Item was unsold

Jean-Jacques Fernier previously confirmed the authenticity of this lot.

Provenance:
Anonymous sale; Christie's, New York, May 2, 2001, Lot 85
Heinley Fine Arts, Ltd., Boston

Lot note:
Paysage Gruyére was painted by Gustav Courbet during his Swiss exile in the 1870s and recalls the terrain of his homeland in Ornans, France. A passionate advocate for Realism in art, the artist was equally involved in the radical political beliefs of the left-wing republican party in Paris. Courbet participated in the Paris Commune of 1871 and was imprisoned after the collapse of the revolutionary government. Accused of complicity in the destruction of Napoleon I’s column in the Place Vendôme, he was charged with an outrageous bill by the new conservative government for its restoration. Unable to pay, the artist fled to La Tour-de-Pails, Switzerland, where he lived until his death on December 31, 1877. 

In the present artwork, the thick, bold paint application and strong, direct composition reflects both the expansive personality of the artist and the deep color contrasts and uncompromising quality of his childhood environs, that of the Jura Mountains of France, near the Swiss border. Courbet equated his bravado painting style with the mountainous countryside in which he grew up. Beginning in the late 1840s, his landscapes reveled in the distinctiveness of the region, including its vast limestone cliffs and harsh terrain. The scenery is almost a character in itself in his most major works, including The Burial at Ornans (1849-50; Musée d'Orsay, Paris) and The Stone Breakers (1850; destroyed), both notable for their large scale and volumetric solidity. The steep cliffs along the winding Swiss mountain road and the moody earth tones in Paysage Gruyére could easily be mistaken for a vista near Ornans, France. This composition may very well be a pictorial reminder of Courbet’s beloved, and forever lost, home.