Gustave Courbet Cross Stitch Kits & Patterns (2)
Gustave Courbet (1819–1877) was the original artistic rebel — the man who looked at the grand traditions of French Academic painting, with its mythological subjects, its idealised figures, and its carefully maintained hierarchies of what counted as serious art, and decided that ordinary people, ordinary landscapes, and ordinary life were not just worthy subjects for painting but the only subjects that really mattered. He called his approach Realism, founded it essentially by himself, and promoted it with the kind of cheerful, combative self-confidence that made him either enormously entertaining or completely exhausting depending on how much time you spent in his company.
Courbet was, by all accounts, a force of nature in human form. Large, loud, bearded, and magnificently self-assured, he described himself without apparent irony as the greatest painter of his era, challenged the French establishment at every opportunity, and organised his own one-man exhibition — the Pavilion of Realism — outside the 1855 Paris Universal Exhibition when the jury rejected his submissions, essentially inventing the concept of the independent artist exhibition in the process. He was also genuinely brilliant, which helped considerably with the self-promotion.
His paintings are as bold as his personality. The Stone Breakers — two labourers breaking rocks on a road, painted with the same dignity and attention previously reserved for heroes and gods — was a deliberate provocation to Academic values and a genuine masterwork of social observation. The Origin of the World — which we will leave you to look up if you haven't already — was so startling that it was hidden from public view for over a century. His landscapes of the Jura region, his seascapes, and his hunting scenes are painted with a physical, sensuous engagement with the natural world that makes them feel genuinely alive. He was also an enthusiastic fisherman, which gives his river paintings a particular authority.
His life ended in exile in Switzerland after his involvement in the Paris Commune of 1871 — he was held responsible for the toppling of the Vendôme Column and fined an enormous sum for its restoration, which he was still paying off when he died. To the end, he maintained that he had done nothing wrong. In counted cross stitch, Courbet's bold, physical realism, rich earthy palette, and magnificent landscape compositions translate into designs of genuine visual power and natural beauty. Browse our Gustave Courbet cross stitch kit collection and choose a premium Courbet cross stitch kit or download a Gustave Courbet cross stitch pattern instantly.
