friends on the right include the art critics Champfleury, and Charles Baudelaire, and art collector Alfred Bruyas.

[edit] Notoriety

The Origin of the World (L'Origine du monde). (1866). Paris: Musée d'Orsay.

Portrait of Jo (La belle Irlandaise), 1866, a painting of Joanna Hiffernan, the probable model for L'Origine du monde and for Sleep.

During the 1860s, Courbet painted a series of increasingly erotic works such as Femme nue couchée. This culminated in The Origin of the World (L'Origine du monde) (1866), depicting female genitalia, and Sleep (1866), featuring two women in bed. While banned from public display, the works only served to increase his notoriety.

By the 1870s Courbet had become well established as one of the leading artists in France. On 14 April 1870, Courbet established a "Federation of Artists" (Fédération des artistes) for the free and uncensored expansion of art. The group's members included André Gill, Honoré Daumier, Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot, Eugène Pottier, Jules Dalou, and Édouard Manet.

Le Sommeil (Sleep), 1866

Until about 1861, Napoléon's regime exhibited authoritarian characteristics, using press censorship to prevent the spread of opposition, manipulating elections, and depriving the Parliament of the right to free debate or any real power. In the decade of the 1860s, however, Napoléon III made more concessions to placate his liberal opponents. This change began by allowing free debates in Parliament and public reports of parliamentary debates, continued with the relaxation of press censorship, and culminated in the appointment of the Liberal Émile Ollivier, previously a leader of the opposition to Napoléon's regime, as (effectively) Prime Minister in 1870. As a sign of appeasement to the Liberals who admired Courbet, Napoleon III nominated him to the Legion of Honour in 1870. His refusal of the cross of the Legion of Honour offered to him by Napoleon III angered those in power but made him immensely popular with those who opposed the current regime, and in 1871 under the revolutionary Paris Commune he was placed in charge of all the Paris art museums and saved them from looting mobs. However when the power shifted back to the old guard Courbet found himself in an untenable political position.

For his insistence in executing the Communal decree for the destruction of the Vendôme Column, he was designated as responsible for the act and accordingly sentenced on 2 September 1871 by a Versailles court martial to six months in prison and a fine of 500 francs. During his incarceration, Courbet painted several still-life compositions. In 1872 he depicted his imprisonment in the Self-Portrait at Ste.-Pélagie.

Gustave Courbet taking down a Morris column, caricature published by the Père Duchêne illustré

In 1873, the newly elected president Mac-Mahon wanted to resurrect the Column, and Courbet was singled out to pay the expenses. He then took refuge in Switzerland to avoid bankruptcy. On 4 May 1877, the estimate of the costs was finally established: 323,091 fr 68 cent. Courbet was allowed to pay the fine in yearly installments of 10,000 francs for the next 33 years, until his 91st birthday.

Courbet died, age 58, in La Tour-de-Peilz, Switzerland, of a liver disease aggravated by heavy drinking on 31 December 1877, a day before the payment of the first installment was due. (Bernard Noël, 1978)

[edit] Notable exhibitions

An exhibition of his works was held in 1882 at the École des Beaux-Arts.

A major exhibition of Courbet's work, "The Born Rebel Artist", opened in 2007 at the Grand Palais, and traveled to the Musée Fabre (Montpellier, France) and the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City) during 2008.^[13][14]

[edit] Influence

Claude Monet, Le dejeuner sur lherbe, (right section), with Gustave Courbet, 1865-1866, Musée d'Orsay, Paris

Courbet was admired by many younger artists. Claude Monet included a portrait of Courbet in his own version of Le dejeuner sur lherbe from 1865-1866. Courbet's particular kind of realism influenced many artists to follow, notably among them the German painters of the Leibl circle,^[15] James McNeill Whistler, and Paul Cézanne. Courbet's influence can also be seen in the work of Edward Hopper, whose "Bridge in Paris" (1906) and "Approaching a City" (1946) have been described as Freudian echoes of Courbet's "The Source of the Loue" and "The Origin of the World." ^[16]

[edit] Pupils

• Henri Fantin-Latour
• Hector Hanoteau
• Olaf Isaachsen

[edit] Gallery

Self-portrait with black dog, 1842	The man with a pipe Self-portrait, 1848-49	The Hammock, 1844	Zélie Courbet, 1847
Portrait of Charles Baudelaire, 1848-1849	Stone-Breakers, 1849	After Dinner at Ornans, 1849	Portrait of Alfred Bruyas, 1854
Bonjour, Monsieur Courbet, 1854	Les Bas Blancs, (Woman with White Stockings), ca 1861 (Barnes Foundation)	Femme nue couchée, 1862	Portrait of Countess Karoly 1865
Proudhon and his children, 1865	The Source, 1868	Cliffs at Etretat, After the Storm, 1870	Stream in the Jura Mountains (The Torrent), 1872-3, Honolulu Academy of Arts

[edit] See also

• History of painting
• Western painting

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

• Champfleury, Les Grandes Figures d’hier et d’aujourd’hui (Paris, 1861)
• Clark, Timothy J., Image of the People: Gustave Courbet and the 1848 Revolution, (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999); (Originally published 1973. Based on his doctoral dissertation along with The Absolute Bourgeois: Artists and Politics in France, 1848-1851), 208pp. ISBN 978-0520217454. (Considered the definitive treatment of Courbet's politics and painting in 1848, and a foundational text of Marxist art history).
• Faunce, Sarah, Gustave Courbet, and Linda Nochlin. Courbet Reconsidered. ([Brooklyn, N.Y.]: Brooklyn Museum, 1988) ISBN 0300042981
• Forster-Hahn, Françoise, et al., Spirit of an Age: Nineteenth-Century Paintings From the Nationalgalerie, Berlin (London: National Gallery Company, 2001) ISBN 1-85709-981-8
• Hutchinson, Mark, "The history of 'The Origin of the World'", Times Literary Supplement, Aug. 8, 2007.
• Lemonnier, C, Les Peintres de la Vie (Paris, 1888).
• Mantz, "G. Courbet," Gaz. des beaux-arts (Paris, 1878)
• Masanès, Fabrice, Guustave Courbet (Cologne: Taschen, 2006) ISBN 3822856835
• Nochlin, Linda, Courbet, (London: Thames & Hudson, 2007) ISBN 978-0-500-28676-0
• Nochlin, Linda, Realism: Style and Civilization (New York: Penguin, 1972).
• Noël, Bernard, Dictionnaire de la Commune (Paris: Champs Flammarion, 1978)
• Zola, Émile, Mes Haines (Paris, 1879)
• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.

[edit] Further reading

Monographs on the art and life of Courbet have been written by Estignard (Paris, 1874), D'Ideville, (Paris, 1878), Silvestre in Les artistes français, (Paris, 1878), Isham in Van Dyke's Modern French Masters (New York, 1896), Meier-Graefe, Corot and Courbet, (Leipzig, 1905), Cazier (Paris, 1906), Riat, (Paris, 1906), Muther, (Berlin, 1906), Robin, (Paris, 1909), Benedite, (Paris, 1911) and Lazár Béla (Paris, 1911). Consult also Muther History of Modern Painting, volume ii (London, 1896, 1907); Patoux, "Courbet" in Les artistes célèbres and La vérité sur Courbet (Paris, 1879); Le Men, Courbet (New York, 2008).

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Gustave Courbet

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Gustave Courbet (category)

General

• Gallery of paintings by Gustave Courbet
• Berman, Avis "Larger than Life" Smithsonian magazine, April 2008
• Courbet images and biography at CGFA
• Humanities Web on Courbet
• Art Renewal Center; biography and images
• Union List of Artist Names, Getty Vocabularies. ULAN Full Record Display for Gustave Courbet. Getty Vocabulary Program, Getty Research Institute. Los Angeles, California.

Articles and essays

• Courbet’s Low Tide at Trouville in the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool
• E-zine article on Gustave Courbet
• 1867 Caricature of Gustave Courbet by André Gill