Gustave Courbet
Ornans, Francia, 1819 - La Tour-de-Peilz, Svizzera, 1877
He was born into a well-to-do peasant family and received a thorough education at the seminary in Ornans and the Royal College in Besançon. After a brief initial training in the Atelier of painter Charles Antoine Flajoulot, a pupil of Jacques-Louis David, he moved to Paris in 1840 and soon mastered style and technique. He began frequenting the Louvre assiduously, where he studied and copied Rembrandt, Hals, and Velasquez, refusing to enter art studios in the employ and under the guidance of the masters. From 1841 he went to the forest of Fontainebleau where he painted landscapes and portraits of peasants. In 1844 he was first admitted to the Salon with the work Courbet with the Black Dog. The upbringing in republican principles he received from his grandfather Oudot and his friendship with the writer Proud'hon, made him side with the opponents of the Empire. The revolution of 1848 found fertile ideological ground in Courbet and did not fail to influence his art, as he was convinced that a painter of rustic subjects and simple people had to be absolutely socialist. After the February Revolution, Charles Blanc, the new director of the Salon, suppressed the Jury and authorized each painter to present what he liked best. In 1849 Courbet exhibited L'après-dinée à Ornans at the Salon, which was purchased by the state for the Musée du Luxembourg, then transferred to the Musée de Lille where it remains today. The artist was delighted, but would have preferred the work to have remained in Paris. With this painting (impressive in size, 195x257 cm) Courbet began a completely new and personal repertoire of village and rustic themes, with an execution close to the seventeenth-century Dutch models so much admired.
In the winter of 1949-50 the artist began a period of intense painterly creation that developed until 1866 with a force quite rare in the history of art. This immense capacity for work never wanes until the end of his life. He often painted social themes such as The Stone Splitter (1850) that represent an unintentional attack on the social regime. His masterpiece, The Funeral at Ornans (1850) received lively criticism and controversy; nevertheless he was supported by young critics and writers, such as Champfleury and Baudelaire.
Courbet is also a painter of landscapes and seascapes of a passionate and poetic realism that finds the subjects to paint in all the places he visited, among the suave greenery and in the ruggedness of his country or during excursions around Montpellier in 1854; at Palavas and at Maquelone in Camargue. It is in the south of France in fact that Courbet has the "revelation" of the sea. Later, accompanied by his friend Scranne, he discovered the English Channel and, in 1859, met Boudin who accompanied him to Honfleur and introduced him to Monet.
If in landscapes and seascapes he uses his palette knife on the palette as energetically as a mason uses his trowel, in contrast, for portraits of beautiful women, he has exceptional delicacy and refinement.
Consistent with his ideas as a republican, when some of his works were rejected at the Universal Exhibition of 1855 desired by the Emperor, Courbet organized an exhibition at his own expense, the "Pavilion of Realism," remaining excluded from the official exhibitions organized during the reign of Napoleon III.
One of the most important works in this personal exhibition is L'Atelier, which elicits endless comments. For Courbet this work is more than a symbol, a banner. In fact, the original title is "Royal Allegory defining a seven-year phase of my artistic life." The characters portrayed, in addition to representing the bond of friendship that binds them to the artist, are allegories: Bruyas embodies the patron without whom the painter cannot live, Baudelaire the poet, Courbet himself the art in general, etc.
The exhibition is a disaster financially but is extremely profitable in terms of fame.
The same year Courbet heads the "School of Realists," painting often in the forest of Fontainebleau. His painting The Two Friends (1863) is rejected at the Salon for immorality.
In 1867 the painter left Paris to stay in Normandy, Etretat, where he returned a few years later in the company of Diaz de la Peña and his son. Here Courbet executed remarkable works, two of which were chosen to be presented at the 1870 Salon.
Gustave Courbet, this now famous painter, hated by some and loved by others, is one of the great figures of opposition to the imperial regime. A staunch republican, his disapproval is sincere, constant, and uncompromising, and he never ceases to challenge Napoleonic power in both his works and words.
In 1871 he was elected a member of the Commune and president of the Commission of Artists for the Protection of Works of Art. Said commission settled at the Louvre and devoted itself with great efficiency to saving works of art threatened by the Prussians' bombardment of Paris. The commission votes on a decree ordering the demolition of the Vendôme Column on May 16, 1871 on the grounds that the monument "...is devoid of any artistic value and that by its meaning it is intended to perpetuate the ideas of war and conquest proper to the imperial dynasty..."; Courbet is charged with rioting, attempt and complicity in the destruction of the monument and sentenced to six months in prison. In 1873 a new arrest sentenced him to pay the cost of repairing the Vendôme column. In 1873 he fled to Switzerland where he lived the last years of his life in exile.
Museums:
Alençon; Bayonne (Musée Bonnat); Besançon; Caen; Carcassonne; Digione; Douai; Grenoble; Langres; Le Havre; Lione; Lille; Versailles; Marsiglia; Montpellier (Musée Fabre); Morlais; Mulhouse; Nantes; Nizza; Parigi (Musée d’Orsay, Bilbliothèque Nationale, Louvre, Musée du Petit Palais); Ornans; Roanne; Rouen; Dresda, L’Aia (Museo Mesdag), Amsterdam, Rotterdam (Musée Boymans) - Olanda; Francoforte, Monaco (Staatsgemaldesammlungen), Brema, Friburgo, Amburgo, Berlino, Mannheim, Stoccarda, Germania; Losanna (Museo Cantonale), Ginevra, Vevey, Basilea, Svizzera; Copenaghen (Ny Carlsberg Glyptotheca), Danimarca; Goteborg, Stoccolma (Nationalmuseum), Svezia; Liegi, Bruxelles, Belgio; Londra (Victoria and Albert Museum, National Gallery); Mosca (Galleria Tretiakoff), Unione Sovietica; New York (Metropolitan Museum); Washington; Boston (Museum of Fine Arts), Millbank; Cincinnati; Merion, Pennsylvania (Barnes Foundation); Cleveland, Chicago; Detroit, Stati Uniti.
Bibliography:
G. Boudailles, Gustave Courbet, Milano, Alfieri & Lacroix Editore, 1969; F. Lespinasse, La Normandie vue par les peintres, Losanna, Edita, 1988; G. Testori, Courbet e l’informale, Milano, Fabbri Editori, 1988; Courbet, Artiste e promoteur de son oeuvre (Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts de Lausanne, 21.11.1998/21.02.1999, Nationalmuseum de Stockholm, 25.03/30.05.1999), Parigi, Flammarion, 1998
In the winter of 1949-50 the artist began a period of intense painterly creation that developed until 1866 with a force quite rare in the history of art. This immense capacity for work never wanes until the end of his life. He often painted social themes such as The Stone Splitter (1850) that represent an unintentional attack on the social regime. His masterpiece, The Funeral at Ornans (1850) received lively criticism and controversy; nevertheless he was supported by young critics and writers, such as Champfleury and Baudelaire.
Courbet is also a painter of landscapes and seascapes of a passionate and poetic realism that finds the subjects to paint in all the places he visited, among the suave greenery and in the ruggedness of his country or during excursions around Montpellier in 1854; at Palavas and at Maquelone in Camargue. It is in the south of France in fact that Courbet has the "revelation" of the sea. Later, accompanied by his friend Scranne, he discovered the English Channel and, in 1859, met Boudin who accompanied him to Honfleur and introduced him to Monet.
If in landscapes and seascapes he uses his palette knife on the palette as energetically as a mason uses his trowel, in contrast, for portraits of beautiful women, he has exceptional delicacy and refinement.
Consistent with his ideas as a republican, when some of his works were rejected at the Universal Exhibition of 1855 desired by the Emperor, Courbet organized an exhibition at his own expense, the "Pavilion of Realism," remaining excluded from the official exhibitions organized during the reign of Napoleon III.
One of the most important works in this personal exhibition is L'Atelier, which elicits endless comments. For Courbet this work is more than a symbol, a banner. In fact, the original title is "Royal Allegory defining a seven-year phase of my artistic life." The characters portrayed, in addition to representing the bond of friendship that binds them to the artist, are allegories: Bruyas embodies the patron without whom the painter cannot live, Baudelaire the poet, Courbet himself the art in general, etc.
The exhibition is a disaster financially but is extremely profitable in terms of fame.
The same year Courbet heads the "School of Realists," painting often in the forest of Fontainebleau. His painting The Two Friends (1863) is rejected at the Salon for immorality.
In 1867 the painter left Paris to stay in Normandy, Etretat, where he returned a few years later in the company of Diaz de la Peña and his son. Here Courbet executed remarkable works, two of which were chosen to be presented at the 1870 Salon.
Gustave Courbet, this now famous painter, hated by some and loved by others, is one of the great figures of opposition to the imperial regime. A staunch republican, his disapproval is sincere, constant, and uncompromising, and he never ceases to challenge Napoleonic power in both his works and words.
In 1871 he was elected a member of the Commune and president of the Commission of Artists for the Protection of Works of Art. Said commission settled at the Louvre and devoted itself with great efficiency to saving works of art threatened by the Prussians' bombardment of Paris. The commission votes on a decree ordering the demolition of the Vendôme Column on May 16, 1871 on the grounds that the monument "...is devoid of any artistic value and that by its meaning it is intended to perpetuate the ideas of war and conquest proper to the imperial dynasty..."; Courbet is charged with rioting, attempt and complicity in the destruction of the monument and sentenced to six months in prison. In 1873 a new arrest sentenced him to pay the cost of repairing the Vendôme column. In 1873 he fled to Switzerland where he lived the last years of his life in exile.
Museums:
Alençon; Bayonne (Musée Bonnat); Besançon; Caen; Carcassonne; Digione; Douai; Grenoble; Langres; Le Havre; Lione; Lille; Versailles; Marsiglia; Montpellier (Musée Fabre); Morlais; Mulhouse; Nantes; Nizza; Parigi (Musée d’Orsay, Bilbliothèque Nationale, Louvre, Musée du Petit Palais); Ornans; Roanne; Rouen; Dresda, L’Aia (Museo Mesdag), Amsterdam, Rotterdam (Musée Boymans) - Olanda; Francoforte, Monaco (Staatsgemaldesammlungen), Brema, Friburgo, Amburgo, Berlino, Mannheim, Stoccarda, Germania; Losanna (Museo Cantonale), Ginevra, Vevey, Basilea, Svizzera; Copenaghen (Ny Carlsberg Glyptotheca), Danimarca; Goteborg, Stoccolma (Nationalmuseum), Svezia; Liegi, Bruxelles, Belgio; Londra (Victoria and Albert Museum, National Gallery); Mosca (Galleria Tretiakoff), Unione Sovietica; New York (Metropolitan Museum); Washington; Boston (Museum of Fine Arts), Millbank; Cincinnati; Merion, Pennsylvania (Barnes Foundation); Cleveland, Chicago; Detroit, Stati Uniti.
Bibliography:
G. Boudailles, Gustave Courbet, Milano, Alfieri & Lacroix Editore, 1969; F. Lespinasse, La Normandie vue par les peintres, Losanna, Edita, 1988; G. Testori, Courbet e l’informale, Milano, Fabbri Editori, 1988; Courbet, Artiste e promoteur de son oeuvre (Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts de Lausanne, 21.11.1998/21.02.1999, Nationalmuseum de Stockholm, 25.03/30.05.1999), Parigi, Flammarion, 1998
