Who Is Gustave Courbet?

Have you ever seen Courbet’s paintings? Art can be found anywhere around the world, and it is interesting for the majority of people. Art can be created in many ways, shapes, and forms with different materials to make one piece of art. Also, art can tell us a lot about an artist. There are three main factors that make Courbet’s biography exciting, which are his life, amazing paintings, and his role in forming modernism.

Gustave Courbet had an interesting life. Courbet was born on June 10 in1819 to a wealthy family, who owned a large scale farmer in Ornan, France (Herding n.p.). He was a famous “French painter and writer”(Herding n.p.). The most important factors in his life are the social and geographical circumstances (Herding n.p.). Then, he began to fascinate and want to learn more about art. Therefore, he went to receive art training lessons in several institutions, and his first art teacher was Pere Baud, who he met in 1833 at the Petit Seminaire. Then, he moved to Paris in 1839 to attend the independent private academies and also received advice from Nicolas Auguste Hesse (Herding n.p.). Moreover, he traveled a lot to sketch paintings in many countries and gathered more experience in mainly portraits (Herding n.p.). He began to shock the public with his paintings by showing the scenes of urban people and nude content. Consequently, “he was still alone for a long time” (Herding n.p.). Despite shocking the public, his achievement is also essential.

Courbet had a lot of accomplishment. Courbet’s first accomplishment was to embark on a conventional training as a painter (Herding n.p.). In Paris, he achieved his real breakthrough with three works that were exhibited merely at the Salon, which were the “Stone- Breaker,” “A Burial at Ornans,” and “The Peasants of Flaggy Returning from the Fair”(Herding n.p.). Additionally, “he remained attached to France- Comte because it is peasants throughout his life, plus portraying rural life in many pictures” (Herding n.p.). Furthermore, his imaginative paintings of a huge number of seascapes, beach, and wave pictures, which marked a new zenith in his career (Herding n.p.). Not only are his achievements, which turned him into a well- known person, but his impact on the world is crucial to the history of art.

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Gustave Courbet impacted the world. He was considered as one of the fathers of a modern artist in the nineteenth century. Also, he motivated the realist movement, and he took part in political views to influence the development of Modernism. “Courbet was influenced by strong political views and formed a paradigm of Realism”(Herding n.p.). To clarify, he took everyday actions of common people and put them in his paintings (Herding n.p.). “Realism is essentially democratic art, and he claims that art is completely individual and for each artist, it is only the talent that results from his own inspiration and his own study of tradition” (Herding n.p.). Courbet’s opinion led him into conflict with the government of the Second Empire, who prohibited the public sales of his art (Herding n.p.).  The government didn’t understand the democracy of art; they didn’t like his subject matter, particularly nude content. Together with his life, achievements, and his role in creating the Modernism movement, he became one of the greatest artists of all time.

All in all, Gustave Courbet’s profile is impressive his usual life, attractive paintings, and his position as a revolutionist against modernism. Perhaps, Courbet may have been a silly and controversial artist; however, he never stopped his passion about what he believed or what he wanted to do. If we learn from Courbet, it will inspire us in a sense that does not give up what you are doing because it could become the most significant things you have done in your life.

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