Gustave Courbet's Career Through 10 Key Paintings

A DailyArt Magazine feature examines Gustave Courbet's oeuvre via ten representative works, tracing his evolution from Romantic self-portraits to Realist provocations, landscapes, and still lifes. The article highlights his self-portraits like 'Self-Portrait with Black Dog' (1842–1844) and 'The Desperate Man' (1843–1845), which show his stylistic exploration and self-confidence. His breakthrough 'After Dinner at Ornans' (1849) won a gold medal at the Salon, despite its monumental scale and ordinary subjects. In 1850, he exhibited 'The Stone Breakers', 'The Burial at Ornans', and 'The Peasants of Flagey'—large canvases depicting provincial lower classes with distorted space and harsh lighting, shocking Parisian audiences. 'The Wheat Sifters' (1855) portrays his sisters in menial labor, while 'Young Ladies on the Banks of the Seine' (1857) introduces a controversial eroticism. By the 1860s, Courbet focused on landscapes of Ornans and seascapes like 'The Wave' (1869), using heavy impasto and palette knives. His portraits include philosopher Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (1865) and poet Charles Baudelaire. After imprisonment for his role in the Paris Commune (1871), he painted still lifes like 'Still Life with Apples and a Pomegranate' (1871–1872). The article concludes with 'The Painter’s Studio' (1854–1855), a complex allegory summing up his artistic life.