Opening paragraph of an excellent piece from The Smithsonian, Larger than Life by Avis Berman on French 19th century painter Gustave Courbet:
Courbet is reported to have said or written:
Courbet was a realist painter - and realist in every sense of the word. He painted the reality he saw around him, not only the reality of the bourgeoisie, but the reality of ordinary people - those we have recently labelled "the 99%".
Gustave Courbet's era offered ample outlet for his revolutionary nature. He was involved in the 1848 revolution in France, the Paris commune in 1871 and was one of the founders of an artistic movement many of his contemporaries found shocking.
Investigating events of 1848 swiftly brings to mind a somewhat milder yet comparable set of events nearer to our own time. Europe was then in the throes of several vatieties of revolution. In Britain the Chartist movement (a working class labour movement) was thriving. Marx and Engels had published the Communist Manifesto. In France protesters forced the abdication of King Louis-Philippe. However, an attempt at setting up a Constituent Assembly to represent France's poor failed amidst counter-revolution and the slaughter of thousands at the barricades. Eventually Napoleon III, after being elected president of the French Republic, proclaimed himself Emperor after a coup in 1851.
Gustave Courbet, a man whose temperament was well-suited for his times. He was born in Ornans on 10 June 1819. Time of birth given by Astrodatabank is 3:00 AM.
I was half expecting to see rebellious Uranus conjoined to a personal planet - it isn't, but Uranus is conjunct Neptune, planet of creativity and opposing his communicative Gemini Sun. We needn't look very much further to seek the source of his revolutionary spirit. But there is more... Jupiter in Aquarius (rulership sign of Uranus) is in close harmonious trine to Sun in Gemini - another link to rebellion and the avant garde.
Moon in commonsense, business-like Earthy Capricorn harmoniously trines Venus, planet of the arts in its home sign of Taurus. In spite of his revolutionary traits, for most of his life Courbet managed to surf disapproval and maintain a reasonable lifestyle, reflection, perhaps, of this balancing Earthy input from Moon and Venus.
It wasn't until he, as head of the Arts Commission, was amongst those who destroyed the Vendôme Column, that his rebellious nature overcame commonsense and led him astray.
The Column was a monument to Napoleon I, a symbol of the French revolution of 1789, later seen more as a symbol of French militarism and imperialism. After the defeat of the Paris Commune and the massacre of thousands of those who had taken part in it, Courbet was arrested and sentenced to six months imprisonment. Later the government fined him 300,000 francs to pay for the rebuilding of the Column. As he could not afford this vindictive fine he fled to Switzerland where he lived out the rest of his life, painting (and drinking heavily) until his death in 1877. In 1919 his remains were returned to Ornans where he was interred in the local cemetery. (See HERE).....And HERE re Franco-Prussian War).
Courbet's paintings include landscapes, nudes (some erotic), portraits, self portraits, and many scenes of ordinary people doing what ordinary people did.
Below: Considered to be one of Courbet's masterpieces, from 1850: Burial at Ornans. French critics were not impressed. It was, they claimed "too big and the figures were too ugly". It measures 21 feet by 10 feet -huge! It was customary for paintings of this size to be of religious or mythological subjects, and certainly not a peasant funeral in rural France.....the very idea!!
Sleeping Spinner
The Stone Breakers
Jo
The Source
The Draughts Players
The Guitarrero, Young Man in a Landscape
Les Demoiselles des bords de la Seine
Two young women resting at the edge of River Seine. Not women of the elegant bourgeoisie, but two very ordinary gals, one of whom has removed her dress and relaxes in her petticoat.
Courbet painted himself - lot! A collection of his self portraits can be seen at the blog Fifty Two Pieces
Three examples, top to bottom
: A Desperate Man; Man with Leather Belt; Man with Pipe.
Painter, provocateur, risk taker and revolutionary, Gustave Courbet might well have said, "I offend, therefore I am." Arguably modern art's original enfant terrible, he had a lust for controversy that makes the careers of more recent shockmeisters like Jeff Koons, Damien Hirst and Robert Mapplethorpe seem almost conventional. As a rebellious teenager from a small town in eastern France, Courbet disregarded his parents' desire for him to study law and vowed, he wrote, "to lead the life of a savage" and free himself from governments. He did not mellow with age, disdaining royal honors, turning out confrontational, even salacious canvases and attacking established social values when others of his generation were settling into lives cushioned with awards and pensions.
Courbet is reported to have said or written:
"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."
Courbet was a realist painter - and realist in every sense of the word. He painted the reality he saw around him, not only the reality of the bourgeoisie, but the reality of ordinary people - those we have recently labelled "the 99%".
Gustave Courbet's era offered ample outlet for his revolutionary nature. He was involved in the 1848 revolution in France, the Paris commune in 1871 and was one of the founders of an artistic movement many of his contemporaries found shocking.
Investigating events of 1848 swiftly brings to mind a somewhat milder yet comparable set of events nearer to our own time. Europe was then in the throes of several vatieties of revolution. In Britain the Chartist movement (a working class labour movement) was thriving. Marx and Engels had published the Communist Manifesto. In France protesters forced the abdication of King Louis-Philippe. However, an attempt at setting up a Constituent Assembly to represent France's poor failed amidst counter-revolution and the slaughter of thousands at the barricades. Eventually Napoleon III, after being elected president of the French Republic, proclaimed himself Emperor after a coup in 1851.
Gustave Courbet, a man whose temperament was well-suited for his times. He was born in Ornans on 10 June 1819. Time of birth given by Astrodatabank is 3:00 AM.
I was half expecting to see rebellious Uranus conjoined to a personal planet - it isn't, but Uranus is conjunct Neptune, planet of creativity and opposing his communicative Gemini Sun. We needn't look very much further to seek the source of his revolutionary spirit. But there is more... Jupiter in Aquarius (rulership sign of Uranus) is in close harmonious trine to Sun in Gemini - another link to rebellion and the avant garde.
Moon in commonsense, business-like Earthy Capricorn harmoniously trines Venus, planet of the arts in its home sign of Taurus. In spite of his revolutionary traits, for most of his life Courbet managed to surf disapproval and maintain a reasonable lifestyle, reflection, perhaps, of this balancing Earthy input from Moon and Venus.
It wasn't until he, as head of the Arts Commission, was amongst those who destroyed the Vendôme Column, that his rebellious nature overcame commonsense and led him astray.
The Column was a monument to Napoleon I, a symbol of the French revolution of 1789, later seen more as a symbol of French militarism and imperialism. After the defeat of the Paris Commune and the massacre of thousands of those who had taken part in it, Courbet was arrested and sentenced to six months imprisonment. Later the government fined him 300,000 francs to pay for the rebuilding of the Column. As he could not afford this vindictive fine he fled to Switzerland where he lived out the rest of his life, painting (and drinking heavily) until his death in 1877. In 1919 his remains were returned to Ornans where he was interred in the local cemetery. (See HERE).....And HERE re Franco-Prussian War). Courbet's paintings include landscapes, nudes (some erotic), portraits, self portraits, and many scenes of ordinary people doing what ordinary people did.
Below: Considered to be one of Courbet's masterpieces, from 1850: Burial at Ornans. French critics were not impressed. It was, they claimed "too big and the figures were too ugly". It measures 21 feet by 10 feet -huge! It was customary for paintings of this size to be of religious or mythological subjects, and certainly not a peasant funeral in rural France.....the very idea!!
Sleeping Spinner
The Stone Breakers
Jo
The Source
The Draughts Players
The Guitarrero, Young Man in a Landscape
Les Demoiselles des bords de la Seine
Two young women resting at the edge of River Seine. Not women of the elegant bourgeoisie, but two very ordinary gals, one of whom has removed her dress and relaxes in her petticoat.
Courbet painted himself - lot! A collection of his self portraits can be seen at the blog Fifty Two Pieces
Three examples, top to bottom
: A Desperate Man; Man with Leather Belt; Man with Pipe.
