Gustave Courbet class at UCLA

I took a two hour class on the French artist Gustave Courbet last Saturday.  The class was offered through UCLA Extension and taught by Mary Beth Carosello, MA, University of Chicago.  I have taken two other classes by this instructor and have enjoyed them very much.  Carosello has worked in the education departments of the Getty, MOCA and at the St. Louis Art Museum.  She does a good job of helping understand the times and the personality of the artists.

Gustave Courbet was born in 1819 in Ornans, France which is in the foothills of the Alps and although he moved to Paris when he was 20 years-old, he remained very connected to his home country and painted many popular landscapes of the area which served to encourage Parisians to vacation there.

"Self-portrait, The Desperate Man," 1843-45

We learned that Courbet was one of the most avant-garde artists in Paris in the mid 1800's.  He was seen as coming from the wild west of France like a "cowboy, mountain man."  He was trained in the classic style of painting  and copied many classical paintings in the Louvre such as the Spanish and Dutch artists.  He visited Holland to see Dutch Paintings in 1847 and was impressed by their realistic paintings of Dutch life.

After the beginning of the Second Republic in France, there was a more free society and more tolerant political environment.  Courbet was successful in getting paintings accepted by the annual Salon where artists works were shown.  They were selected by a jury.  He eventually got 10 of his paintings accepted to be shown and ultimately receives an award allowing him to get his work shown there without review for the rest of his life.

One of his most famous paintings is "A burial at Ornans," 1849-50. (Shown below).

This oil on canvas is 123.6 inches by 261 inches. It was shown at the Paris Salon in 1850-51  and brought Courbet instant fame.  The painting rebelled against the status quo, lacking in spiritual elevation, flat presentation with everyone depicted equally, ignoring social hierarchy.

Courbet was influence by the paintings of Spanish artists like Francisco de Zurbaran (1598-1664). who was a follower of the style of Caravaggio.  The Louvre opened its Spanish gallery in 1838 and Courbet saw it.  It was said that the "Burial at Ornans" was the burial of romanticism. He painted the actual people of the village, not pretty idealized persons.  Although Parisian elite hated anything seen as middle class, Courbet was already a success and his paintings became popular.  In a painting entitled "The Bathers," 1853, he painted women with arm pit hair and loose stockings.

Another famous Courbet painting is "The Artist Studio:  A Real Allegory of a Seven Year Phase in my Artistic and Moral Life," 1855 which is also a huge 141.3 x 235.43 inches.  It is at the Musee d'Orsay, Paris.  (See below)

In 1855 Courbet displayed forty of his paintings including this one next door to the Salon in a temporary structure that he built as the Salon said they didn't have room for his works.  "The Artist's Studio" was seen as a master piece by leading artists but not the public.  It is seen as an allegory of Courbet's life as a painter.  The painting includes a priest, prostitute, grave digger, merchant, people of misery, poverty, wealth, and the current French Emperor, Napoleon III identified by his famous hunting dogs and twirled mustache.  It is said that by placing him on the left, Courbet shows his disdain for the emperor and depicts him as a criminal.  

Courbet's landscapes of his homeland sell very well.  He painted stream from Ornans eleven times. These were moneymakers for him.  It is said that he could finish one of these paintings in 2 hours.  

"Stream of the Puits-Noir al Ornans," 1867-68
This painting is at the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena.

Perhaps Courbet's most famous or infamous painting is entitled "Origins of the World" 1866.  This is one of his many female nudes taken from an up close view of a women's vagina.  The painting was so controversial that is was "lost" until 1995 when it was purchased by the Musee d'Orsay.  Critics said that his paintings were just pornography.  

In 1870 Courbet was nominated to receive the French Legion of Honor award but he rejected it.  After the French loose a war with German in 1871, Courbet joined a socialist group who were crushed. Courbet was arrested and imprisoned for 6 months.  In 1873, he was released but refused to denounce the movement and fled to Switzerland.  Here he painted landscape views looking across the border to his native France.  It is said that Courbet drank a lot.  He died in 1877 at the age of 58.  

Here are additional paintings by Courbet and associates that I visited at the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena:

"Marine," 1865-66 by Gustave Courbet.
This is one of his landscapes that Courbet painted later in his career.  Courbet emphasized that he painted what he saw.  In this seascape he painted the sea just before sunrise, with amazing colors and detail including sea weed on the beach.  He often used a palette knife to scrape the paint across the surface.

"The Pont des Arts, Paris," 1867-68 by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, French, 1841-1919
Renoir, painted en plein air (outside) often alongside his colleague Claude Monet.  In this view of modern Paris, he paints people and their dogs enjoying a leisurely day along the Seine.   This painting and two others will be going to France for a temporary trade for several that will be visiting the Norton Simon in the Spring.  

"Mouth of the Seine, Honfleur," 1865 by Claude Monet, French, 1840-1926
Monet sometimes painted with Courbet.  This painting was approved to be shown at the Solon in Paris.  This is before Monet began his impressionistic style. This very balance and well executed painting was a big hit at the Salon.

"Cliff at Etretat, the Porte d'Aval," 1869 by Gustave Courbet
This is one of Courbet's last French landscapes.  Courbet does not paint people in the picture but only evidence there of in the two boats on the beach.  The dramatic opening of the cliff is still there today.

"Apples, Pears, and Primroses on a Table," 1871-72 by Gustave Courbet
The inscription on the lower left side of the painting refers to the prison he was sentenced to for 6 months.  He actually painted this while convalescing at a clinic afterwards.  

"Vase of Lilacs, Roses and Tulips," 1863 by Gustave Courbet