GUSTAVE COURBET’S ORIGIN OF THE WORLD
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18485/f_zsmu.2023.19.5Keywords:
Gustave Courbet, Origin of the World, Paris, Second French Empire, evolution, realism, modernism, paintingAbstract
In the 19th century, the question of origin, which was at the center of scientific debates, was of equal interest to artists. Their interest in naturalistic theories was reflected in works that questioned prehistory, primitive art, children’s drawings, but also everything related to the genesis of the living world, sexuality and birth. In the middle of the century, French art critics noticed a parallel phenomenon of the search for the origin of man in biology and, on the other hand, formal deconstruction in art, primarily realism and naturalism. In 1866, the painter Gustave Courbet presented to the public his work The Origin of the World, which, due to the lascivious depiction of the feminine naked body, and especially the provocative framing of the picture, caused vigorous reactions. The question arose as to why art, which was considered sublime and noble, became inseparable from what represents the lowest instincts, repressed drives and primitiveness in man. Courbet was fascinated by prehistory and the search for the primordial origin, for the maternal hearth, and his Origin of the World is devoid of transcendence, and acts as a mere tool for the search for the origin of humanity. The paper will discuss the changes in the artistic scene of Paris that were a consequence of the policy of the Second French Empire and the changed picture of the world after the appearance of Darwin’s theory of evolution. The goal is to show in what ways the crisis of the society at that time affected the realism of Gustave Courbet and how it was reflected in the creation of his Origin of the World, which deviated from the norms of the official Academy of Arts and the French Salon.
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