The exhibition, which runs until April 20, questions the story of the origins of the country’s child thanks to the loan of 80 rare works and documents, including 40 works from the painter’s youth, often little-known.
It is organized into four parts: “The origin of his world”, “The arrival in Paris of the ambitious Gustave”, “Walking towards the salon”, “And Gustave created Courbet”.
“Since in everything and everywhere I must always be an exception to the general rule, I am going to pursue my destiny…” wrote Gustave Courbet (1819-1877) in a letter to his parents in 1837.
From the start of his studies in Besançon, this son of a family of rich farmers from Ornans did not hide the fact that he intended to embrace the “painter profession”.
“Moved to Paris” in November 1839, with the support of his family, the young stuttering man rented his first workshops and continued his training.
“He is one of the copyists of the Louvre: copying is an essential element of his training,” underlines Carine Joly, curator of the Gustave Courbet Institute.
On loan from the Louvre Museum, Guido Reni’s work, “Christ with a Reed” (1636), as well as two copies of this painting attributed to Courbet illustrate this period of his life.
At the beginning of the 1840s, the young painter traveled to Paris and his own artistic personality emerged.
The exhibition thus shows his first personal essays, of uneven quality, such as his first large format, “Boat trip” or “Lot and his daughters”.
Visitors will also be able to leaf through a reproduction of Courbet’s first sketchbook. “It’s extremely touching to follow the artist in his first drawings. We see that he loves to travel,” rejoices Bruno Mottin, honorary curator of heritage at the Center for Research and Restoration of Museums of France.
In 1844, the culmination of his training finally arrived with the self-portrait “Courbet with the black dog”, accepted at the Official Salon. Through this work, he began to make a name for himself.
The last part of the exhibition thus presents “an incredible collection” of the painter’s self-portraits – “The man with the leather belt”, “Lovers in the countryside, feeling of young age”, “The wounded man ” -, according to Mr. Mottin, accompanied by their x-ray which reveals in particular the artist’s work and retouching to achieve the final result.
“The self-confident Courbet, the melancholic Courbet, the loving Courbet… They are the culmination of his training and his journey. It is through them that he will ultimately be accepted,” believes the curator of the Courbet Museum, Benjamin Foudral.
For this one, “this young Gustave became Courbet in 1844, for the first time publicly, and said to himself that the destiny he had given himself in Franche-Comté was perhaps the right one”.
