The Source (Courbet) Explained

The Source
Other Language 1:French
Other Title 1:Nude-La Source[1]
Other Title 2:La Font
Artist:Gustave Courbet
Year:c. 1862
Material:Oil on canvas
Height Metric:120
Width Metric:74.3
City:New York City
Museum:Metropolitan Museum of Art
Accession:29.100.58

The Source is a 1862 oil painting on canvas by the French realist painter Gustave Courbet. The painting shows a nude woman standing outside in nature, in a body of water.

Description

The Source depicts a nude woman standing in front of a stream of water. In the painting the woman is reaching into the stream while it is flowing unto her arms. The identity of the woman in the painting is unknown. There was some speculation on whether or not the woman had previously modeled for Courbet. Some say she modeled for Courbet twice,[2] others say she only modeled for Courbet one time.[3]

Inspiration

Many people believe that Courbet’s painting was inspired by the 1856 oil painting The Source by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres.[4] Both paintings show fully nude women and share similar nature scenes. Courbet’s painting has also been compared to The Moon and The Earth painting done by Paul Gauguin in 1893. [5]

Courbet’s painting is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Further reading

Notes and References

  1. H. O. Havemeyer Collection: Catalogue of Paintings, Prints, Sculpture and Objects of Art. n.p., 1931, pp. 80–81, ill., calls it "Nude-La Source" and dates it about 1862.
  2. Louisine W. Havemeyer. Sixteen to Sixty: Memoirs of a Collector. New York, 1961, pp. 185, 197–98, claims that the figure was painted in France and the landscape at Courbet's villa in Switzerland; states that she bought the picture from Durand-Ruel by cable in 1915 [see Ref. Weitzenhoffer 1986]; compares it to another version of the same subject (Musée d'Orsay, Paris; F627), suggesting that the same model was used for both pictures.
  3. Roger Bonniot. Gustave Courbet en Saintonge, 1862–1863. Paris, 1973, pp. 88–89, calls it as "Baigneuse à la source" or "La source"
  4. Web site: The Source . 2020-05-16 . www.metmuseum.org.
  5. Royal Cortissoz. "Gustave Courbet at the Museum." New York Tribune (April 6, 1919), p. 7

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "The Source (Courbet)".

Except where otherwise indicated, Everything.Explained.Today is © Copyright 2009-2025, A B Cryer, All Rights Reserved. Cookie policy.