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Gustave Courbet painted what was in front of him. He led French Realism from the late 1840s, giving stone breakers and village funerals the scale that had been reserved for kings. The work is heavy with paint, dark in the shadows and blunt about country life. Landscapes, hunting scenes, deer in snow and a famous scowling self-portrait all sit in the range. These are pictures with weight, and they carry a wall easily.
Gustave Courbet was born at Ornans in eastern France in 1819. He refused idealised subjects and painted labourers, village funerals and his own defiant face at the scale reserved for history painting. A Burial at Ornans caused an outcry at the Salon of 1850 for exactly that reason. Courbet was a republican who took part in the Paris Commune of 1871. He was jailed after it fell and spent his last years in exile in Switzerland. He died there in 1877, aged fifty-eight.
The range runs from the studio to the forest. The Desperate Man and Self-Portrait with a Black Dog show Courbet looking straight out at the viewer. The landscapes are Franche-Comté country: limestone cliffs, still lakes, snow-covered woods. Hunting pictures such as Deer Running in the Snow and After the Hunt bring animals into that same terrain. Bouquet of Flowers in a Vase and The Winnowers cover the still life and the working day.
Courbet wants a little darkness around him. The paintings were built over brown underlayers, so they hold their own against deep green, charcoal or wood-panelled walls better than against bright white. A single self-portrait works in a hallway at eye level, where the gaze meets you as you pass. The snow scenes are cooler and lighter, and they suit a bedroom or a landing. Wide black or walnut frames match the density of the paint.
Every artwork here is an archival print, hand-framed to order and delivered ready to hang — made in India.
Wall Art
by Gustave Courbet
