Fine art is knowledge made visible.
– Gustave Courbet
Image Courtesy: Wikipedia
Gustave Courbet was a renowned French artist and leader of the 19th century Realist movement. Courbet rebelled against the Romantic painting tradition, turning to everyday events for his subject matter. His huge shadowed canvases with their solid groups of figures, such as The Painter’s Studio (1854–55), drew sharp criticism from the establishment. He was dedicated to presenting his independent style in art and it became a source of inspiration among the cubists and impressionists.
Early Life and Works
Gustave Courbet was born in Ornans, on 10th June, 1819. His parents were 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 and devoted himself to studying the paintings of masters like Titian, Caravaggio in the Louvre. Later, he gained technical proficiency by copying the pictures of Diego Velázquez, José de Ribera, and other 17th-century Spanish painters. In 1844, his self-portrait Courbet with a Black Dog, painted in 1842–44, was accepted by the Salon—the only annual public exhibition of art in France, sponsored by the Académie des Beaux-Arts.
Self-portrait with a Black Dog (c. 1842-1844). Courtesy of Wikipedia
As time passed by, he became more inspired to create paintings based on realistic themes. Thus, most of his artworks during the early 1840s featured himself while performing various roles. He created a number of self portraits including the Desperate Man, The Sculptor, The Wounded Man,The Cellist, and The Man with a Pipe, among a few others.
By 1846, he began touring Belgium and the Netherlands, and his adventures made him realize the value of portraying images that happen from day to day. He was specifically inspired by the works of Johannes Vermeer and Rembrandt, including a few other Dutch artists who presented their artworks with images of daily life activities. In the latter part of the 1840s, he began to inspire younger art critics and enthusiasts, particularly the Realists and Neo-Romantics.
After Dinner at Ornans (1848–1849). Image Courtesy of Wikipedia
It was in 1849 when Courbet obtained his initial success at the Salon with his masterpiece entitled After Dinner at Ornans. This painting earned him a gold medal, which meant he was exempted from jury approval until 1857.
During the 1850s, Courbet’s embrace of modernity led him beyond the Ornans subjects that had established his reputation. He captured the café culture of bohemian Paris, painting portraits of its denizens and works inspired by popular café chansons (songs). An avid hunter, Courbet also enjoyed critical and popular success with his hunting scenes.
View of Ornans. Mid-1850s. Image Courtesy: The Met Museum
Landscape played a central role in Courbet’s imagery. From the beginning of his career, he identified himself with the topography of his native Ornans. He developed a repertoire of landscape motifs rooted in his native Franche-Comté, including the Puits-Noir, or Black Well, which inspired a series of paintings that span more than a decade, and the source of the Loue River, a geological curiosity and popular tourist site.
The Stonebreakers. 1849. Image Courtesy: Wikipedia
Another great painting by Courbet was the Stone-Breakers, a realistic rendering of two figures doing physical labor in a barren rural setting. The bold presentation of peasants challenged the prevailing conventions of the art world. Art critics considered this fine piece of art as a model of peasant life. It depicted a scene that the artist observed during one of his travels on the roadside. The painting is considered a sordid depiction of menial labour and an unbecoming subject for art. Unlike other depictions of the working poor, which had a nostalgia for traditional practices or were heroic in their mood and composition, Courbet’s filthy stone-workers are faceless slaves.
Despite the adverse reactions, Courbet wrote to a friend: “…we must drag art down from its pedestal. For too long you have been making art that is pomaded and in good taste”.
The Painter’s Studio: A Real Allegory Summing Up Seven Years of My Artistic Life (Musée d’Orsay)1854–55. Image Courtesy: Wikipedia
One of Courbet’s most sensational works was The Artist’s Studio, and it was considered a masterpiece by several artists including Baudelaire and Eugene Delacroix. 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. According to the artist, this masterpiece presented his life and the world around him. He explained that there were various elements in the society where he lived including wealth, poverty, misery and sufferings. Thus, there were several figures included in the painting such as a grave digger, prostitute and priest among a few others. On the left of the painting are victims of social injustice—the poor and the suffering. On the right stand friends from the worlds of art, literature and politics: Bruyas, Baudelaire, Champfleury and Proudhon are identifiable figures. Courbet portrays the studio as a gathering place for the whole of society, with the artist—not the monarch or the state—the linchpin that keeps the world in rightful balance.
Courbet: The Champion 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. In a period marked by a confrontation between romanticism and classicism, realism opened a new way, portraying reality without idealisation and covering political or social themes.Realism is not an attempt to imitate reality. In Courbet’s case, it was a matter of finding his subject in the reality of the world around him. The painter wanted to portray the traditions, ideas and appearance of his era, highlighting his own individuality. 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.
The Bathers. 1853. Image Courtesy of Wikipedia
Courbet’s realism is at its most provocative in his images of women. Their nakedness subverts the academic nude both anatomically and in their refusal to play the expected roles – mythical, allegorical, historical – of academic painting.
Exile and Later Life
Few artists have been more sensitive to, or affected by, political and social changes than Courbet. His ascent as a painter was tied to the Revolution of 1848, which led to the abdication of King Louis-Philippe and the establishment of the Second Republic, a liberal provisional government. He was later imprisoned for his prominent role in the Commune in 1871 – as Director of Museums he was held responsible for the destruction of the column in the Place Vendôme. In 1873, Courbet was forced to flee to Switzerland as he couldn’t pay the fines to rebuild the damaged palace.
The Trout. 1872. Image Courtesy: Wikipedia
During his life in exile, he was able to create magnificent works of art such as various paintings of a trout, which he claimed to symbolize his own life. In addition to painting, he became fascinated with sculpting. In fact, one of his finest sculptures was called The Fisherman of Chavots, which he completed in the 1860s. Courbet died on December 31, 1877. The cause of death was edema, presumably the result of his excessive drinking.
Legacy of His Art
During his lifetime, Courbet has influenced a number of artists in the younger generation. In fact, Claude Monet featured a portrait of the artist in a painting entitled Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe. Courbet implemented an independent style of realism, which inspired several artists such as the Liebl Circle of German artists. His unique style was also evident in the works of other artists such as Vincent van Gogh, Paul Cezanne, James McNeil Whistler and Henri Fantin-Latour. His Realism paved the way for other Modern movements, such as Impressionism and Post-Impressionism. Manet, Renoir, and others had direct contact with Courbet and were profoundly affected by his Art. Courbet’s visceral paint application also opened a path for figure and landscape painters of the 20th century such as Willem de Kooning, Fairfield Porter, Lucian Freud, the Bay Area Figurative Painters, and others.Through his powerful realism, Courbet became a pioneering figure in the history of modernism. His ingenuity and craftsmanship made him one of the most revered artists in history, and his legacies continue to live on years after his death.
The Desperate Man. 1843. Image Courtesy: Wikipedia
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