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GUSTAVE COURBET (1819-1877)

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Originally appearing in Volume V07, Page 319 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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COURBET (1819-1877)  , See also:French painter, was See also:born at Ornans (See also:Doubs) on the loth of See also:June 1819 . He went to See also:Paris 111 1839, and worked at the studio of See also:Steuben and See also:Hesse; but his See also:independent spirit did not allow him to remain there See also:long, as he preferred to See also:work out his own way by the study of See also:Spanish, Flemish and French painters . His first See also:works, an " See also:Odalisque," suggested by See also:Victor See also:Hugo, and a " Lelia," illustrating See also:George See also:Sand, were See also:literary subjects; but these he soon abandoned for the study of real See also:life . Among other works he painted his own portrait with his See also:dog, and " The See also:Man with a See also:Pipe," both of which were rejected by the See also:jury of the See also:Salon; but the younger school of critics, the neo-romantics and realists, loudly sang the praises of See also:Courbet, who by 1849 began to be famous, producing such pictures as " After See also:Dinner at Ornans " and " The Valley of the See also:Loire." The Salon of 185o found him triumphant with the " See also:Burial at Ornans," the " See also:Stone-Breakers " and the " Peasants of Flazey." His See also:style still gained in individuality, as in " See also:Village Damsels " (1852), the " Wrestlers," " Bathers," and "A Girl See also:Spinning " (1852) . Though Courbet's realistic work is not devoid of importance, it is as a landscape and See also:sea painter that he will be most honoured by posterity . Sometimes, it must be owned, his See also:realism is rather coarse and brutal, but when he paints the forests of Franche-See also:Comte, the " See also:Stag-Fight," " The See also:Wave," or the " Haunt of the Does," he is inimitable . When Courbet had made a name as an artist he See also:grew ambitious of other See also:glory; he tried to promote democratic and social See also:science, and under the See also:Empire he wrote essays and See also:dissertations . His refusal of the See also:cross of the See also:Legion of See also:Honour, offered to him by See also:Napoleon III., made him immensely popular, and in 1871 he was elected, under the See also:Commune, to the chamber . Thus it happened that he was responsible for the destruction of the See also:Vendome See also:column . A See also:council of See also:war, before which he was tried, condemned him to pay the cost of restoring the column, 300,000 francs (b2,000) . To See also:escape the See also:necessity of working to the end of his days at the orders of the See also:State in See also:order to pay this sum, Courbet went to Switzer-See also:land in 1873, and died at La Tour du Peilz, on the 31st of See also:December 1877, of a disease of the See also:liver aggravated by intemperance . An See also:exhibition of his works was held in 1882 at the Ecole See also:des See also:Beaux-Arts .

See Champfleury, See also:

Les Grandes Figures d'hier et d'aujourd' hui (Paris, 1861) ; Mantz, " G . Courbet," Gaz. des beaux-arts (Paris, 1878) ; See also:Zola, See also:Mes Haines (Paris, 1879) ; C . See also:Lemonnier, Les Peintres de la See also:Vie (Paris, 1888) . (H .

End of Article: GUSTAVE COURBET (1819-1877)
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