Not only was Gustave Courbet’s class-conscious art subject matter alien to critics, but his uncompromising and painting technique, evolved to treat rural themes, was mostly immortalizing the common, middle and laboring classes of his home town…people with whom he was familiar. He was a leader of the Realist movement in painting which during the 1830s and 40s gave a rustic and charming insight of rural life to the Parisian public.
Courbet was renowned for his dexterity with the use of a palette knife. With it, he applied thin skins of opaque color that in a manner snagged the underneath layers, producing a fragile color-modulated surface.
Rather than study in the studios of Paris, he preferred to develop his own style of art by copying the great master’s works he found in the Louvre.
I had the pleasure of living in Germany as a sales manager for a company back in the 90s and, of course, when I could, I would hop on a train and zip over to Paris. I think the workers at the Louvre got to know me very well. What magnificent art…wow! I could see why an artist would want to develop his style and technique studying the great masters.
