Gustave Courbet & revolutionary Art after 1848

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The idea of a revolutionary art could easily be related to famous artists, such as Malevich and his attempt to transform art into a collection of universal forms, Rimbaud and his will to crush down the language in order to crush down the world, Schoenberg and his dodecaphonism or even the Dada current. But who would think to add the name of Gustave Courbet to this list? And yet, at the Salon of 1849, an art critic -Peisse- was so upset by his paintings that he claimed the “homeland was in danger”, because, to him, Courbet's paintings were “a revolutionary machine”. Well, as you can see, these so-called frightening and revolutionary paintings seem to depict only peaceful images of rural life. Gustave Courbet was born in 1819 in the small village of Ornans, at 25 kilometers of Besançon. His parents were local prominent citizens, who would have been delighted to see their son become a lawyer -a bourgeois- but he chose another path. However, Courbet was to be attached his whole life to Ornans and the Franche-Comté, which is very important to understand his work. Very early, he went to Paris to attend art courses and was in the capital during the revolution of 1848. Even though his first paintings show us that he was influenced by romanticism, he looked towards the great Dutch and Spanish masters for influence, such as Velásquez or Rembrandt. After the revolution, he came back in Ornans and started to paint his most famous series of pictures -The After-dinner at Ornans, The Stone breakers, A Burial in Ornans and The Peasants coming back from Flagey's fair.

Extraits

[...] But who would think to add the name of Gustave Courbet to this list? And yet, at the Salon of 1849, an art critic -Peisse- was so upset by his paintings that he claimed the “homeland was in danger”, because, to him, Courbet's paintings were revolutionary machine”. Well, as you can see, these so-called frightening and revolutionary paintings seem to depict only peaceful images of rural life. Gustave Courbet was born in 1819 in the small village of Ornans, at 25 kilometers of Besançon. [...]

[...] Courbet et la révolution de 1848, Paris, Art édition Pierre LEVEQUE “T.J. CLARK, The Absolute Bourgeois, Artists and Politics in France (1848-1851), Princeton Princeton University Press, 2nd ed., Annales, Histoires, Sciences Sociales vol.3 Pierre LEVEQUE Jean-Luc MAYAUD, Courbet, l'Enterrement à Ornans : un tombeau pour la République, Paris, La Boutique de l'histoire éditions, 1999», Ruralia, 2000-06, URL : http://ruralia.revues.org/document172.html. Michel RAGON, Gustave Courbet. Le peintre de la liberté, Paris, Fayard Jean-Jacques YVOREL, «Jean-Luc MAYAUD, Courbet, l'Enterrement à Ornans : un tombeau pour la République, Paris, La Boutique de l'histoire éditions Revue d'histoire du XIXe siècle 20/21, Varia , URL : http://rh19.revues.org/document221.html. [...]

[...] It is interesting because the artist, the master and the servant have the same size and no one really occupy the major place. Even though this painting was an order, Courbet did not let the major role to Bruyas, his patron. And the servant occupied an important space in the painting . Courbet refused to classify his characters in a social rank. Thus, these subjects show that Courbet paints different social classes with a merciless realism and not with an envy to laugh at his characters. [...]

[...] So, Courbet shows us a complete panel of the republicans of Ornans, which stand for all the French republicans. This hypothesis is very interesting, because it proposes a political explanation to Courbet's painting and finally allow us to see that the artists were influenced by politics and used them in their works. Moreover, it confirms the idea of Courbet's revolutionary art, because he might have painted revolutionary events for a conservative Salon. Conclusion To conclude, I tried in this essay to show you how the notion of “revolutionary can fluctuate according to the periods and the audience. [...]

[...] Courbet chose the nine paintings he sent to the Salon of 1851. Thanks to his prize of 1849, the jury could not turn him down and had to accept his works, especially the three about the rural society: The Burial at Ornans, the Stone Breakers an the Flagey's Peasants coming back from the fair. The Stone Breakers is a merciless description of an absurd task, because the old man is the future of the young man on his left. He is going to make pointless efforts for all his life and remain poor. [...]