Gustave Courbet

Gustave Courbet (1819–1877) was a French painter and a central figure of Realism in 19th-century art. Born in Ornans, he moved to Paris in the 1840s and gained attention for large-scale scenes of everyday life, challenging academic conventions. Works such as *A Burial at Ornans* (1849–50) and *The Stone Breakers* (1849, destroyed) asserted the dignity of ordinary subjects and a direct, physical handling of paint. Courbet also painted landscapes, seascapes, and portraits. Politically engaged, he supported the Paris Commune in 1871 and was later imprisoned and held financially responsible for the Vendôme Column’s destruction. He died in Switzerland.