The Wave (La Vague) Gustave Courbet (French, 1819-1877). , ca. 1869. Oil on canvas, 25 3/4 x 34 15/16 x 3in. ( x x ). This is one of several paintings focusing on cresting waves that Gustave Courbet made in Normandy. The paintings were radical for their anti-picturesque subject and their technique. Referencing his use of a palette knife to slather paint on the canvas in thick strokes, some critics thought the artist’s waves were too solid—too much like undisguised paint—to represent water. Paul Cézanne, who admired Courbet, noted that he “slapped paint on the way a plasterer sla
The Wave (La Vague) Gustave Courbet (French, 1819-1877). , ca. 1869. Oil on canvas, 25 3/4 x 34 15/16 x 3in. ( x x ). This is one of several paintings focusing on cresting waves that Gustave Courbet made in Normandy. The paintings were radical for their anti-picturesque subject and their technique. Referencing his use of a palette knife to slather paint on the canvas in thick strokes, some critics thought the artist’s waves were too solid—too much like undisguised paint—to represent water. Paul Cézanne, who admired Courbet, noted that he “slapped paint on the way a plasterer slaps on stucco.” Popular caricaturists lampooned Courbet’s method. Author Guy de Maupassant described witnessing Courbet at work on one of his wave paintings in his Étretat studio in 1869: “In a great room a fat, dirty, greasy man was spreading patches of white paint onto a big bare canvas with a kitchen He went and pressed his face against the windowpane to look at the On the mantelpiece was a bottle of Every now and then Courbet would drink a mouthful and then go back to his painting.” European Art ca. 1869
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Photo credit: © BBM / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
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