Landscape with a Dead Horse
(click image to zoom-in)
|
| Author: Gustave
Courbet |
| Landscape, Painting, Oil on canvas, 45x56 cm |
| Origin: France, Second half of the
1850s |
|
The Hermitage has but this one work by the French realist
painter Gustave Courbet. Its subject seems to reflect the spirit of
Romanticism, with an intriguing sense of mystery. In the centre of
the composition is the bright, white corpse of a horse, lying on
the edge of the road. Beyond it we see the figure of a man running
with a bundle in his hand. What has happened - a crime? an
accident? - remains unclear.
It has been suggested that the source of inspiration for the
work may have been Charles Baudelaire's "La Charogne" , from his
collection of poems, Les Fleurs du Mal. Courbet's daring
placing of a dead horse at the centre of attention reflects his
conviction that art should reflect all the prosaic unsightliness of
real life.
|
| Style: Realism |
| Source of entry: Museum of the
Academy of Arts, Petrograd, 1922 |
| Exibition: French Art: 19th - 20th
centuries |
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