Page 19 - Courbet

Fig. 10. Portrait of a woman Fig. 11. Courbet’s Sisters, Private Fig. 12. Fig. of a woman descending to a dreaming man,
seated, 1840s. Collection, Photograph courtesy c. 1845, Pencil on paper, sketchbook page, Musée du
of Christies. Louvre, Département des arts graphiques, Paris,
RF 29234, p. 46.

risen from peasant stock to become a property owner and mayor of the
nearby hamlet of Flagey. Courbet’s maternal grandfather was a notary.
It was not unusual that Courbet’s parents should look to their son to
advance to the professional class by studying law.

The rebellious Courbet disliked his studies and when in boarding school Fig. 13. Couple holding one another,
in Besançon he had taken up drawing, soon declaring that he wanted to c. 1845, Pencil on paper, sketchbook
be an artist. His persistence paid off when his father finally let him go page, Musée du Louvre,
to Paris, ostensibly to study law and with an allowance, but where the Département des arts graphiques,
patriarch surely suspected the prodigal son would do more. Yet despite Paris, RF 29234, p. 49.
outsized ambitions that differed with parental guidance, Courbet always
remained close to his family and his many hometown friends. He returned
there often. It is not surprising, therefore, that in his youth he entertained
the possibility of a family life similar to the one he knew when growing
up. Whether the birth of a son was a fulfilment of this ideal is impossible
to know, but in the context of his family background the fantasy implied
by Mother and Child on a Hammock may certainly be considered normal.

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