Gustave Courbet

Gustave Courbet – Painting tuition instead of law; difficult years in Paris

Gustave Courbet was born on 10 June 1819 in Ornans near Besançon and spent his childhood and youth in prosperous circumstances in the French department of Jura. His parents insisted he should study law, which he commenced in 1837 at the Collège Royal in Besançon. Courbet was not enthusiastic about the field, however, and preferred to devote himself to the art of drawing, a preference that led him after only year zo the French painter Charles-Antoine Flajoulot, with whom he took drawing lessons. In 1840, Courbet went to Paris under the pretext that he would complete further law courses; in reality, he continued to practice painting and spent much of his time in the Louvre where he copied the works of Dutch and Spanish masters. In terms of economic success, he offered the Salon de Paris twenty of his own pictures, but only three were accepted, and he paid his way mainly from his parents’ money. In his private life, he lost contact with his son, born in 1847, when he separated from the mother. 

The founding of Realism; uncompromising individualism

Gustave Courbet socialised with many artists and intellectuals; as well as his childhood friend Max Buchon, Charles Baudelaire and Pierre-Joseph Proudhon were also in his circle. The group would meet in the Brasserie Andler, and the lively conversations and discussions eventually developed into the new art movement of Realism. Chaotic conditions prevailed in France after the end of the July Monarchy and the abdication of the bourgeois King Louis Philippe; the Salon de Paris thus had to do without a jury and Gustave Courbet was able to exhibit ten of his paintings there which met with an enthusiastic critical response. He caused a sensation with his painting A Burial at Ornans, but also met with hostility because of its unusually realistic depiction – today it is classed as a milestone in art. Courbet’s tendency to uncompromising individualism was always his downfall and so he lost a possible engagement for the 1855 World’s Fair because of his refusal to have his work appraised in advance. With the help of his friend Alfred Bruyas, he promptly organised a counter-exhibition in which he showed his rejected paintings. 

Political and artistic scandals; emigration to Switzerland

When many of his friends were arrested or exiled during the revolutionary turmoil, Gustave Courbet left Paris. In Frankfurt, he acquired notable fame and counted the very top of society amongst his clients. In Trouville-sur-Mer he met the American painter James McNeill Whistler and his mistress Joanna Hiffernan, the latter of whom was a model for one of the sleeping nudes in Le Sommeil; whether she also served as model for Courbet’s most famous painting L’Origine du monde is disputed. Courbet painted his Origin of the World for the Turkish-Egyptian diplomat Khalil-Bey; it was an immediate scandal and remained hidden from the public for decades. His destruction of the Colonne Vendôme as a member of the Paris Commune earned him a prison sentence, but the claim of 335,000 francs for damages was more serious as he was unable to raise the money. He therefore fled France to Switzerland with his student Cherubino Patà, where he spent the rest of his life. 

Gustave Courbet died on 31 December 1877 in La-Tour-de-Peilz in Switzerland.