Courbet Gustave (1819-1877) - an artist endowed with considerable talent, almost self-taught. He deliberately abandoned the academic style in painting and became the pioneer of realism, which later turned into direct naturalism.
Gustave Courbet, wise in adversity, whose photo (above) was taken in the last years of his life, looks like a pensive man who does not try to seem better than he is.
Childhood
Courbet Gustave was born in a small town (by our standards in a village) with a population of three thousand people, in Ornan, near Switzerland. My father dreamed that his son would be a lawyer, so in 1837 he sent him to study at King's College in Besancon, located near his home. At his discretion, Courbet Gustave begins painting classes under the supervision of a student of David.
Paris
At twenty years old, a young man goes to the capital, supposedly to deepen his knowledge of law. But really, he visits the Louvre and art workshops, in which, as he decided for himself, he has nothing to do. But in one of the workshops, he lingered: there they taught to draw nudity.
Exhibition
Gustave presented his self-portrait with a dog at the first exhibition at the Salon Courbet. It is already visible independent writing of the still romantic artist who is looking for his own way. A free, proud, independent young man is depicted in a grotto of wild rocks.
With calm arrogance, he looks directly at the viewer. The eye is located approximately on the line of the golden section, so that the viewer can not tear himself away from it. This technique was repeatedly and unsuccessfully borrowed by artists from Leonardo. Here, too, the plan was not entirely successful. But good and sad calm spaniel, and golden brown festive flavor, and barely visible landscape in the depths of the picture. The remaining works of the artist were not accepted into the Salon.
Painting and politics
Paris has always been a politicized city. He was seething in the thirties and forties, and the revolution of 1848 captivated Courbet. He establishes a socialist club with friends and creates the emblem of the people. But Gustave did not go to the barricades. By this time, the artist had already visited Holland and brought a distinct desire to completely break with romanticism. Creating a series of paintings on the basis of the new concept, Gustave Courbet, whose works were previously simply rejected, exhibited 7 paintings in the Salon in 1849. Then the word “realism” sounded for the first time, and one of the works, “Afternoon in Ornan”, received a second gold medal.
"The funeral in Ornan" (1849)
This large-scale canvas, measuring more than three meters long and more than half a meter high, was dedicated by Gustave Courbet to one of his grandfathers. The figures on the canvas are made in almost natural sizes. All the townspeople tried to get on the epic picture. It depicts singers, and curators, and the mayor of the city, and residents in black mourning clothes.
Color accents are placed on the white and red robes of the ministers of the church. The crucifixion in the background is also highly impressive. The plot is very prosaic, but in this canvas, the images of people created by Courbet, rising to generalizations, are interesting. Focusing all his attention on the funeral process, and not on the deeds of the deceased or on the posthumous existence of the soul, the painter proved himself to be a complete realist.
In Paris, they did not understand why it was necessary to create such a monumental picture out of ordinary funerals, and even with a planar composition. She was not accepted to the 1855 World's Fair, although the jury selected eleven works by Courbet for her. But they do not take the Atelier painting to the exhibition, in which Courbet expresses his artistic principles. Then the artist, full of indignation, arranges his own exhibition, which consists of 40 canvases. He prints the “Manifesto of Realism”, and as a master, everyone who preaches realism in painting adjoins it . This causes a scandal in society.
“Weavers” (1854)
It is known that they posed for this picture of Courbet, depicting heavy peasant labor, his two sisters and a familiar child.
The picture received a cheerful sound due to the golden color and bright red dress of the girl standing in the center of the composition and immediately attracting attention. A cute redhead cat sleeps next to a dormant girl in gray, reviving the atmosphere of an already major one. It is not clear why the chest chest closing the door, near which the boy is located, is painted.
Pergola (1862)
This picture shows another Courbet, able to admire female beauty, comparing it with the lush flowering of roses curling along the pergola.
Clearly along the
golden section is the line of composition, the main part of which is occupied by white, orange, red flowers. The silhouette of the profile-standing girl with her arms raised to the very top of the grill is elegant. White translucent sleeves and a white collar are in harmony with the adjacent flowers, and the dress matches the shades of the shadows under the left hand and the shaded foliage on the left side of the picture. Here, Courbet proved to be a subtle colorist.
The Origin of the World (1866)
I do not want to dwell on this work for a long time. It is too unpleasant for a person with a healthy psyche, not inclined to spy on a person in the most intimate moments of his life. The picture shows the torso of a woman without a face. In front of the viewer, a close-up depicts an open vulva of the unknown. Here is one of the models proposed by the researchers for the canvas “The Origin of the World” (Gustave Courbet), a photo of which is presented here.
This picture will please only the voyeur, who gets satisfaction when he is shown the genitals of a person of the opposite sex and nothing more. A healthy person does not need this, and I do not want to consider
this opus . I just want to quickly forget such nasty things.
During this period, Courbet creates a lot of erotic paintings, among which “Sleeping” stand out with special frankness. This naturalism condemns the circle of both ordinary people and people with names. But his ardent supporter remains Proudhon, whose portrait he painted.
The Wave (1870)
This landscape is considered Courbet's masterpiece. The canvas is almost halved given to the sky and the sea. Clouds tightly closed the sky. Their shades shimmer from grayish-green to lilac-pink and shake with their beauty.
The color of the waves also plays in all tones of green, creating a variety of deep color effects. This perfectly conveys the power of natural forces. The artist was captured by this topic and wrote a series of works depicting various views of Etretat and its turbulent troubled sea.
In 1871, a highly politicized artist took an active part in the actions of the Paris Commune. After the uprising was suppressed, he was charged with the overthrow of the Vendome column. After that, Courbet was in prison, and he was sentenced to pay a colossal fine. He fled to Switzerland, where he died in complete poverty.
It causes very mixed reactions as a person and artist Gustave Courbet, whose work today does not leave people indifferent. This speaks of the undoubted talent and strong personality of this painter.