Biography of Gustave Courbet: Childhood, Formation and the Beginnings of Realism

BIOGRAPHY

Jean Désiré Gustave Courbet was born on June 10, 1819, in Ornans, a small town in the heart of Franche-Comté, France. He was the eldest of four children from a united and prosperous family, thanks to the extensive properties of his father.

Courbet showed respect and affection for his family throughout his life. He left many portraits of them, sometimes among the figures of his large compositions. He had a similar fondness for his hometown, which he used as a backdrop for many of his works...

During his childhood while a student, Courbet loved being the center of attention and entertaining his classmates with his already demonstrated intelligence.

Although Courbet's general education was solid, his formal training in art began in a very simple way. At fourteen, he had lessons with a painter from Ornans who had been a student of the neoclassical painter Antoine-Jean Gros, which probably gave him an initial foundation. Encouraged by his father, he studied law at a local university, but was unhappy until a drawing teacher at the university invited him to take painting lessons in a home studio. This gave him more confidence in his artistic potential and convinced him to follow his passion.

In 1837, he moved to Besançon, where he learned his trade, in the studio of a follower of the painter David.

Courbet was twenty years old when he came to Paris to enroll in law school. He soon discarded this profession, preferring to attend the studio of Charles de Steuben. To perfect his art training, he copied the masters of the Louvre Museum such as Leonardo da Vinci, Peter Paul Rubens, Caravaggio and Ticiano. In the Spanish Gallery of Louis Philippe he discovered Diego Velázquez and Francisco de Zurbarán. Among his contemporary French artists, he liked Théodore Géricault and Eugène Delacroix, two masters of the Romanticism who painted many episodes of contemporary history.

Beyond the influences of the old masters and the romantics, he already revealed his ambition to lead the history of art through a personal style of painting.

In 1848, Courbet, who had exhibited few works at the Salon, finally had about ten paintings accepted. He was noticed and developed a friendship with the art critic Champfleury, and soon gained public recognition. However, some of his works were received with total incomprehension and caused indignation.

In the second half of the 19th century, the academic tradition required that large paintings have only historical, biblical, mythological or allegorical themes. Courbet ignored this convention by painting a domestic world familiar in various canvases. He considered that contemporary history, even if it was of ordinary people, deserved these large formats. By declaring that "artistic history is essentially contemporary", the artist expressed his desire to change the painting of history.

During this period, Courbet met Alfred Bruyas, a wealthy art collector who acquired the painting Os Banhistas. He became a patron of the artist, who could then live independently and gain great recognition both within and outside the country.

But history has a curious detail: To understand the rest of this journey, continue to our next article: Biography of Gustave Courbet: 'The Artist's Studio', Controversies and Engaged Realism.