Gustave Courbet Painting by Paul Meijering

About "Gustave Courbet Painting"

by Paul Meijering

About the artwork

Realistic painting in acrylic by the French painter Gustave Courbet featuring 2 of his famous paintings; a self-portrait The Desperate and The Bacchante, painted by the artist Paul Meijering - the original painting is 90 x 120 cm and available for sale.

Gustave Courbet (Ornans (France), June 10, 1819 - La Tour-de-Peilz (Switzerland), December 31, 1877) was a French realist painter and a precursor to Impressionism.
He painted scenes from everyday life, nudes (including the very daring L'origine du monde) and varied landscapes. In 1844 his self-portrait, Courbet with black dog, was accepted by the influential Paris Salon. His influence on French painting of the nineteenth century was considerable. The innovative aspect of his work was its realism; scenes from everyday life became the main subject and were depicted in large format, such as stonemasons or a funeral.

Courbet's painting l'Atelier du peintre (1855) is almost 6 metres wide. Like many of his contemporaries, he did not embellish reality, but let the painting speak for itself. This led to constant scandals in French cultural life.
Courbet, who was anticlerical, was friends with Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, whom he painted with his children (see image). Courbet also leaned towards the ideas of anarchism. When the Communards pulled down the Colonne Vendôme in 1871, he was condemned as its instigator. The costs of the re-establishment were passed on to Courbet, who had to pay 10,000 francs a year, that is 43,000 euros.