Gallery
Gustave Courbet (1819 -1877)
View at Ornans, 1864
In this realist painting of rural life the rich, dense greens of the landscape contrast starkly with the luminosity of the sky. To the left are some of the houses of Ornans, Courbet's home-town in the Jura, not far from the Swiss border, and at the bottom right hay is being gathered in. As this is principally a landscape the human activity in it (the hay-making) is subordinate. Nevertheless, in a painting by Courbet it cannot fail to remind us of his preoccupation with the ordinary activities of life as a prime subject for art, a preoccupation not shared by the art establishment of his day.
Gustave Courbet
As far as painting is concerned Courbet became the central figure of the 19th century Realist Movement. He described his work as a record of "the manners, ideals and aspect of the age as he himself saw it". In other words, he chose to record the real, contemporary world as he understood it, painted in his own personal style. He placed special emphasis on the ordinary routine of day-to-day rural and urban life.
Activities, discussions and questions
» Compare and Contrast - Compare Courbet's
scene of a rural, working life with Boucher's scene of workers at a
mill. What are the differences in their painting techniques, composition
and content? Can you spot any similarities? (Can be done with a variety
of landscape styles).
» Working Life - Make studies of everyday people
at work or on their way to work. This doesn't need to be done in a
rural location (Lowry painted many people on their way to work in the
factories). Use these to 'populate' a landscape painting.
If you are depicting urban rather than rural life, then you should
paint a townscape/cityscape as your backdrop.
» Getting into the Salon - The Paris Salon, like the royal Academy, was an annual exhibition of contemorary paintings and other works of art. The Salon had particularly
strong ideas about what makes a painting worthy of display. In his time
Courbet often went against the Salon's ideals, using different techniques
and depicting different scenes from those readily accepted. For example,
Courbet painted with a palette knife, creating a thick, rough texture
that went against the Salon's idea that a painting should be 'finished
off' to a perfectly smooth appearance.
Do you think an institution such as the Salon should have the right to decide what is and is not acceptable?
What if the Salon didn't make these decisions?
What do you think is important when we judge whether a piece of art is 'good enough'?
Gustave Courbet (1819 -1877)
View at Ornans, 1864
Material: Oil on Canvas
Dimensions: 129.5 cm x 86.3 cm
Place made: France
Accession No: B.M.531
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