Page 50 - Courbet
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Fig. 54. Randon, Caricature of Courbet, Maître,‘Rien n’est plus A ll of these accounts are about Courbet’s
beau que le vrai, le vrai seul est aimable,’ Journal amusant, 15 June physical person, an imposing, dynamically
1867, from Charles Léger, Courbet selon les Caricatures et active presence as witnessed by the traces of
les Images, Paris, Paul Rosenberg, 1920, p. 68. his manual labour on the canvas. Champfleury avers that
Courbet’s energy, like the sun’s cannot be staunched.
Buchon says of Courbet: ‘As fast as he works, just as
copiously does he sleep. Carved in strength as he is,
put him at table, on a horse, at the hunt, swimming,
canoeing, harvesting, playing billiards, croquet or in a
good bed and you will see that he will magnificently
do honour to the situation.’ The image is of Courbet’s
healthy body and its natural functions, which seem
primarily athletic and in accordance with masculinity.
He is a kind of primitive, instinctual man. Buchon
adds, however, that whereas ‘… it is easy to see the
material results of Courbet’s labour … unless you
know him it is harder to recognise the intellectual
elaboration of his thinking. Courbet has never had
more than his magnificent gaze as education … He
knows little about history, the sciences or books; but
that does not prevent him from a profound knowledge
of nature and of men.’66
Fig. 55. Panoramic View of the Alps, Les Dents du Midi, 1877,The Here is my point: Courbet is a man who thinks with his
Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio. body, with his senses.That he loves women physically
seems to him a natural, therefore a justifiable, thing.
He is forthright about expressing it even if the result is
to objectify women in a way similar to the way he does
his landscapes – that is, rendering them as fields of
concrete, yet penetrable physical matter, with all the
ramifications that entails. He is at home in the places
where he paints. He feels at one with them. He has
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