''The Stone Breakers'' (french: Les Casseurs de pierres) was an 1849 painting by the

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

painter

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 ...

. It was a work of

realism Realism, Realistic, or Realists may refer to: In the arts *Realism (arts), the general attempt to depict subjects truthfully in different forms of the arts Arts movements related to realism include: * Classical Realism *Literary realism, a mov ...

, depicting two peasants, a young man and an old man, breaking rocks. ''The Stone Breakers'' 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 ar ...

of 1850. As a work of

the subject matter addressed a scene of everyday life. This painting was intended to show the hard labor that poor citizens experienced. Courbet did not show the figure's faces, they represent the "every man" and are not meant to be specific individuals. At the same time the clothing of the figures implies some degree of individuality, the younger man's pants are too short and the older man's vest is striped. The painting was destroyed during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, along with 154 other pictures, when a transport vehicle moving the pictures to the castle of Königstein, near

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label= Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth ...

, was bombed by Allied forces in February 1945.''Masterpieces of Dresden: Picture-Gallery "New Masters"'' by Hans Joachim Neidhardt (1994).

References

Paintings by Gustave Courbet Lost paintings 1849 paintings {{19C-painting-stub