Courbet: To Venture Independence

In this book, one of the leading German social historians of art clarifies various aspects of Courbet's work, provides new information about this leader of the realist school as well as a new interpretation of his work. Courbet is presented as a man of many faces and Herding explains his attraction to various causes in terms of an artistic crisis in the mid 19th-century and not merely as personal instability. He discusses the subliminal social meanings of Courbet's landscape paintings, showing that they provided a way to express his feelings of personal freedom and political independence under the regime of Napoleon III. Investigating the role of colour in Courbet's work, he focuses on the link between technical handling and meaning. Exploring Courbet's late work through an analysis of two previously unknown paintings, Herding shows that it bears a relationship to Impressionist painting with its spontaneous highlights. The final chapter on the caricatures of Courbet's paintings demonstrates how they provide a key to understanding why his art has been the object of violent criticism.