Courbet was a man of arrogant, dogmatic
disposition, and was quite heartily detested during his life, but that
he was a painter of great ability few will deny. His theory was the
abolition of both sentiment and academic law, and the taking of nature
just as it was, with all its beauties and all its deformities. This,
too, was his practice to a certain extent. His art is material, and
yet at times lofty in conception even to the sublime. And while he
believed in realism he did not believe in petty detail, but rather in
the great truths of nature. These he saw with a discerning eye and
portrayed with a masterful brush. He believed in what he saw only, and
had more the observing than the reflective or emotional disposition.
As a technician he was coarse but superbly strong, handling sky,
earth, air, with the ease and power of one well trained in his craft.
His subjects were many--the peasantry of France, landscape, and the
sea holding prominent places--and his influence, though not direct
because he had no pupils of consequence, has been most potent with the
late men.
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