La femme au chat (Woman with a Cat)

Artist Gustave Courbet (French, 1819–1877)

Date1864

Mediumoil on canvas

Dimensionscanvas: 78.3 × 57.2 cm (30 13/16 × 22 1/2 in.)
framed: 101.4 × 85.1 × 10.2 cm (39 15/16 × 33 1/2 × 4 in.)

ClassificationsPaintings

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Terms

Object number1940.300

Label TextA strong advocate for art that presented the subject objectively, Courbet was a lifelong provocateur, whose work challenged convention and inspired controversy. His landscapes featuring peasants engaged in hard labor—unidealized in their physical form—reflected a bold confrontation with traditional subjects as well as strong political convictions defined by opposition to the Emperor Napoléon III and belief in the principles of democracy. In the 1860s, he began painting erotic subjects—many much more explicit than this one. Like his earlier landscapes, these works offer further repudiation of the Academy: by traditional standards, their subjects were vulgar and executed in rough brushwork.ProvenanceWildenstein & Co., New York NY

On View

Not on view

Collections