Gustave Courbet, French Painting Home In His Later Years Of Life And Creation

As the most famous French artist in the late nineteenth century, Gustave Courbet is regarded as the master who founded realism. He was also involved in politics. But the outstanding master did not enjoy a good old age. He died in Switzerland as a refugee after Paris Commune which broke out in1871with great pity not returning to his motherland separated by Alps.The art historians have done a lot of researches on Courbet. The works of Courbet from1848to1870are well known because most of the researches and exhibitions have focused on them. Frankly speaking, the story of Courbet's last years is seldom mentioned by the academy. Courbet's works of this period are so few shown in exhibitions that some scholars even declared the seven years are his decline period in arts. What happened to Courbet and his arts at that time? The paper tries to uncover the artist of this period with studies on materials collected and focuses on the following items:One is about Courbet's politics participation in Paris Commune and his comparatively silence in arts. Two is about the changes happened to Courbet's life and art creation after Paris Commune. Three is about Courbet's methods to deal with difficulties after Paris Commune.Therefore, this paper focuses on the story of Courbet's life and painting during his last years. The research tries to put the seven years on the history coordinate system instead of studying the artist's private story. In the coordinate system, the paper studies longitudinally in time sequence how the artist's attitudes on politics and arts influenced his fate, the origins of his behaviors in the history events and the appraisals on Courbet after he passed away. The paper also studies transversely in relationships between the artist and a great network formed by the times he lived, society, politics, arts and other people and how Courbet fight to live in the network.The paper presents the story of Courbet's last seven years in time sequence with his works. The artist talked with his works. Every drawing has its historic background and meanings. The paper tries to sketch a picture of a full but maybe not perfect artist.