Courbet's Realism [Reprint ed.] 0226262154, 9780226262154

Table of contents :
Contents
Illustrations ix
Acknowledgments
[1] Approaching Courbet 1
[2] The Early Self-Portraits 53
[3] Painter into Painting: An After Dinner at Ornans and The Stonebreakers 85
[4] The Structure of Beholding in A Burial at Ornans 111
[5] Real Allegories, Allegories of Realism: The Wheat Sifters, The Painter's Studio, and The Quarry, with an Excursus on The Death of the Stag 148
[6] Courbet's "Femininity": Chiefly Paintings of Women along with Certain Landscapes and Related Subjects 189
[7] Courbet's Realism 223
Notes 291

Citation preview

[Courbet] est tout a la fois Ie plus curieux specialiste et Ie plus abondant generalisateur. C'est la grande et feconde personnification du peintre dans ce qu'il a de plus multiplie et de plus individuel. -Zacharie Astruc, "Recit douloureux;' Le Quart d)heure, 20 July 1859

Contents

List of illustrations

IX

Acknowledgments

XVll

1 Approaching Courbet

1

2 The Early Self-Portraits 53 3 Painter into Painting: An After Dinner at Ornans and The Stonebreakers

85

4 The Structure of Beholding inA Burial at Ornans

111

5 Real Allegories, Allegories of Realism: The Wheat Sifters) The Painter)s Studio) and The QuarrJy with an Excursus on The Death of the Stag 148 6 Courbet's "Femininity": Chiefly Paintings of Women along with Certain Landscapes and Related Subjects 189 7 Courbet's Realism 223 Notes Credits Index

291 367 369

Vll

Illustrations

PLAT E S

1. 2.

3. 4. 5.

6. 7.

8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13.

14.

Following page 222

Gustave Courbet, The Wounded Man, ca. 1844-54. Paris, Musee d'Orsay Gustave Courbet, Man with the Leather Belt, 1845-46? Paris, Musee d'Orsay Gustave Courbet,AnAfter Dinner at Ornans, 1848-49. Lille, Musee des Beaux-Arts Gustave Courbet, A Burial at Ornans, 1849-50. Paris, Musee d'Orsay Gustave Courbet,A Burial at Ornans, detail of crucifix-bearer and other figures. Paris, Musee d'Orsay Gustave Courbet, The Wheat Sifters, 1853-54. Nantes, Musee des Beaux-Arts Gustave Courbet, The Painter)s Studio, detail of central group, 1854-55. Paris, Musee d'Orsay Gustave Courbet, The Quarry, 1856-57. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Gustave Courbet, The Sleeping Spinner, 1853. Montpellier, Musee Fabre Gustave Courbet, Young Women on the Banks of the Seine (Summer), 1856-57. Paris, Musee du Petit Palais Gustave Courbet, Portrait oflo) or The Beautiful Irish Girl, 1866. New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art Gustave Courbet, Sleep, 1866. Paris, Musee du Petit Palais Gustave Courbet, Le Puits nair, 1860-65. Baltimore Museum of Art Gustave Courbet, Apples) Pears) and Primroses on a Table, 1871-72. Pasadena, Calif., The Norton Simon Museum ix

x

Illustrations

15. 16.

Gustave Courbet, The Trout, 1872. Zurich, Kunsthaus Gustave Courbet, Hunter on Horseback) Recovering the Trail, 1864? New Haven, Yale University Art Gallery

FIGURES

1. Jean-Baptiste-Simeon Chardin, The Card Castle, ca. 1737. Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art 9 2. Jean-Baptiste-Greuze, Filial Piety, 1763. Leningrad, Hermitage 10 3. After Jean-Baptiste-Simeon Chardin, The Draughtsman, Salon of 1759, engraved by Flipart. Whereabouts of painting unknown 12 4. Jacques-Louis David, Oath of the Horatii, 1785. Paris, Louvre 14 5. Jacques-Louis David, Lictors Returning to Brutus the Bodies ofHis Sons, 1789. Paris, Louvre 15 6. Jacques-Louis David, Intervention of the Sabine Women, 1799. Paris, Louvre 16 7. Jacques-Louis David, Leonidas at Thermopylae, begun ca. 1800, finished 1814. Paris, Louvre 19 8. Antoine-Jean Gros, Plague-House at Jaffa, 1804. Paris, Louvre 20 9. Antoine-Jean Gros, Battle ofEylau, 1808. Paris, Louvre 21 10. Theodore Gericault, Charging Chasseur, 1812. Paris, Louvre 25 11. Theodore Gericault, Executioner Strangling a Prisoner, pencil, pen, and wash, ca. 1815. Bayonne, Musee Bonnat 26 12. Theodore Gericault, Study ofSevered Limbs, 1818-19. Montpellier, Musee Fabre 26 13. Theodore Gericault, Study of Two Severed Heads, ca. 1819. Stockholm, Nationalmuseum 27 14. Theodore Gericault, Public Hanging in London, pencil and wash, ca. 1820. Rouen, Musee des Beaux-Arts 28 15. Theodore Gericault, Portrait ofa Woman Suffering from Obsessive Envy (Monomanie de i'envie) , ca. 1822. Paris, Louvre 30 16. Theodore Gericault, Raft ofthe Medusa, 1819. Paris, Louvre 31

Illustrations

17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38.

Paul Delaroche, Children ofEdward IV in the Tower, 1830. Paris, Louvre 33 Paul Delaroche,fane Grey, 1833. London, National Gallery 34 Honore Daumier, Enfonce Lafayette! ... Atrappe) man vieux! lithograph, May 1834 36 Honore Daumier, Vous avez la parole) expliquez-vous) vous etes libre, lithograph, 14 May 1835 36 Honore Daumier, Rue Transnonian, lithograph, April 1834 37 Honore Daumier, M. Pot de Naz, lithograph, 2 May 1833 38 Honore Daumier, Sou . .. , lithograph, 28 June 1832 39 Jean-Fran