Creator story
Surprising fact
A committed radical, Courbet was jailed and bankrupted for his part in toppling the Vendôme Column during the 1871 Paris Commune.
Source: Wikipedia / WikimediaRealism
Gustave Courbet
Gustave Courbet (1819–1877) was the father of Realism, who rejected myth and idealised beauty to paint ordinary life on a grand, heroic scale. His vast Burial at Ornans scandalised the Paris art world.
Courbet's insistence on painting only the real world opened the path to Impressionism and modern art.
- Founded Realism, painting peasants and workers on a monumental scale.
- His Burial at Ornans broke the rules of what serious art could depict.
- A political radical, he was ruined after the Paris Commune.
Key works
A key work by Gustave Courbet
These works make it easiest to see how the artist changed form, content, and the very way art could exist in culture.
1846
A Burial at Ornans
A Burial at Ornans is a painting of 1849–50 by Gustave Courbet. It is widely regarded as a major turning point in 19th-century French art. The painting records a funeral in Courbet's birthplace, the small town of Ornans.