In communication, this is known as posterity.
It has to be said that the artist was not amongst those who never voiced their opinions and lived quietly. Gustave Courbet was a politically active French realist painter and one of the most powerful and also complex painters of the 19th century. He had, it seems, the reputation of being as brutal and arrogant in life as he was subtle and delicate in his paintings.
Thirty years after the last big monographic exhibition in Paris, the Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais are presenting over 120 paintings, some 30 graphic works and around 60 photos. Examples of subjects to be addressed: the interpretation of hunting scenes, the relationships between the newly emerging art of photography and the work of Courbet, and its decisive influence on artists of his time…Lots of new discoveries in store at the Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, this autumn!

F.H.R.

Photo © Michel Nguyen, « Le Désespéré, 1843-45, Oil on canvas, 45 x 54 cm, Private collection, courtesy of Conseil Investissement Art BNP Paribas »