Jean Désiré Gustave Courbet (10 June 1819–31 December 1877) was a French painter who led the Realist movement in 19th-century French painting. The Realist movement bridged the Romantic movement characterized by the paintings of Théodore Géricault and Eugène Delacroix with the Barbizon School and the Impressionists. Courbet occupies an important place in 19th century French painting as an innovator and as an artist willing to make bold social commentary in his work.
He courted controversy by addressing social issues in his work, and by painting subjects that were considered vulgar: the rural bourgeoisie and peasantry, and the working conditions of the poor.
Courbets work, along with the work of Honoré Daumier and Jean-François Millet, became known as Realism. For Courbet realism dealt not with the perfection of line and form, but entailed spontaneous and rough handling of paint, suggesting direct observation by the artist while portraying the irregularities in nature. He depicted the harshness in life, and in so doing, challenged contemporary academic ideas of art.
He meant each and every word when he said:“ I am fifty years old and I have always lived in freedom; let me end my life free; when I am dead let this be said of me: 'He belonged to no school, to no church, to no institution, to no academy, least of all to any régime except the régime of liberty.
He courted controversy by addressing social issues in his work, and by painting subjects that were considered vulgar: the rural bourgeoisie and peasantry, and the working conditions of the poor. His work belonged neither to the predominant Romantic nor Neoclassical schools. History painting, which the Paris Salon esteemed as a painter's highest calling, did not interest Courbet, who stated that "the artists of one century are basically incapable of reproducing the aspect of a past or future century ..." Instead, he believed that the only possible source for a living art is the artist's own experience. The intensity of Courbet's conviction in what he believed got him closer to Pierre-Josheph Proudhon, the French politician and philosopher or more famously known as the first person who called himself an 'anarchist'!
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (15 January 1809 in Besançon – 19 January 1865 in Passy) was a member of the French Parliament. He is considered among the most influential theorists and organisers of anarchism. After the events of 1848 he began to call himself a federalist.
Proudhon was a printer who taught himself Latin in order to better print books in the language. His best-known assertion is that 'Property is Theft'!, contained in his first major work, What is Property? Or, an Inquiry into the Principle of Right and Government 'Qu'est-ce que la propriété?' Recherche sur le principe du droit et du gouvernement), published in 1840. The book's publication attracted the attention of the French authorities. It also attracted the scrutiny of Karl Marx, who started a correspondence with its author.
The two influenced each other: they met in Paris while Marx was exiled there. Their friendship finally ended when Marx responded to Proudhon's The System of Economic Contradictions, or The Philosophy of Poverty with the provocatively titled The Poverty of Philosophy. The dispute became one of the sources of the split between the anarchist and marxist wings of the International Working Men's Association. Some, such as Edmund Wilson, have contended that Marx's attack on Proudhon had its origin in the latter's defense of Karl Grün, whom Marx bitterly disliked but who had been preparing translations of Proudhon's work.
Now, Proudhon seemed to like Courbets work, but also criticised him for depicting the bourgeoisie. Particularly he was harsh on 'The Bathers'!Proudhon fiercly said in his critiqe that this was a painting of just another fat, rich lady who could stuff herself with a lot of food! Courbet could have just
asked his friend to go near the canvass and look at the feet of the model! Indeed they were dirty! The model was a prostitute! Courbet was true to himself, he didn't ask his model to wash her feet! Recently in Paris when Marks and Spencer put the same painting next to a thin nude model there was again an outcry! Not about the nudity! People were outraged why M & S put out an obese model! Courbet's context was lost again!
CKH
A compilation
