Gustave Courbet – between realism and scandal

[05/11/2007]

 

Born in Ornans in 1819, Courbet absorbed the painting trends of his era before liberating himself from the academism and the romanticism of his youth. Although his first works were characterised by sentimentalism, by 1848 his paintings had evolved towards a form of “austere” realism. Henceforward, the artist’s vision gained freedom as it moved away from idealisation towards nature in a broader sense.

In the art world, Gustave COURBET is considered a safe investment and his price index could well be enhanced by the exhibition of his works at the national galleries of the Grand Palais de Paris until January 28, 2008 and thereafter at the Metropolitan Museum of Art from 27 February 2008 to 18 May 2008. However, Courbet buyers are still choosy: ready to write unprecedented cheques for his best paintings, they are may well turn their noses up to lesser works. Somewhere between 15 to 30 paintings turn up at auction each year. The majority are landscapes, and the most “bleak” attract substantially less interest (in 2006, close to 30% were bought in). His drawings are rare with less than a dozen being offered at auction since 1997.

The latest “event” on the Courbet market was the sale of “Le veau blanc” an 1873 painting of a white lamb that had been in private hands for 25 years before appearing at Sotheby’s New York on 23 October. The piece – carrying an estimate of USD 320,000 – 380,000 – finally went under the hammer for USD 2.2 million (1.543 million euros)…. the first time in almost ten years that one of his animal landscape paintings has gone beyond the 1 million mark! In 1998, his Le Coup de Vent – a magnificent landscape measuring more than two metres – doubled its estimate to reach USD 2.05 million (over 1.85 million euros).

At the Sotheby’s 23 October auction in New York, three other Courbet paintings of diverse quality were also on offer, including a very “empty” landscape of a clearing carrying an estimate of 100,000 – 150,000 dollars which remained unsold. The following day at Christie’s, a Paysage de mer with earthy colours got the same reception (est. 150,000 – 250,000 dollars). The estimates were over-optimistic since collectors of that type of landscape know they can pick up similar works for less than 50,000 dollars outside the extravagances of high profile New York auctions. Last June for example, Sotheby’s Paris sold Adieu au Jura for EUR 22,000 euros – a work that fetched a better price in London 10 years earlier (GBP 26,000, i.e. EUR 37,677).

Rarer than the landscapes, his portraits, and particularly those of women, also suffer from the same “breadth of pricing”: in 2006 for example, a very reverent painting entitled Femme au missel offered for sale by the Geneva auction house Rosset fetched only CHF 20,000 (EUR 12,680), whereas last June a sensual Femme nue sold for GBP 1.450 million (over 2.1 million euros)… The work is one of the controversial series from 1865 to 1866.
Amateur collectors won’t often get the chance to bid for any of Courbet’s self-portraits which mostly reside proudly in major museums or private collections such as the famous Autoportrait en «désespéré» (c. 1843) depicting the artist wearing a somewhat stereotypical expression in the romantic vein. The most recent portraits sold – in a realist style – were dispersed in 2003: one of Madame Frond sold for USD 70,000 (approx. EUR 63,800) and another larger portrait of Urbain Cuenot which went under the hammer for USD 200,000 (EUR 182,000) at Sotheby’s NY.

The poet of “realism” provoked scandal on several occasions, sometimes by his political convictions, and sometimes by the subjects he chose to represent. Courbet painted one of the most erotic works in the history of art – L’Origine du monde (1866). The painting depicting a mutilated woman with brutal eroticism was owned by the psycho-analyst Jacques Lacan from 1955 to 1981.

At the time Courbet was painting the work, his preferred model was a young woman, Joanna Hiffernan, known as Jo. When a portrait of the young woman appeared for sale at a public auction in 1998 under the title Portrait de Jo, la belle Irlandaise, it attracted universal approbation and became the artist’s most expensive work selling for USD 2.7 million (approx. EUR 2.4 million) at Sotheby’s NY. Three years later, its new owner chose to sell the work and lost USD 1 million in the process, the novelty having apparently worn off. The work did not elicit the same enthusiasm and went under the hammer for USD 1.7 million at the same auction house.
Courbet’s realism is an area best left to those who know the terrain well. The works are heterogeneous and any speculative buying should be considered a risky adventure.