Gustave Courbet
(1819 - 1877)
 

Jean Désiré Gustave Courbet was a French painter who led the Realism movement in 19th-century French painting. Committed to painting only what he could see, he rejected academic convention and the Romanticism of the previous generation of visual artists. His independence set an example that was important to later artists, such as the Impressionists and the Cubists. Courbet occupies an important place in 19th-century French painting as an innovator and as an artist willing to make bold social statements through his work.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustave_Courbet

Path through the Forest
C. 1860
Oil on canvas
69,9 x 92,7 cm
Private Collection
Sold by Christie’s N.Y. 28 Apr 2014
https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-5786665

Almost three-quarters of Courbet's oeuvre are landscapes and they were generally well-received, particularly his sous-bois paintings, or landscapes of the deep forest, as they offered his city-bound viewers a sense of refuge and solitude. Courbet's best-known sous-bois paintings are of a favorite spot near his native Ornans that the locals called Le Puits Noir or the Black Well. This is where the stream of the Brême flows slowly between rocks in a narrow gorge surrounded by lush vegetation, and the combination of unique rock formations and dense forest undergrowth provided Courbet the perfect environment to merge his passion for geology with his interest in the materiality of paint.