The title ‘realist’ has been imposed on me in the same way as the title ‘romantic’ was imposed on the men of 1830. Titles have never given the right idea of things; if they did, works would be unnecessary.
Without going into the question as to the rightness or wrongness of a label which, let us hope, no one is expected to understand fully, I would only offer a few words of explanation which may avert misconception.
I have studied the art of the ancients and moderns without any dogmatic or preconceived ideas. I have not tried to imitate the former or to copy the latter, nor have I addressed myself to the pointless objective of ‘art for art’s sake’. No – all I have tried to do is derive, from a complete knowledge of tradition, a reasoned sense of my own independence and individuality.
To achieve skill through knowledge – that has been my purpose. To record the manners, ideas and aspect of the age as I myself saw them – to be a man as well as a painter, in short to create living art – that is my aim.
Gustav Courbet (1855)
Jean Désiré Gustave Courbet; (10 June 1819 – 31 December 1877) was a French painter who led the Realism movement in 19th-century French painting. Committed to painting only what he could see, he rejected academic convention and the Romanticism of the previous generation of visual artists. His independence set an example that was important to later artists, such as the Impressionists and the Cubists. Courbet occupies an important place in 19th-century French painting as an innovator and as an artist willing to make bold social statements through his work.
Courbet's paintings of the late 1840s and early 1850s brought him his first recognition. They challenged convention by depicting unidealized peasants and workers, often on a grand scale traditionally reserved for paintings of religious or historical subjects. Courbet's subsequent paintings were mostly of a less overtly political character: landscapes, seascapes, hunting scenes, nudes, and still lifes. Courbet, a socialist, was active in the political developments of France. He was imprisoned for six months in 1871 for his involvement with the Paris Commune, and lived in exile in Switzerland from 1873 until his death.
A good starting point to read about Gustav Coubet is the book from Phaidon, written by James H. Rubin.
This explores Coubet’s life and work in a clear and compelling manner.
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This will be the general format of the Monday newsletter, a manifesto (or piece of art history writing) then a bit of blurb about person or movement concerned, then a link to a book that we think might interest you.
Though it could also have a book review tagged onto the end.
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Excerpt from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustave_Courbet accessed 17/01/23