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The Meeting, or 'Bonjour, Monsieur Courbet'
Gustave Courbet · Realism & Academic
- Artist
- Gustave Courbet (1819–1877)
- Date
- 1854
- Dimensions
- 132.4 x 151 cm
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Location
- Musée Fabre, Montpellier, France
This painting shows Courbet himself, with his walking stick and painting gear on his back, meeting his patron Alfred Bruyas and Bruyas's servant on a sunny country road near Montpellier.
A closer look
The encounter is staged as a meeting of equals, or even with the artist slightly superior: Courbet holds his head high, his beard jutting proudly, while the elegant Bruyas raises his hat in greeting and the servant bows respectfully. The bright southern light casts short shadows on the road, and the landscape is simple and open. Critics mocked the painting for the artist's arrogance, calling it 'Fortune bowing before Genius'. For Courbet, it was a statement of the independent artist who goes his own way.
More by Gustave Courbet
In this gallery
Famous works elsewhere
- L'Origine du monde 1866
- The Sleepers 1866
- Woman with a Parrot 1866
- The Woman in the Waves 1868
- Young Ladies Beside the Seine 1857
- The Wheat Sifters 1854