Courbet, Gustave (1819–1877)

Gustave Courbet was a nineteenth‐century French Realist who countered the prevailing method of painting that idealized subjects. Courbet pledged to paint only what he saw. His art was revolutionary in style but not necessarily in political themes. Courbet's controversial paintings gained him notoriety and publicity at a time when conservatives equated Realist painters with political radicals. A general tenet of nineteenth‐century painting was that only important events should be painted on large canvases; however, Courbet intentionally painted everyday scenes on them, possibly suggesting that the common people were as important as the upper classes. During the February 1848 revolution that overthrew the July Monarchy, Courbet sketched an image of a man brandishing a rifle on a barricade for publication in a newspaper; however, he refused to fight in the revolution or the June insurrection.