Gustave Courbet - A Real Realist

Gustave Courbet - After Dinner at Ornans - 1849 - Oil on canvas, 195 x 257 cm - Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lille (click photo for larger image)French painter Gustave Courbet (1819-1877) challenged Romanticism so actively that he became the leader of the Realist movement. His aim was not to embellish or idealize reality--but to reproduce it accurately. In this regard, Courbet had a profound impact on Modern Art. He succeeded in avoiding what he believed were the artistic clichés, contrived idealism, and timeworn models of art. The work featured here--”After Dinner at Ornans”--is a large-scale composition that cemented Courbet’s reputation. Exhibited at the 1849 Salon, “After Dinner at Ornans” is set around a table in Caravaggesque fashion. It is a masterpiece of genre painting--and it won Courbet a gold medal that insured him exhibition rights at the Salon, without having to submit to a jurying process.

France's Musee D'orsay Opens Major Show of 19th Century Paintings At New Museum in China

A journalist takes photos of art work at a press preview of a major exhibition from France's Musee d'Orsay of paintings from the 19th century at the new modern art museum in Shanghai. The Musee d'Orsay opened the exhibition on November 16 with many of the 87 paintings by artists in the French Naturalism movement, including works by Gustave Courbet and Jean-Francois Millet being shown in China for the first time. AFP PHOTO/Peter PARKS.

“France's Musee d'Orsay ... opened a major exhibition of paintings from the 19th century at the new modern art museum in China's commercial hub of Shanghai.... Many of the 87 paintings by artists in the French Naturalism movement, including works by Gustave Courbet and Jean-Francois Millet, are being shown in China for the first time, exhibition organisers told a news conference.”

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