Jean Désiré
Gustave Courbet (French: 1819 – 1877)
was a French painter who led the Realist movement in 19th-century French
painting. The Realist movement bridged the Romantic movement (characterized by
the paintings of Théodore Géricault and Eugène Delacroix) with the Barbizon
School and the Impressionists. Courbet occupies an important place in 19th
century French painting as an innovator and as an artist willing to make bold
social statements through his work. “I am fifty years old and I have always
lived in freedom; let me end my life free; when I am dead let this be said of
me: 'He belonged to no school, to no church, to no institution, to no academy,
least of all to any régime except the régime of liberty.'
