''The Wrestlers'' is a large 1853 painting by

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 t ...

, now in the Museum of Fine Arts in

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

]. It shows two men engaged in 'French wrestling', inspired by

Greco-Roman wrestling Greco-Roman (American English), Graeco-Roman (British English), classic wrestling (Euro English) or French wrestling (in Russia until 1948) is a style of wrestling that is practiced worldwide. Greco-Roman wrestling was included in the first mod ...

. Documents reveal that it shows a match in the former hippodrome on the

Champs-Élysées The Avenue des Champs-Élysées (, ; ) is an avenue in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, France, long and wide, running between the Place de la Concorde in the east and the Place Charles de Gaulle in the west, where the Arc de Triomphe is lo ...

in Paris. His choice of such a huge canvas inspired (among others)

Alexandre Falguière Jean Alexandre Joseph Falguière (also given as Jean-Joseph-Alexandre Falguière, or in short Alexandre Falguière) (7 September 183120 April 1900) was a French sculptor and painter. Biography Falguière was born in Toulouse. A pupil of the � ...

's 1875 ''The Wrestlers''. It was first exhibited at the

Paris Salon The Salon (french: Salon), or rarely Paris Salon (French: ''Salon de Paris'' ), beginning in 1667 was the official art exhibition of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Between 1748 and 1890 it was arguably the greatest annual or biennial art ...

in 1853 as the pendant to '' The Bathers''. In a letter to his parents dated 13 May 1853, Courbet said of ''The Wrestlers'' that "I have covered their nudity and he criticshave not yet said anything good or bad about it". By contrast, ''The Bathers'' divided the public and probably distracted attention from ''The Wrestlers''. He also revealed that he had re-used a frame from his 1841 painting ''St Walpurgis' Night'', inspired by the legend of

Faust Faust is the protagonist of a classic German legend based on the historical Johann Georg Faust ( 1480–1540). The erudite Faust is highly successful yet dissatisfied with his life, which leads him to make a pact with the Devil at a crossroads ...

and exhibited at the 1848 Salon - due to financial troubles he had had to re-use that canvas. In 1867 ''Wrestlers'' entered baron Léon Hirsch's collection at

Chenonceaux Chenonceaux () is a commune in the French department of Indre-et-Loire, and the region of Centre-Val de Loire, France. It is situated in the valley of the river Cher, a tributary of the Loire, about 26 km (16 mi) east of Tours and on ...

. It was bought in 1908 by

Ferenc Hatvany Baron Ferenc Hatvany (29 October 1881 – 7 February 1958) was a Hungarian painter and art collector. A son of Sándor Hatvany-Deutsch and a member of the , he graduated in the Académie Julian in Paris. His collection included paintings by Ti ...

(1881-1958), a rich Hungarian, who had also acquired ''

L'Origine du monde ("The Origin of the World") is a picture painted in oil on canvas by the French artist Gustave Courbet in 1866. It is a close-up view of the vulva and abdomen of a naked woman, lying on a bed with legs spread. History Identity of the model Ar ...

'' in 1913.« Courbet miraculé »
by Philippe Dagen, ''Le Monde'', 26 September 2007. It entered the Museum of Fine Arts in May 1952 and it was restored there in 2010. It was exhibited for the first time in France in sixty years in 2012 at the

Musée d'Orsay The Musée d'Orsay ( , , ) ( en, Orsay Museum) is a museum in Paris, France, on the Left Bank of the Seine. It is housed in the former Gare d'Orsay, a Beaux-Arts railway station built between 1898 and 1900. The museum holds mainly French art ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wrestlers, The Paintings by Gustave Courbet 1853 paintings Paintings in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts (Budapest) Wrestling in France Sports paintings Wrestling culture