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Le Désespéré
(''The Desperate Man'' or ''Desperation'') is an oil-on-canvas self-portrait by , produced from 1843 to 1845, during his stay in Paris. It depicts Courbet as a young man staring in front of him with wide eyes, grasping his hair in desperation. It is now in the private collection of the but was displayed in the 's 2007 Courbet exhibition. Description The work is a self-portrait of Gustave Courbet who presents himself from the front, close-up, with his mouth half-open and his gaze plunging him into the spectator's. His eyes are wide and both his hands seem ready to pull out his hair. He wears a dark blue scarf loosely around his neck. The paleness of his face contrasts with the darkness of his hair and beard, all reinforced by the whiteness of the shirt. The light source accentuates the contrasts from above, on the left. History of the painting In the 1840s Courbet produced portraits of his friends and clients as well as self-portraits, including ''Self-Portrait with a Black ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gustave Courbet
Jean Désiré Gustave Courbet ( ; ; ; 10 June 1819 – 31 December 1877) was a French painter who led the Realism movement in 19th-century French painting. Committed to painting only what he could see, he rejected academic convention and the Romanticism of the previous generation of visual artists. His independence set an example that was important to later artists, such as the Impressionists and the Cubists. 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. Courbet's paintings of the late 1840s and early 1850s brought him his first recognition. They challenged convention by depicting unidealized peasants and workers, often on a grand scale traditionally reserved for paintings of religious or historical subjects. Courbet's subsequent paintings were mostly of a less overtly political character: landscapes, seascapes, hunting scenes, nudes, and still lifes. Courbet w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
