Gustave Courbet started out in Paris by studying law, which he soon gave up in order to devote himself to painting. He kept away from Academic circles and was largely self-taught as a painter. He chose to paint the world as he saw it. Such masterpieces as A Burial at Ornans and The Painter’s Studio (Paris, Musée d’Orsay) were to become the ensigns of the new genre that he created: realism.
Gustave Courbet started out in Paris by studying law, which he soon gave up in order to devote himself to painting. He kept away from Academic circles and was largely self-taught as a painter. He chose to paint the world as he saw it. Such masterpieces as A Burial at Ornans and The Painter’s Studio (Paris, Musée d’Orsay) were to become the ensigns of the new genre that he created: realism.
