Gustave Courbet (French, 1819-1877). Isolated Rock (Le Rocher isolé), ca. 1862. Oil on canvas, 25 1/2 x 32 in. (64.8 x 81.3 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Mrs. Horace O. Havemeyer, 41.1258 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 41.1258_PS11.jpg)
Gustave Courbet (French, 1819-1877). Isolated Rock (Le Rocher isolé), ca. 1862. Oil on canvas, 25 1/2 x 32 in. (64.8 x 81.3 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Mrs. Horace O. Havemeyer, 41.1258 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, CONS.41.1258_1984-1985_xrs_view1.jpg)
Gustave Courbet (French, 1819-1877). Isolated Rock (Le Rocher isolé), ca. 1862. Oil on canvas, 25 1/2 x 32 in. (64.8 x 81.3 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Mrs. Horace O. Havemeyer, 41.1258 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, CONS.41.1258_1984-1985_xrs_view2.jpg)
Isolated Rock (Le Rocher isolé)
Gustave Courbet
European Art
On View: European Art Galleries, 5th floor
Gustave Courbet’s paintings of the shorelines in Normandy portray the land as subject to continuous, if gradual, change. Here, he focuses on a single large rock at the edge of the water. Smaller rocks around it and the several just visible above the surf imply an ongoing process of erosion. Applying his paint with a palette knife in broad, rough patches and strokes, Courbet evokes the windblown clouds and the coarse texture of the rock, giving them equal visual and material weight.
By the 1860s, Courbet was the leader and champion of Realism—a movement and approach that typically focused on contemporaneous people, places, and things and found significance in subject matter previously considered to be without artistic value or interest. He recounted his position as a Realist artist in an 1861 letter, stating, “Painting is an essentially concrete art, and can consist only of representation of real and existing things.”
By the 1860s, Courbet was the leader and champion of Realism—a movement and approach that typically focused on contemporaneous people, places, and things and found significance in subject matter previously considered to be without artistic value or interest. He recounted his position as a Realist artist in an 1861 letter, stating, “Painting is an essentially concrete art, and can consist only of representation of real and existing things.”
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) (show scale)
SIGNATURE
Signed lower left: "G. Courbet."
COLLECTIONS
European Art
ACCESSION NUMBER
41.1258
CREDIT LINE
Gift of Mrs. Horace O. Havemeyer
EXHIBITIONS
MUSEUM LOCATION
This item is on view in European Art Galleries, 5th floor
CAPTION
Gustave Courbet (French, 1819-1877). Isolated Rock (Le Rocher isolé), ca. 1862. Oil on canvas, 25 1/2 x 32 in. (64.8 x 81.3 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Mrs. Horace O. Havemeyer, 41.1258 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 41.1258_PS11.jpg)
IMAGE
overall, 41.1258_PS11.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2022
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