Courbet, Gustave 1819-77
French painter

Born in Ornans, he had little formal art training and scorned the rigid classical outlook, preferring Flemish and Spanish models, especially Vel�zquez. The founder of Realism, in 1844 he began exhibiting pictures in which everyday scenes were portrayed with complete sincerity and no idealism, as in Peasants of Flagzey (1850, Mus�e des Beaux-Arts, Besan�on) and Burial at Ornans (1850, Mus�e d'Orsay, Paris), both of which were condemned as 'socialistic' though not painted with any political intent. Perhaps his most famous canvas is the large Studio of the Painter: an Allegory of Realism (1855), in the Louvre. Republican in sympathies, he joined the Commune in 1871, and on its suppression was imprisoned and fined for his part in the destruction of the Vend�me Column. On his release in 1873 he fled to Switzerland.