''The Hammock'' (French: ''Le Rêve'', German: ''Die Hängematte'') is an 1844
oil painting
Oil painting is a painting method involving the procedure of painting with pigments combined with a drying oil as the Binder (material), binder. It has been the most common technique for artistic painting on canvas, wood panel, or oil on coppe ...
by the French
artist
An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating the work of art. The most common usage (in both everyday speech and academic discourse) refers to a practitioner in the visual arts o ...
Gustave Courbet. It depicts a partially nude young woman sleeping on a
hammock
A hammock, from Spanish , borrowed from Taíno language, Taíno and Arawak language, Arawak , is a sling made of fabric, rope, or netting, suspended between two or more points, used for swing (seat), swinging, sleeping, or Human relaxation, res ...
in a shady, wooded glade with a brook passing nearby. It makes reference to
Victor Hugo
Victor-Marie Hugo, vicomte Hugo (; 26 February 1802 – 22 May 1885) was a French Romanticism, Romantic author, poet, essayist, playwright, journalist, human rights activist and politician.
His most famous works are the novels ''The Hunchbac ...
's 1829 poem ''Sara the Bather''. It was submitted to the
Salon of 1845 at the
Louvre
The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is a national art museum in Paris, France, and one of the most famous museums in the world. It is located on the Rive Droite, Right Bank of the Seine in the city's 1st arrondissement of Paris, 1st arron ...
in
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
, but rejected by the authorities.
The painting is in the
Reinhart Collection at
Am Römerholz in
Winterthur
Winterthur (; ) is a city in the canton of Zurich in northern Switzerland. With over 120,000 residents, it is the country's List of cities in Switzerland, sixth-largest city by population, as well as its ninth-largest agglomeration with about 14 ...
in
Switzerland
Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...
.
[https://www.roemerholz.ch/sor/en/home/museum/the-collection/periods/britain-and-france--19th-century--neoclassicism--romanticism-and/gustave-courbet--the-hammock-1844.html]
References
Bibliography
* Bade, Patrick. ''Gustave Courbet and artworks''. Parkstone International, 2014.
* Lindsay, Jack. ''Gustave Courbet: His Life and Art''. Adams and Dart, 1973.
* Søland, Birgitte, Benninghaus, Christina & Maynes, Mary Jo (ed.) ''Secret Gardens, Satanic Mills: Placing Girls in European History, 1750-1960''. Indiana University Press, 2005.
1844 paintings
Paintings by Gustave Courbet
Oil on canvas paintings
Nude paintings of women
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