Jean Desire Gustav Courbet

kjs on 27th May 2022

His Early Days

Gustav Courbet was born in 1819 in the small rural town of Ornans near the Swiss border along the French Alps. He grew up in picturesque surroundings. Courbet’s father was a prosperous landowner but he nursed anti-monarchical sentiments. While at home, Courbet enjoyed the attention of his parents and his sisters, he was the darling of his classmates because of his wit and charm in school.

Realism Movement

Jean Desire Gustav Courbet (1819-1877) was a well-known 19th-century French painter. He led the academic convention and romanticism and pioneered the Realism movement. The form of Realism introduced by Courbet led the way for other modern movements such as Impressionism and post-impressionism. Courbet deeply influenced other well-known painters such as Manet, Monet, Renoir and others.

Father’s Whole-hearted Support to His Artistic Aim

Courbet took art lessons from a not-much-known neoclassical painter. He studied at a local pre-law college as per his father’s wishes. Then he received an invitation from a drawing professor to take painting lessons in a home studio and this boosted his confidence. When Courbet told his father that he wanted to become a painter rather than a lawyer, his father wholeheartedly agreed to his request. His father even said that if it became necessary he would be ready to sell his land, his house and vineyards to help his son. Courbet’s sisters, Zoe, Zelle and Juliette were his first models for drawing and painting.

Self-study by copying Masters

Courbet moved to Paris when he was 21 years of age for studying art. However, he avoided enrolment in any of the studios of the celebrities or in the top class academic systems for arts in Paris. Courbet opted for self-learning and taking lessons from lesser-known teachers. He learnt by copying paintings of Caravaggio, Rubens and other famous painters in the Louvre. Courbet copied the paintings of Goya, Titian, Rembrandt, Franz Hals, Jan Steen and Velazquez during his visit to Holland and Belgium. Whenever Courbet visited his home at Ornans, he painted his friends and family. Though Courbet had an independent and personal vision for art away from the traditional rhetoric, the focus of his painting always remained riveted on the official Salon. During the first seven years of Courbet’s stay in Paris, only three out of his 25 submissions gained entry into the Salon.

Devout Realist

The paintings of the Masters that he studied often showed realistic scenes and portrayed everyday life. Hence, Courbet decided that he would paint scenes of ordinary life the way those masters did. Courbet stuck to the Realist mode of painting during his stay in Paris. When he received a request to paint an angel once, he retorted out of his realistic fervour by saying ‘show me an angel and I will paint one’. Courbet’s unalienable adherence to painting the regular life of ordinary folk led a group of his influential friends to appoint him the leader of the Realist movement in Paris.

His Gold Medal Winning Painting ‘After Dinner at Ornans’

When he was 25 years of age in 1844, he became successful, after several failed attempts, to get the Salon’s acceptance for his self-portrait, ‘Courbet with a Black Dog‘. The Salon rejected his works in the following three years because of the unconventional style and bold subject matter that Courbet chose for his paintings. His painting ‘After Dinner at Ornans‘ shown at the Salon exhibition in Paris was a great success. It won a gold medal for the painter and the French Government bought the painting. The painting depicted four men who just finished a meal at a little table. While one man is playing his violin, one other man is lighting his pipe. Courbet himself sat listening, his head resting on his hand. The painting also shows a large dog lying curled under a chair.

A Year of Jury Free Salon

In 1848, the Paris Salon became jury-free for one year under the newly formed Republic. This provided an opportunity for Courbet to submit ten paintings and win automatic acceptance. He visited his family at Ornans in 1849 to seek respite from his hectic lifestyle in Paris. There he became inspired by his native countryside and produced two of his greatest paintings ‘The Stonebreakers’ and ‘Burial at Ornans‘.

His Painting ‘Stone Breakers’

In 1849, Courbet saw two people working by the roadside, using small hammers and breaking large rocks into gravel. The scene comprising an old man and a young boy left an indelible impression of the mind of Courbet. Courbet painted the scene into a piece of art that depicted the poverty among the common people. He explained to a friend that ‘it is not often that one meets with so complete an expression of poverty. Courbet further said that he got the idea for a painting and, hence, asked these two characters to come to his studio the next morning. The painting soon became one of the most famous scenes of the life of poor people that painters have ever painted. It was destructed during World War II in Dresden.

Year of Immunity in 1858

Courbet’s paintings made a great impression in exhibitions and helped him win a gold medal in the following year. As the gold medal gave Courbet immunity against future selection committees as per the Academy rules. Courbet enjoyed the rule that allowed him to bypass the selection committees until 1857, when the rule again underwent changes. This also became an opportunity for Courbet to submit his 10 paintings under automatic acceptance and his paintings made a grade impression in the exhibition. Courbet’s famous painting ‘Burial at Ornans‘ (1849) was the one painting that took ample advantage of the automatic acceptance. This painting was Courbet’s most audacious display of rural Realism. The implicit democratic politics depicted in the painting and the grand scale in which he portrayed the ordinary people infuriated the conservative critics.

His Painting ‘Burial at Ornans’ (1849)

Courbet’s other painting ‘A Burial at Ornans (1849-1850) depicted a scene of his life in his village. This painting was exhibited at the Salon of 1850 and succeeded in earning around appreciation. Courbet began painting the funeral of his great-uncle who had died the previous year. He called all the people who had gathered at the funeral, to his studio one by one and asked them to pose for his painting until completion of the painting. It was large ’10 feet by 2 feet canvas’ modelled upon the famous artist Jacques Louis David’s picture ‘Coronation of Napoleon’ showing all the people who were present at the scene.

‘The Funeral at Ornans’ was the burial of romanticism

The painting became the subject of mixed reactions from the viewers. Some people thought that it was wrong to show the burial of an ordinary man in a huge painting as though the dead man was as important as an emperor. They also thought that it was wrong to show the poor people of a village in their old clothes and dirty boots the way the painters painted lords and their ladies. Some critics felt that Courbet was deliberately trying to paint ugliness. However, many people liked the Realist way of Courbet’s painting. Courbet said “The Burial (Funeral) at Ornans’ was the burial of Romanticism.’

‘The Bathers’ and Emperor’s Ire

The French Government became an authoritarian Empire under Napoleon III again, shortly after Courbet’s exhibition of his painting ‘A Burial at Ornans‘. Some of the nude paintings that Courbet was famous for were not liked much by the Emperor and Courbet staunchly disapproved of the Emperor’s authoritarian rule. The story had it that while the Emperor and his wife Eugenie were at the Paris Salon, Eugenie was appreciating Rosa Bonheur’s famous painting ‘The Horse Fair’ which portrayed enormous workhorses from a rearview. Courbet’s painting ‘The Bathers’ was one among the other paintings; it revealed two robust farm women bathing in the stream. Standing in front of the painting, Eugenie, reportedly, remarked that Courbet’s models had a resemblance to the bulky horses in Bonheur’s painting. The story also goes saying that the furious Emperor struck Courbet’s canvas showing the nude with his riding crop.

‘The Etretat Cliffs After The Storm’

Courbet immortalised the city of Etretat and its cliffs through his painting. In the summer of 1869, Courbet settle in the Norman town as it was a centre of attraction to any famous painters. Courbet could observe the cliffs of Aval from his house by the sea. He painted the scene showing all the elements of nature including the cliffs of Aval in his painting ‘The Etretat Cliffs After The Storm’. Courbet portrayed the breathtaking landscape that was devoid of human presence and encroachment. He has maintained a balance of composition between the different elements of nature in the scene, such as turquoise blue sea, blue cloudy sky and grey stony mountain cliffs.

Innovative And Audatious

In 1855, the Paris World Exposition jury rejected three of the most important fourteen paintings submitted by Courbet. Undeterred by the rejection, he invented his own way of doing business. He opened his own pavilion of Realism with the financial support of a friend and exhibited his works on a site close to the official exhibition. Though his efforts failed eventually, his painter friend, Eugene Delacroix, praised Courbet’s audacity and talent. When he visited Germany in 1856, Courbet received a warm welcome and deep appreciation for his art from his fellow artists.

Undisputed Model

A few years later at the age of 40, he still remained defiant and oblivious of the severe criticism in his own country, France. He was still the undisputed model for the new generation of painters who had turned away from the traditional school of painting. Though Courbet glorified the female nude and painted nudity with warmth and sensuality, he also painted nature, the forests, springs rocks and cliffs with equal fervour and enthusiasm. Some of these paintings were Courbet’s extraordinary achievements that amazed the world of art.

Political Activities

After the collapse of the second Empire subsequent to the Franco-German war that broke out in 1870, the proclamation of the Third Republic took place. This led to the establishment of the republican Paris Commune in 1871 to fight the Germans as well as the army of Versailles. The army of Versailles had remained loyal to Napoleon III and had just concluded an armistice with the Germans which the members of Commune had treated as dishonourable. Courbet had by then become the president of the artists’ federation and he had assumed the responsibility of reopening of the museums and organising annual Salon. Hence, he took part in the revolutionary activities of the Commune.

Unrest and Bombardment in Paris

When Courbet realised that Paris had become a target for constant bombardment, he chose to protect the major public monuments, such as the Sevres Porcelain Factory and the palace at Fontainebleau as subjects requiring priority of attention rather than opening the museums. However, alarmed by the excesses of the Commune, Courbet resigned his position as president in May 1870. By then the Commune had taken a decision to destroy the column in the Place Vendome that commemorated the Grand Army of Napoleon Bonaparte.

Became a Scapegoat

The Commune carried out its decision and destroyed the column on May 16. Later, the Army of Versailles crushed the Commune on May 28 and arrested Courbet on June 7 at the home of his friend. The Army thought that Courbet was responsible for the demolition of the column and he was charged with being among the instigators though he had in no way participated in its destruction. Courbet became an arbitrary choice and a scapegoat. Thankfully, Adolphe Thiers, head of the provisional French Government, intervened in reducing Courbet’s sentence to six months in prison and a fine of 550 francs. When he fell seriously ill in the Sainte-Pelagie prison, Courbet was moved to a nearby clinic in Paris.

Flight to Switzerland and Death

When Adolphe Thiers, head of the provisional government resigned in 1872, the Bonapartist deputies reopened Courbet’s case. They sued him for the cost of rebuilding the column and seized Courbet’s entire personal property and all his paintings. When Courbet was even fined 500000 gold francs, he had no alternative but to leave France and cross over to Switzerland on July 23, 1873. After travelling all over Switzerland looking for a safe place to live away from France, he went to La Tour-de-Pilz, where Courbet bought an old inn, which he meaningfully named ‘Bon-Port’ (Safe Arrival). Physically and morally exhausted, Courbet died in his home in exile in 1877 at the age of 58.

Courbet’s Legacy

Courbet’s reputation grew only after his death. His work exerted indelible influence on the modern movements that followed after him. ‘Courbet 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 cliches, contrived idealism, and timeworn models’.