Women Across the Globe & the Centuries: Women by French artist Gustave Courbet 1819-1877 + his own words

Gustave Courbet (French artist, 1819-1877). Zelie Courbet c 1842

Gustave Courbet was a controversial French painter, who bridged the gap between Romanticism & the Impressionist school of painters. For the most part, he rejected the sentimentality of the Romantics. Courbet's interest in portraying people & places as they really appeared, together with his non-academic orientation lead him to become an early realist. He actually encouraged controversy by addressing social issues in his work & by painting the rural folk, peasants, & the working conditions of the poor. He stated that he was a socialist but also declared, that his subject matter had as much to do with his interest in "real & existing things" as with politics. Critics charged that he was creating a cult of ugliness. While some were incensed that he was attacking the established social standards, he was also praised by social reformers.Abandoning the study of law for art, Courbet arrived in Paris from his native Ornans in 1840. He taught himself the rudiments of his profession by studying the works of Caravaggio in the Louvre. In 1847, Courbet traveled to Holland, which strengthened his growing belief that painters should work from the life around them, as Rembrandt, Hals, & other Dutch masters had done.

Gustave Courbet (French artist, 1819-1877) Laure Borreau

When Courbet's work was rejected for the Paris International Exhibition in 1855, he decided to open his own pavilion for his works. Still at the centre of political activity in the 1870s, he was arrested & imprisoned in 1871, when the Commune he supported fell. The following year he was released, and he moved to Switzerland, spending the remainder of his life in exile painting the rough Swiss terrain in experimental ways.

"The beautiful is in nature, & it is encountered under the most diverse forms of reality. Once it is found it belongs to art, or rather to the artist who discovers it." Gustave Courbet

Gustave Courbet (French artist, 1819-1877). Peasant Woman Wearing Madras

"I am 50 years old & I have always lived in freedom; let me end my life free; when I am dead let this be said of me: He belonged to no school, to no church, to no institution, to no academy, least of all to any régime except the régime of liberty." Gustave Courbet

Gustave Courbet (French artist, 1819-1877). Juliette Courbet (1831-1915) 1844

"I hope to live all my life for my art, without abandoning my principles one iota." Gustave Courbet

Gustave Courbet (French artist, 1819-1877). The Sleeping Embroiderer 1853

"Fine art is knowledge made visible." Gustave Courbet

Gustave Courbet (French artist, 1819-1877). Woman Sleeping

"Painting is the representation of visible forms. The essence of realism is its negation of the ideal." Gustave Courbet

Gustave Courbet (French artist, 1819-1877). Woman in a Podoscaphe

"Painting is an essentially concrete art and can only consist of the representation of real and existing things." Gustave Courbet