Gustave Courbet

Gustave Courbet (1819–1877) is considered to have introduced the practice of socially engaged painting, and he is viewed as one of the most important repre­sentatives of Realism. The direct and honest depic­tions of this artistic tendency—which ascribed to representing things as they are—challenged the ide­alized subject matter of academic painting and scan­dalized the Parisian society of the nine...