Reviewing Gustave Courbet

Title of Article: Seductive Rebel Who Kept It Real
Author: Roberta Smith
Date of Publication: February 29, 2008
Source: The New York Times

Gustave Courbet has been classified by many as a controversial artist, rebellious, arrogant, and stubborn. In my opinion I feel as though he may be classified as an artist that is eccentric. I even dare to say that he has the fortitude to go against the traditional artistic work and explore art in a new light. Gustave Courbet’s work includes portraits, self-portraits, landscapes, nudes, group scenes, animals and hunting scenes. One of his controversial paintings includes one entitled, “Young Ladies on the Banks of the Seine” in 1856-1867. In that painting he overtly explored the possibilities of lesbianism and eroticism. Said painting shocked viewers and kept Courbet’s phrase of “epater le bourgeois,” translated meaning “shock the bourgeoisie,” alive. Another piece that captured my eye was the self-portrait entitled “The Desperate Man” in 1844-1845. He captures the angst and the tortured soul of an artist or of any person, with his bright eyes gleaming at the viewer. These are just a few examples of Gustave Courbet’s vast collection, in which as Roberta Smith best put it“ built elements of rebellion and dissent into the very forms and surfaces of his work.” Sometimes going against the masses, in this case for Gustave Courbet, was just a way of tapping into imagination that was yet to be discovered as ingenious.