Masters of World Painting: Gustave Courbet

A lecture by art historian Martin Pavlíček.

Gustave Courbet, a French painter and leading figure of realism with influential philosophical and political undertones, was born in Ornans and lived in Paris from 1839 onwards. He created an extraordinary series of self-portraits and depicted ordinary people and workers. In the 1860s he painted erotic and pornographic scenes - always scandalous, but he also painted landscapes and hunting still lifes - as he himself said, he simply painted what he saw.

In 1871 he took part in the Paris Commune and was instrumental in the initiative to demolish the Vendôme Column. He was imprisoned for this and spent his final years in exile in Switzerland.