Page 18 - Courbet

In a number of his early pictures Courbet
represented himself in the company of a young
woman who is always clothed. In one, he is
part of a pair of lovers under a great oak tree.3 In
another, The Happy Lovers, or Lovers in the Countryside
(Fig. 9), signed and dated 1844, Courbet and a
woman resembling the one in our picture are
dancing cheek to cheek in a country setting.4 At
some time in the 1840s Courbet began an affair
with one of his models. Her name was Virginie
Binet. Despite several of Courbet’s pictures being
presumed to represent Virginie, for example a
drawing recently on the art market (Fig. 10), there
is no proof that any of them actually do so.5 In
1847, Virginie gave birth to a son. Life for the two
of them must not have been easy for in 1852 she left
Courbet. She headed north with their youngster,
Alfred-Emile Binet (1847-1872), returning to her
native Channel town of Dieppe, which she had
abandoned for Paris years before. Courbet never
legitimised the boy and so he bore his mother’s
surname. Once in Dieppe, Virginie soon married
someone whose identity has yet to be determined.
There are no other traces of her whereabouts.6

Fig. 9. The Happy Lovers, or Lovers in the Countryside, 1844, At home in Ornans, Courbet was the only son.
Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lyon. He had three sisters to whom he was very close
(Fig. 11); three other siblings had died either in

childbirth or as young children. One may suppose that such events strengthened the ties of the four who

survived them. Surrounded by women and parents who admired him unconditionally, Courbet was in all

likelihood sufficiently self-assured that he played the the rogue outside the home. It is equally likely that,

as his upwardly mobile family’s best hope for future status, he was spoiled by his situation. His father had

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