Gustave Courbet

Private collects ion, Argentina (acquired circa 1920)
Private collects ion (acquired from the above in 2001)
Salander-O'Reilly Galleries, New York
Private collects ion, United States

New York, Salander-O'Reilly Galleries, Gustave Courbet, 2003
Los Angeles, The Getty Museum; Houston, The Museum of Replica Handbags s; and Baltimore, The Walters Art Museum, Courbet and the Modern Landscape, 2006-2007, no. 5

The following condition report was kindly provided by Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc.: This large painting is unlined, which is remarkable. There is an even pattern of cracking visible in the sky but this is certainly not reason to line the painting. There are no structural damages. Although there is possibly slight thinness to the darkest colors in the upper left, I find the condition of the paint layer overall to be very good. There is a fairly large reinforcement on the reverse, corresponding to a damage in the lower right quadrant. It seems that in this area there is a break in the canvas and associated paint loss which has been retouched. These losses may extend for six to eight inches. In addition to that, there are hardly any restorations and those that are noticeable under ultraviolet light are quite randomly and loosely applied. Despite this structural damage, I like the condition very much.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Replica Shoes 's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Replica Shoes 's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Replica Shoes 's or the Seller."

Gustave Courbet is probably more associated with his representations of the life and landscape of his native region in the Jura than with any other motif, from his Burial at Ornans to his depictions of the source of the Loue and his numerous hunt scenes.  His native landscape became a rugged muse for him, and the body of work that he created en plein air became a kind of extended self-portrait. The unt.mes d landscape of steep cliffs, rocky pastures and shadowed valleys conveyed a savage spirit that critics often associated with Courbet’s personality (Mary Morton, Courbet and the Modern Landscape, exh. cat., Los Angeles, 2006, p. 55).

Courbet frequently returned to his home from Paris, painting in his studio and capturing particular locations. The present work is set along the Valley of the Loue, between the river's source and the first village along its winding path, Mouthier-Haute-Pierre. The work is closely related to those completed during a stay in the Franche-Comté in 1864-65, in which he painted noted geographical sites from Ornans to Salins and Pontarlier. Sarah Faunce says of the work:

"This painting, like all of Courbet's best landscapes, transmits a powerful sense of the real, of the solidity of the actual, without being in the least literal or descriptive as an image. Close examination shows a structure of paint-handling that is very far from that which is normally associated with any kind of optical "realism". There are clusters of different paint applications that conjure up an open, almost floating world. We feel present at a given place and at the same t.mes in the presence of a complex network of pigments applied by palette knives and brushes, together in this case with the very deft use of the dark-grained canvas as a method of modeling. The particularity of Courbet's use of this technique is that the touch is not structured or unitary, but widely varied, united only by a common energy. All of this activity perceived at the painter's distance from the surface is then transformed, at a regular viewing distance and well beyond, to a visual experience of the utmost three-dimensional solidity and special depth" (Sarah Faunce, letter of January 10, 2008).

The manifest paint quality of the present work reveals that, despite his focus on principles regarding Realism of subject, as well his denial of any master and protestations that the painter's art could not be taught, Courbet was a predominant master of painting. It is, perhaps, in his best landscape works, such as the present piece, where his desire for social provocation is entirely removed, where Courbet the painter can be best perceived and appreciated.