GUSTAVE COURBET | Le Lac de Starnberg, en Bavière

Bernheim Jeune, Paris (inv. no. 3046 12 82 BJ stencil on reverse)

Ernest Roure (by 1884. Roure was a French Senator and Mayor of Grasse, Provence)

With Rachoffer, Cannes (by 1952)

Private collection

Le Lac de Starnberg is one of a small number of works relating to Courbet's time in Bavaria, where he stayed from 1 October to 5 November 1869. Six of his paintings were included at that year's Internationale Kunstausstellung at the Glaspalast in Munich, including La Femme au perroquet and l'Hallali du cerf. Recognising his success, King Ludwig II of Bavaria inducted Courbet into the Royal Merit Order of Saint Michael. The present work appears to have been unknown to Robert Fernier, who included one other view of the Starnbergersee in his Courbet catalogue raisonné (no. 673), and is notable for its luminous palette and the impressionistic, painterly approach to the distant mountains.

Courbet's uncompromising work and charismatic personality caused a sensation in Munich, leaving a deep impression on many local artists, notably Wilhelm Leibl. It was on the Frenchman's recommendation that Leibl travelled to Paris that same year. While in Munich Courbet painted La Dame de Munich in two hours while in Wilhelm von Kaulbach's studio, a life-size nude which was later refused from the Salon of 1872 upon the intervention of Meissonier. 

To be included in the forthcoming Courbet catalogue raisonné by the Comité Gustave Courbet (letter dated 21 September 2019).