Gustave Courbet

Gustave Courbet born at Ornans (Franche Comté) 1819 (an exact contemporary of Harpignies) died La Tour-de-Peilz (Switzerland) 1877

Courbet arrived in Paris in 1839. He had no formal training but studied at the Académie Suisse and copied works in the Louvre. His submissions to the Salon of 1850-1 including the Burial at Ornans caused great controversy and throughout the 1850s his realist subjects and seemingly crude manner aroused hostility and incomprehension amongst the establishment but admiration from contemporary artists. Went on to be enormously influential. His native Franch-Comté provided the inspiration for may landscape paintings, intimate scenes such as this which brought him commercial success. Courbet exhibited fairly regularly at the Salon between 1848 and 1870. He was nominated for the Legion d'honneur in June 1870, but refused it because of his opposition to the Imperial Government. He was active in the Paris Commune and his alleged part in taking part in the taking down of the Colonne Vendôme led to imprisonment, then exile