Courbet

Courbet

Courbet's paintings represent an artistic revolution inseparable from the social revolutions of 1848 and the 1871 Paris Commune that marked 19th-century France. His work broke completely with tradition, as he portrayed the gatherings of ordinary country people (A Burial at Ornans), treating subjects then considered unworthy of painting, with the seriousness, gravity and scope of history painting. He also provoked the controversies that made him famous with his erotic nudes (The Origin of the World).

Courbet was the first artist to assert and successfully assume his independence from the state and official institutions. He proclaimed that « The State is incompetent in art », and made his career as a free artist, through a wide commercial network in France and northern Europe. At the Salons his paintings were considered scandalous. His personality was complex : sincere, generous, vain, provocative and gifted for business.

Courbet's realism expresses his moral involvement, his republican ideals (for which he took his responsibilities, being imprisoned and exiled for his involvement in the Paris Commune) and his sensitivity for immediate, physical, concrete reality.