Isolated Rock (Le Rocher isolé)
Gustave Courbet
European Art
On View: Beaux-Arts Court, South, 3rd Floor
By the 1860s, Gustave Courbet was a well-known champion of Realist painting—an approach that found its subject matter in the daily lives and hardships of France’s working class. This seascape highlights another important aspect of Courbet’s Realist practice. Rather than a traditional brush, he used a palette knife to apply the paint in broad, rough patches. This technique evokes the atmosphere of the wind-blown, moving clouds and the coarse texture of the rock, which, in its centrality and isolation, seems to take on a melancholy, human quality.
MEDIUM
Oil on canvas
DATES
ca. 1862
DIMENSIONS
25 1/2 x 32 in. (64.8 x 81.3 cm)
frame: 33 1/8 x 39 5/8 x 2 3/4 in. (84.1 x 100.6 x 7 cm)
SIGNATURE
Signed lower left: "G. Courbet."
ACCESSION NUMBER
41.1258
CREDIT LINE
Gift of Mrs. Horace O. Havemeyer
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