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.
Once again Courbet paid no attention to critics though he was hurt deep inside his heart. He then tried to produce more conventional paintings but was apparently not at ease such as with his «Demoiselles du Village» (Young women from the village), which did not please his friends and prompted critics to ridicule him.
COURBET GUSTAVE (1819-1877)
Nationality:
French
Activity:
Painter
Price range:
Between $ 45,000 and 3 million
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.
Gustave Courbet, Le fou de peur ou Le désespéré, vers 1843 ?
Gustave Courbet "Low Tide Known as Immensity"
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.
Once again Courbet paid no attention to critics though he was hurt deep inside his heart. He then tried to produce more conventional paintings but was apparently not at ease such as with his «Demoiselles du Village» (Young women from the village), which did not please his friends and prompted critics to ridicule him.
Courbet immediately understood that he had made a mistake and swerved back to his audacious style, notably with his great «Women Bathers». In 1854, he discovered the landscapes of southern France and softened his palette. He then painted a masterpiece titled «The Encounter», representing him coming forward in the direction of a friend, the collector Bruyas accompanied by a servant.
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"
Courbet attached much importance to this work but was disgusted when the Jury of the 1855 Salon rejected it. Determined to show it to the public he decided to hold a private exhibition, which eventually was a failure. The artist understood then that his large paintings had no power of seduction over the French public and limited himself to producing average size works. He continued to paint until the Franco-Prussian war of 1870 after brief stays in Germany and in Belgium and nurtured a passion for the representation of animals, notably bucks.
He also expressed a liking for seascapes, showing views of the Mediterranean sea or the Channel and exhaling a rare talent when it came to paint furious waves. In addition he painted many nudes, including his stunningly erotic piece titled «Origin of the World» showing the womb of a woman with an incredible close-up on her pubis, a work which remained hidden behind a conventional scene during many years before it was acquired a decade ago by the Orsay Museum.
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.
Courbet's influence, especially as the creator of an expressive, powerful and striking form of art aimed at exhaling daily life, became much more stronger from 1890, especially in Germany.
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