Courbet, Gustave

born June 10, 1819, Ornans, France

died Dec. 31, 1877, La Tour-de-Peilz, Switz.

French painter.

In 1839 he went to Paris, where, after receiving some formal training, he learned by copying Old Masters in the Louvre. His early works were controversial but received public and critical acclaim. In 1849 and 1850 he produced two of his greatest paintings: respectively, The Stone-Breakers and Burial at Ornans. Both works depart radically from the more-controlled, idealized pictures of either the Neoclassical or the Romantic school; they portray the life and emotions not of aristocrats but of humble peasants, and they do so with a realistic urgency. Such images of everyday life, characterized by a powerful naturalism and boldly portrayed, cast him as a revolutionary socialist. An intimate of many writers and philosophers of his day, he became the leader of the new school of Realism, which in time prevailed over other contemporary movements. His audacity and disrespect for authority were notorious. In 1865 his series depicting storms at sea astounded the art world and opened the way for Impressionism.

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▪ French painter

Introduction

born June 10, 1819, Ornans, France

died December 31, 1877, La Tour-de-Peilz, Switzerland

      French painter and leader of the Realist (realism) movement. Courbet rebelled against the Romantic painting of his day, turning to everyday events for his subject matter. His huge shadowed canvases with their solid groups of figures, such as The Artist's Studio (1855), drew sharp criticism from the establishment. From the 1860s a more sensuous and colourful manner prevailed in his work.

Early life and work

      Courbet was born in eastern France, the son of Eléonor-Régis, a prosperous farmer, and Sylvie Courbet. After attending both the Collège Royal and the college of fine arts at Besançon, he went to Paris in 1841, ostensibly to study law. He devoted himself more seriously, however, to studying the paintings of the masters in the Louvre. Father and son had great mutual respect, and, when Courbet told his father he intended to become a painter rather than a provincial lawyer, his father consented, saying, “If anyone gives up, it will be you, not me,” adding that, if necessary, he would sell his land and vineyards and even his houses to help his son.

      Freed from all financial worry, young Courbet was able to devote himself entirely to his art. He gained technical proficiency by copying the pictures of Diego Velázquez (Velázquez, Diego), José de Ribera (Ribera, José de), and other 17th-century Spanish painters. In 1844, when he was 25, after several unsuccessful attempts, his self-portrait Courbet with a Black Dog, painted in 1842, was accepted by the Salon—the only annual public exhibition of art in France, sponsored by the Académie des Beaux-Arts. When in the following years the jury for the Salon thrice rejected his work because of its unconventional style and bold subject matter, he remained undaunted and continued to submit it.

The development of Realism

      The Revolution of 1848 ushered in the Second Republic and a new liberal spirit that, for a brief while, greatly affected the arts. The Salon held its exhibition not in the Louvre itself but in the adjoining galleries of the Tuileries. Courbet exhibited there in 1849, and his early work was greeted with considerable critical and public acclaim.

      In 1849 he visited his family at Ornans to recover from his hectic lifestyle in Paris and, inspired again by his native countryside, produced two of his greatest paintings: The Stone-Breakers and Burial at Ornans. Painted in 1849, The Stone-Breakers is a realistic rendering of two figures doing physical labour in a barren rural setting. The Burial at Ornans, from the following year, is a huge representation of a peasant funeral, containing more than 40 life-size figures. Both works depart radically from the more controlled, idealized pictures of either the Neoclassical or the Romantic school; they portray the life and emotions not of aristocrats but of humble peasants, and they do so with a realistic urgency. The fact that Courbet did not glorify his peasants but presented them boldly and starkly assaulted the prevailing conventions of the art world.

Leader of the new school of Realism

 Courbet, an intimate of many writers and philosophers of his day, including the poet Charles Baudelaire and the social philosopher Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, became the leader of the new school of Realism, which in time prevailed over other contemporary movements. One of the decisive elements in his development of Realism was his lifelong attachment to the traditions and customs of his native province, the Franche-Comté, and of his birthplace, Ornans, one of the most beautiful towns in the province. After a brief visit to Switzerland, he returned to Ornans, and in late 1854 he began an immense canvas, which he completed in six weeks: The Artist's Studio, an allegory of all the influences on Courbet's artistic life, which are portrayed as human figures from all levels of society. Courbet himself presides over all the figures with ingenuous conceit, working on a landscape and turning his back to a nude model, a symbolic representation of academic tradition. When the painting was refused by the jury for the 1855 Universal Exposition, Courbet, with the financial support of a friend, opened his own pavilion of Realism to exhibit his works in a site close to the official exposition. The enterprise failed; the painter Eugène Delacroix (Delacroix, Eugène) alone, in his journal, praised the audacity and talent of Courbet.

      In 1856 Courbet visited Germany, where he was warmly welcomed by his fellow artists. Three years later, at the age of 40 and still working in defiance of severe criticism in his own country, he was the undisputed model for a new generation of painters who had turned away from the traditional schools of painting, which they considered only barriers to artistic inspiration. Courbet worked in all genres. A lover of women, he glorified the female nude in paintings of stunning warmth and sensuality. He executed admirable portraits, but above all he celebrated the Franche-Comté, the forests, springs, rocks, and cliffs of which were immortalized by his vision. In 1865 he set up his easel before the cliffs of Étretat, Deauville, Trouville, and other resorts fashionable during the Second Empire. Carefully observing air currents and storm skies, he successfully depicted the architecture of a tempest in a series of seascapes. These pictures were an extraordinary achievement that amazed the world of art and opened the way for Impressionism, which was to achieve an even greater sensuousness by reproducing the colour and light reflected by an object rather than its strict linear shape.

Political activities

      The Franco-German War broke out in 1870, the Second Empire collapsed, and the Third Republic was proclaimed. On March 18, 1871, the republican Paris Commune (Paris, Commune of) was established to fight the Germans in France as well as to fight the Army of Versailles, which had remained loyal to Napoleon III and had concluded an armistice with the Germans that the members of the Commune judged to be dishonourable. Courbet, who had been recently elected president of the artists' federation and was charged with reopening the museums and organizing the annual Salon, took part in the revolutionary activities of the Commune. Instead of opening the museums, he decided to protect the major public monuments, especially the Sèvres porcelain factory and the palace at Fontainebleau, for Paris had been under constant bombardment by the Germans. Alarmed by the excesses of the Commune, he resigned May 2.

      The Commune had voted to destroy the column in the Place Vendôme commemorating the Grand Army of Napoleon Bonaparte, and it carried out the decision on May 16. But on May 28 the Commune was crushed by the Army of Versailles, and on June 7 Courbet was arrested at the home of a friend. Because he was thought to have been responsible for the demolition of the column, he was brought before a military court. As he had often made known his disgust of the militarism represented by the monument, he was charged with having been the instigator, although he had in no way participated in its destruction. A scapegoat was needed, and Courbet was arbitrarily chosen, despite his protests and those of the persons actually responsible for the demolition, who had fled to England. He was sentenced to six months in prison, and, thanks to the intervention of Adolphe Thiers (Thiers, Adolphe), head of the provisional government of the French Republic, he was given a minimum fine of 500 francs. He served his sentence first at the Sainte-Pélagie prison, and, when he became seriously ill, he was moved to a clinic near Paris. Once freed, he hastened to Ornans in the hope of regaining his strength.

      When Thiers resigned in 1872, the Bonapartist deputies reopened Courbet's case and sued him for the cost of rebuilding the column. His entire personal property and all his paintings were seized, and he was fined 500,000 gold francs. Having no alternative but to leave France because he could not pay the fine, he crossed the border into Switzerland on July 23, 1873, and settled in the small town of Fleurier. He set to work again, but, feeling unsafe so close to France, he first went to Vevey and then to La Tour-de-Peilz, where he bought an old inn, appropriately named the Bon-Port (“Safe Arrival”). There he died at the age of 58, physically and morally exhausted.

Assessment

      Courbet's reputation has continued to grow since his death. His detractors often judge his art only on the basis of his socialism, ignoring the fact that his political beliefs grew out of his generosity and compassion. His work, however, exerted much influence on the modern movements that followed him. He offered succeeding generations of painters not so much a new technique as a whole new philosophy. The aim of his painting was not, as previous schools had maintained, to embellish or idealize reality but to reproduce it accurately. Courbet succeeded in ridding his painting of artistic clichés, contrived idealism, and timeworn models.

Robert J. Fernier

Major Works

“Courbet au chien noir” (“Courbet with a Black Dog,” 1842; Musée du Petit Palais, Paris); “Juliette Courbet” (1844; Musée du Petit Palais); “L'Homme à la pipe” (“Man with a Pipe,” c. 1846; Musée Fabre, Montpellier, Fr.); “St. Nicolas ressuscitant les petits enfants” (1847; Église de Saules, near Ornans, Fr.); “L'Après-dinée à Ornans” (“After Dinner at Ornans,” 1849; Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lille, Fr.); “Un Enterrement à Ornans” (“Burial at Ornans,” 1849; Louvre, Paris); “Les Paysans de Flagey revenant de la foire” (“The Peasants of Flagey Returning from the Fair,” 1850; Musée des Beaux-Arts et d'Archéologie, Besançon, Fr.); “Young Ladies from the Village” (“Les Demoiselles de village,” 1851–52; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City); “Les Baigneuses” (1853; Musée Fabre); “Portrait de Bruyas” (1854; Musée Fabre); “La Rencontre ou bonjour, Monsieur Courbet” (1854; Musée Fabre;) “La Roche de dix-heures” (c. 1854; Louvre); “Les Cribleuses de blé” (“The Winnowers,” 1854; Musée des Beaux-Arts, Nantes, Fr.); “L'Atelier du peintre, Allégorie réelle” (“The Artist's Studio, a Real Allegory of a Seven-Year Long Phase of My Artistic Life,” 1855; Louvre); “Mère Grégoire” (1855; Art Institute of Chicago); “Les Demoiselles desbords de la Seine” (“Young Women on the Banks of the Seine,” 1856; Musée du Petit Palais); “La Toilette de la mariée” (“The Bride at Her Toilet,” 1859; Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, Mass.); “La Diligence dans la neige” (1860; National Gallery, London); “Combat de cerfs. Le Rut du printemps” (“Battle Between Two Stags,” 1861; Louvre); “The Trellis” (c. 1863; Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio); “Proudhon et ses enfants” (“Proudhon and His Family,” 1865; Musée du Petit Palais); “La Remise de chevreuils” (“Roe-Deer in Cover by the Plaisir-Fontaine Stream,” 1866; Louvre); “The Woman with a Parrot” (“La Femme au Perroquet,” 1866; Metropolitan Museum of Art); “Les Dormeuses” (“Sleeping Women,” 1866; Musée du Petit Palais); “La Source ou baigneuse à la source” (1868; Louvre); “Falaise d'Étretat après l'orage” (“The Cliffs at Étretat,” 1870; Louvre); “Mer orageuse” (“La Vague,” 1870; Louvre); “Portrait de Regis Courbet” (1874; Musée du Petit Palais).

Additional Reading

Georges Riat, Gustave Courbet, peintre (1906), remains a major source on the artist and was written in collaboration with Juliette Courbet, the artist's daughter, who made important documents available to the author. General studies of the artist's life and works include Gerstle Mack, Gustave Courbet (1951, reissued 1990); and Sarah Faunce, Gustave Courbet (1993), which is handsomely illustrated. A more critical study, emphasizing social and artistic issues, is James H. Rubin, Courbet (1997). Petra ten-Doesschate Chu (ed. and trans.), Letters of Gustave Courbet (1992), trans. from French, is a collection of correspondence. Petra ten-Doesschate Chu (ed.), Courbet in Perspective (1977), is an overview of the reception and criticism of Courbet's work.Essays on Courbet's relation to modernism, women, and landscape are offered in Sarah Faunce and Linda Nochlin, Courbet Reconsidered (1988). Among other important critical studies are Linda Nochlin, Gustave Courbet: A Study of Style and Society (1976); T.J. Clark, Image of the People: Gustave Courbet and the 1848 Revolution (1973, reprinted 1999); and Michael Fried, Courbet's Realism (1990, reissued 1992). Focused investigations of specific themes in the artist's oeuvre include Jean-Jacques Fernier et al., Courbet et Ornans (1989); Jean-Luc Mayaud, Courbet: L'Enterrement à Ornans (1999); Benedict Nicolson, Courbet: The Studio of the Painter (1973); and Alan Bowness, Courbet's L'Atelier du peintre (1972). The bulletin Les Amis de Gustav Courbet (irregular) features the most recent scholarship on the artist.

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