Gustave Courbet. Georges Riat

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      On the gravedigger’s right, standing upright in his black frock coat and holding his top hat appears Monsieur Proudhon, cousin of the philosopher, deputy justice of the peace. Behind is the mayor, Prosper Teste de Sagey, whose simple appearance contrasts with his neighbour’s. Near him is Bertin, wiping his face with his handkerchief, and above him Courbet’s father, in right profile. Beside him is Adolphe Marlet, a friend of the artist; then Sage, in a top hat and the deputy mayor, Tony Marlet the younger, who had studied law in Paris. Finally, near a magnificent pointer that has wandered into the cemetery, probably not unusual in a village during such ceremonies, are the two veterans of 1793, dressed the French style of breeches, white and blue stockings and pumps, decorated waistcoats, wide cravats and old-style bicorne hats. On the right is old Monsieur Secrétan, a wine maker, his hand outstretched, and on the left is old Monsieur Cardet, his arms crossed, looking thoughtful.

      The women fill the right-hand portion of the painting, separated from the men, as in church. The artist’s mother is against the edge of the canvas, seen from the left in three-quarter view, wearing a black coiffe and holding the hand of a pretty girl, who is Teste’s daughter. Her own three daughters are behind the veterans of 1793; Juliette is on the left, a handkerchief over her mouth, in the centre is the exuberant Zoé, her face hidden in grief and on the right is the thoughtful Zélie. The woman in the hooded cape is “the” Joséphine Bocquin, and Promayet’s mother, Célestine Garmont, is also there, her bonnet falling in large folds. Françoise, the wife of Alexandre the hunchback, is next, then Félicité Bon, wife of Gagey the stone breaker, the fourth in the first row, by some rocks.

      A drawing, which is now in the museum of Besançon, shows the first conception of A Burial at Ornans, which is definitely not as satisfactory as the final version. Courbet had first seen the cortège as moving towards the grave, the priest, the pallbearers and the gravedigger positioned on the left-hand side of the painting. The final arrangement of the cortège, having reached its destination, is better suited for producing the effect desired by the artist. He wanted to show a country funeral, at the moment of the final separation, viewed by the men with calm or scepticism, in most cases, and more melodramatically by the women; the priest and the gravedigger completely detached and unmoved.

      As enormous as the work required for this had been, Courbet’s energy was still not exhausted. In addition to the landscapes around the ruins of the Saint-Denis tower, in Scey-en-Varais, that he would paint for relaxation, he began a third very large composition, Peasants of Flagey returning from the Fair, also known as Return from the Fair.

      This burst of activity took up the winter of 1849–1850. Courbet inquired whether the Salon would be held in the month of May, in which case he was afraid that he wouldn’t have time to finish everything for the exhibition. This was a needless concern since, owning to political events (conflict between the Legislative Assembly and the prince-president, Louis Napoleon, with a gradual build-up to the coup d’Etat) the Salon was put off until the 30th of December 1850.

      At the same time, Courbet complained of not hearing from his friend Wey, and he thought the reason was that he had not sent his condolences at the death of Wey’s father. Thus he decided to apologise in a most peculiar way. He stated that did not grieve for the deceased because he was convinced that one grieved only for selfish reasons. Additionally, one man’s life was “not directly useful to another’s” and there are better ways to use one’s time than to grieve for the departed. Sorrow was a good thing, but it had to be shared in person, never by letter and if it weren’t that he was afraid of tiring him, he would write him “four pages” of it. His abstention was not an oversight and it should be taken for what it was, and not for what it was supposed to be. This instance is very telling about Courbet psychologically; here we see the troublesome tendency of his mind to philosophise about feelings and ideas, when in fact it was better able to grasp daily situations. The painter took himself for a philosopher, just as he did a musician. That would be the cause of all his difficulties, in art as in politics. He had been born a marvellous instinctive artist; instinctive he should have remained.

      Another letter to Wey revealed a new preoccupation; “In our civilised society, I must lead the life of a savage; I must free myself even from governments. My sympathies lie with the people; I must go to them directly, I must draw my wisdom from them, and they must give me life. For that reason, I have just embarked on the grand, independent and vagabond life of the bohemian.”

      Therefore, he set up two exhibitions of his works, in Besançon and Dijon, and decided that they would have an entrance fee. In Besançon, the mayor made the concert hall in the central market pavilion available to Courbet for free. More than two hundred and fifty people, “presenting 50 centimes from their pockets, their very own pockets”, came to see the works. It was a different story in Dijon, in late July. With soldiers camped everywhere, the mayor had no available space and Courbet had to rent a room in a cafe building. In addition, the city was divided into two clearly opposing camps, the Reds, republicans, and the Whites, conservatives, and the cafe in question was run by a Red, and patronised exclusively by persons of his persuasion. Not a single White came to see the exhibition, and the republicans alone, whether because their purses were flat or because art was of little interest to them, could not make up for this. Courbet, their partisan, had in fact reversed his earlier decision to require an entry fee, and since he was renting the room at ten francs a day, he quickly packed up “without covering his expenses” and went back to Paris.

      No sooner had he arrived than artists “of all sorts” and “society people also” came to see his new works. Everyone agreed that they would make a huge impression at the next Salon. “Their fame is all over Paris; wherever I go, everyone talks about them.”

      Courbet as a Socialist Painter

      The Salon for the years 1850–1851 opened its doors at last on the 30th of December 1850. The regulations determined that there would be two juries; one for acceptances, nominated by the artists, the other in charge of awarding prizes, composed of thirteen elected members and of seventeen appointed by the minister of the Interior. All the works submitted by Courbet had been accepted. They were: A Burial at Ornans, Peasants of Flagey returning from the Fair, The Stone Breakers, Portrait of Monsieur Jean Journet, View and Ruins of the Castle of Scey-en-Varais, Banks of the Loue on the way to Maizières, Portrait of Hector Berlioz and Man with a Pipe. Scandal and success were immediate and enormous; “The works of Courbet are causing quite a stir, widely attacked, and widely defended. This fellow has his disparagers and his fans; he is none the less one of the leading players of the Salon.” Courbet was СКАЧАТЬ