Gustave Courbet

Words: 1414
Pages: 6

Gustave Courbet is very well known for his Realism painting. As both readings of Nochlin and Chang are read and examined, we can really start to understand Courbet’s reasoning for painting the way he does, and what his influences are. In the readings, both authors discuss in detail about one of Courbet’s paintings, The Meeting made in 1854. Each scholar has different ideas and arguments about this very important painting.
In Nochlin’s article, she has a broader sense of the representation of the painting The Meeting by Gustave Courbet. Rather then focusing on the little details, she focuses on the Realism within Courbet’s painting and as well gives more examples of Realism in some of Courbet’s other paintings. She first begins to argue how
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At the time Courbet was painting this image, he became very familiar with the Wandering Jew legend with both written and pictorial representations from Champfleury, a good friend of his. Nochlin explains that this legend isn’t so simple, but rather very complex. As we can tell this theme was important for Courbet because he has at least two other works Nochlin brought up in the reading. These two pieces, The Apostle, Jean Journet, Setting Off for the Conquest of Universal Harmony of 1850 and A Beggar’s Alms of 1868, gave more insight to some of the many ideas that Courbet had at the time of representing realism in a Wandering Jew …show more content…
The patron’s cane casts a mere inch of shadow on the ground and the servant bows his head to avoid the gaze of Courbet. Courbet stands with the most confidence and has his head tilted up to emphasize that he has the longest beard. The hats between all three of the figures were very inconsistent and struck the most questioning. The appearance of Bruyas hat is unseen so we are unsure of the class from that. What we can see though is the servant’s cap. The gold band suggests the elegance of his owner. Finally, she discusses the importance of hat positions pertaining to class and high society. This is prevalent in the way each figure is gesturing towards each