Biographies

Born to a couple of farmers in 1819 in Ornans, eastern France, Gustave Courbet was rather a bad pupil at school as he often spent his time roaming in the woods near his home. He went to Paris at 20 to study law but soon after his arrival there informed his family that he definitely wanted to become a painter.

He had already studied painting in Besançon with Flajoulot, a painter influenced by Ingres, before frequenting the studios of Steuben and Hesse in Paris though he mainly preferred to copy the works of old masters at the Louvre Museum.

Gustave Courbet
"Lisière de fôret", oil on canvas 85x106 cm

Inspired by Victor Hugo and George Sand, Courbet started to produce Romantic paintings before painting at 25 his first masterpiece, a self-portrait with a dog, which was accepted by the jury of the 1844 Salon.

From then on he developed his personal style but, because of his rather bad temper, faced difficulties while his works were repeatedly rejected by the juries of the Salon. Still, he did produce magnificent paintings after 1845 such as «The Guitarero», «The Cello player» or «The man with a belt».

Following the «February Revolution» of 1848, the French administration for Fine Arts decided to suppress the jury of the Paris Salon and to allow all painters to exhibit what they liked. Courbet thus showed «L'après dinée à Ornans» (After supper in Ornans), in which he represented himself and four friends around a table, a work full of realism and was awarded a medal that allowed him to take part regularly in the Salon without having to submit his works to its organisers.

The French State bought «L'après dinée à Ornans» for the town of Lille but most art critics and the public went against him. However, Courbet received the backing of several influential intellectuals, including Charles Beaudelaire, and feeling unperturbed at that time went on to produce several important works in 1850, notably «The Peasants in Flagey», «The Stone-Breakers» or «Burial at Ornans».

«Burial in Ornans» triggered a scandal as the people represented on this large canvas, even the officiating priest, seemed indifferent to the solemnity of the ceremony. Courbet was accused of holding the Church in contempt. Only a few friends defended him praising his skills.

Courbet started to win new admirers and decided to express his pictorial doctrines in a symbolic way by producing a monumental painting titled «The Studio» in which he represented his best friends surrounding a nude model.

Gustave Courbet
"The ladies of the village
giving alms"

At the end of the 1860s Courbet was no longer considered as a mad anarchist who had spent sometime in jail as a result of a revolutionary ideas whereas art critics started to admit that he had good technical skills though they still did not like his works. In 1867 he felt he was ready to show his works at the Universal Exhibition in Paris and decided to hang some 100 paintings in a large exhibition hall especially built for this occasion. However the public ignored him again and such failure made him hate the Imperial regime and the Bourgeois society more than ever.

A staunch Socialist, Courbet often naturally represented social themes in his works such as «The Stone-Breakers» and demonstrated his hatred of Catholicism in «The Return from the Conference» painted in 1863, a work which caused much scandal.

In 1869 Courbet refused the Legion of Honour distinction that the Imperial government wanted to award him. Unsurprisingly, he played a political role after the fall of Napoleon 3rd and was appointed President of the Artists' Federation. As such he strove to preserve France's national treasures during the siege of Paris and the «Commune» uprising but committed a serious blunder in writing a letter to the provisional government in which he asked for the dismantling of the Vendôme column, symbol of the French Empire. The Vendôme column was destroyed a few months later and when troops fighting rebels conquered Paris he was arrested with other leaders of the «Commune» movement.

His enemies tried to designate Courbet as the main culprit regarding the destruction of the Vendôme Column and his life became a nightmare from then on. He resumed work after a six-month prison term but at the instigation of Meissonier his works were refused by the jury of the Paris Salon.

In 1873 a court sentenced him to pay for the rebuilding costs of the Vendôme column and his belongings were seized. To avoid arrest he sought refuge in Switzerland where he tried to pursue his career but worn out by his ordeal he did not manage to produce major works and accepted too often the help of some pupils going as far as authenticating paintings which were unworthy of his talent. His death, which occurred on December 31st 1877, was unnoticed in France.

Courbet, a much proud and ill-tempered artist though quite generous, also produced sculptures and lithographs during his prolific career. He once said he had surpassed Delacroix in showing contemporary events in live scenes but did not manage to have a marked influence over other artists and kept his doctrines for himself. Still, through his deliberate rebellion against the establishment he paved the way for the Impressionist school though his political stand induced the Bourgeois public to become weary of artistic revolutions, an attitude which prompted Impressionist painters to soften their palette at the end of the 19th Century.