Courbet, Ornans and 1854–55 When Gustave Courbet painted Les Cribleuses de blé (The Grain Sifters) in 1854–55, he was in his mid-thirties and had already become one of the most contentious figures in French painting. Born in 1819 at Ornans, a small town in the Doubs close to the Swiss border, Courbet came from aContinue reading “An Elusive Realism: Gustave Courbet’s Les Cribleuses de blé (The Grain Sifters).”
Tag Archives: French painting
Corot: A Girl Reading
A young woman sits absorbed in a small book, her head inclined towards its pages in quiet concentration. Corot has reduced the setting to little more than a subdued arrangement of warm browns and ochres, relieved by the white of her blouse and the open pages before her, while the deep red of her jacketContinue reading “Corot: A Girl Reading”
