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Is Courbet a Political Painter?
Are A Burial at Ornans and The Artists's Studio secretly political paintings?
Gustave Courbet died in exile as a result of his political choices. However, his involvement in the Paris Commune does not justify his reputation as a politically engaged painter. If his paintings were political, they were only understood by those in the know.
Chapter 1 - From Painter to Communard
Gustave Courbet was an elected official and took part in the founding of the Third Republic and served as a representative of the Commune. However, after being found guilty of being responsible for the destruction of the Vendôme Column, he was heavily fined and fled the country.
Chapter 2 - Courbet's Trilogy: Subject and Form
His famous trilogy of realist paintings, A Burial at Ornans, The Peasants of Flagey and The Stone Breakers, deserves formal analysis. His work on composition and lighting did not respect the pictorial conventions of history painting, causing great scandal and caricature.
Chapter 3 - Political Analysis of A Burial at Ornans
A thorough analysis of the critical response to A Burial at Ornans suggests that the painting went against the established sociopolitical order. Some interpretations, such as those by T.J. Clark and Jean-Luc Mayaud, even suggest that the painting was an insult to Parisians or an encoded political revolt.
Chapter 4 - The Proudhon of Painting, The Artist's Studio
Gustave Courbet's The Artist's Studio can be interpreted as a painting with a hidden message. It could be a tribute to the ideas of Proudhon, a theorist of anarchism and socialism, or it could be Courbet's version of the Last Judgement. Hélène Toussaint's interpretations make the latter theory seem very credible.
Bibliography
Jean-Luc MAYAUD, Courbet, l'Enterrement à Ornans : un tombeau pour la République, La Boutique de l'histoire éditions, 1999
T.J. Clark, Image of the People – Gustave Courbet and the 1848 Revolution, Thames and Hudson, 1973
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, Du Principe de l'art et de sa destination sociale, Garnier frères,1865
James Henry Rubin, Realism and Social Vision in Courbet and Proudhon, Princetone University Press, 1980
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