Page 26 - Courbet

Fig. 22. Self-Portrait,The Desperate Man, 1844-45, Private Collection. Fig. 23. The Violincellist (Self-Portrait), 1847,
The Nationalmuseum, Stockholm.

portrait of sister Juliet and the troubadour-like, tightly handled Guitar Player.Then, in 1846, of eight paintings
Courbet submitted only Man with Leather Belt passed muster. Others represented landscapes, portraits, including
the couple known as The Happy Lovers, and a picture of a prisoner thought to be the Pirate Prisoner of the Bey of
Algiers.25 In 1847 Courbet’s three submissions were all refused.

This combination of fantasy and self-indulgence apparent in Courbet’s early paintings is corroborated by his
many self-portraits of the 1840s. He seems to have made more than any other well-known painter over a single
decade.26 Of course, the self is an inexpensive model, but in most of them Courbet strikes diverse, sometimes
unusual, and confounding poses as in The Desperate Man (Fig. 22).They are both experiments in expression and
rehearsals for a public persona.Why else would Courbet pose as a cellist (Fig. 23) when he played no musical
instrument?27 Letters to his parents from the 1840s reveal how ambitious he was to make a name for himself.28
And so he did, especially at the Salon of 1850-51 when he exhibited The Stonebreakers and A Burial at Ornans.As
he explained to his parents the following year ‘It’s impossible to say how many insults this year’s painting [The

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