WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.480 Welcome back to the Deep Dive. Today we're jumping 00:00:02.480 --> 00:00:06.559 into the really turbulent world of 19th century 00:00:06.559 --> 00:00:10.400 French art. And we're focusing on one man who 00:00:10.400 --> 00:00:12.699 basically threw a bomb into the middle of it 00:00:12.699 --> 00:00:17.059 all. Gustave Courbet. Right. Jean -Désiré Gustave 00:00:17.059 --> 00:00:19.980 Courbet. The ultimate art rebel, you could say. 00:00:20.219 --> 00:00:23.300 Absolutely. Not just content with painting things 00:00:23.300 --> 00:00:25.980 as they were, he seemed determined to, well... 00:00:26.170 --> 00:00:28.370 shock everyone and maybe even change the world 00:00:28.370 --> 00:00:30.910 while he was at it. He really was born in 1819, 00:00:31.089 --> 00:00:34.710 died 1877. And he's not just a realist painter. 00:00:34.869 --> 00:00:37.130 He's pretty much the founder and leader of the 00:00:37.130 --> 00:00:39.229 realism movement. And his whole approach was 00:00:39.229 --> 00:00:42.490 radical for the time, wasn't it? He just flat 00:00:42.490 --> 00:00:44.530 out rejected what came before. Totally. He turned 00:00:44.530 --> 00:00:46.189 it back on the, you know, the emotional drama 00:00:46.189 --> 00:00:49.590 of romanticism, the classical myths of neoclassicism 00:00:49.590 --> 00:00:51.530 and definitely the rigid rules of the French 00:00:51.530 --> 00:00:53.689 Academy. So looking through the sources on him, 00:00:53.710 --> 00:00:55.729 it's clear this wasn't just about style. It felt 00:00:55.729 --> 00:00:57.710 political, almost like a social statement. Oh, 00:00:57.750 --> 00:01:01.049 completely. His mantra was basically paint only 00:01:01.049 --> 00:01:04.280 what you can see. No angels, no angel gods, just 00:01:04.280 --> 00:01:06.659 the reality in front of him. And through that 00:01:06.659 --> 00:01:09.799 reality, he made these incredibly bold statements 00:01:09.799 --> 00:01:12.480 about society, about politics. He was directly 00:01:12.480 --> 00:01:15.879 challenging the French Empire. Exactly. So our 00:01:15.879 --> 00:01:18.140 mission today really is to unpack that. We'll 00:01:18.140 --> 00:01:21.319 look at his life story, how his background maybe 00:01:21.319 --> 00:01:24.239 fueled that defiance. Then dive into those huge 00:01:24.239 --> 00:01:26.760 controversial paintings that really defined realism. 00:01:27.079 --> 00:01:30.200 Right. And his political life, which got incredibly 00:01:30.200 --> 00:01:32.480 intense during the Paris Commune. Leading to 00:01:32.480 --> 00:01:35.239 his exile, tragically. Yeah, and then his legacy, 00:01:35.379 --> 00:01:37.519 which is fascinating. It connects in surprising 00:01:37.519 --> 00:01:42.000 ways to movements like Cubism, even. It's amazing 00:01:42.000 --> 00:01:44.719 how independent he was. That spirit really paved 00:01:44.719 --> 00:01:46.780 the way for later artists, didn't it? Like the 00:01:46.780 --> 00:01:49.120 Impressionists. You could argue they wouldn't 00:01:49.120 --> 00:01:51.000 have had the freedom they did without Courbet 00:01:51.000 --> 00:01:54.439 breaking down those doors first. He forced the 00:01:54.439 --> 00:01:57.579 art world to look at, well, ordinary life. Workers, 00:01:57.879 --> 00:02:00.120 peasants, the dirt under their feet. Instead 00:02:00.120 --> 00:02:02.480 of just idealized history or myths. Precisely. 00:02:02.480 --> 00:02:04.260 He brought art down to earth quite literally. 00:02:04.459 --> 00:02:06.079 So let's start at the beginning. Where did this 00:02:06.079 --> 00:02:08.719 savage realist, as some called him, come from? 00:02:08.939 --> 00:02:11.639 Okay, so he was born in Ornans, 1819. It's this 00:02:11.639 --> 00:02:14.780 rural town, eastern France. And right from the 00:02:14.780 --> 00:02:18.439 start, you see this kind of... rebellious streak 00:02:18.439 --> 00:02:20.960 in his family background. Yeah, the sources mentioned 00:02:20.960 --> 00:02:23.800 his family was anti -monarchical. His mother's 00:02:23.800 --> 00:02:25.879 father actually fought in the French Revolution. 00:02:26.219 --> 00:02:28.319 So that spirit of independence, maybe even a 00:02:28.319 --> 00:02:30.199 bit anti -authoritarian, it was kind of baked 00:02:30.199 --> 00:02:32.939 in early on. Seems like it. And when he heads 00:02:32.939 --> 00:02:35.979 off to Paris in 1839, ostensibly to study law, 00:02:36.219 --> 00:02:39.400 he pretty quickly pivots to art, but again, on 00:02:39.400 --> 00:02:41.340 his own term. Right. He spends a little time 00:02:41.340 --> 00:02:43.259 in a couple of studios, Dubin and Hesse's, but 00:02:43.259 --> 00:02:45.439 apparently he just couldn't stand the formal 00:02:45.439 --> 00:02:48.250 academic training. No, his real education was 00:02:48.250 --> 00:02:50.689 self -directed. He basically skipped the official 00:02:50.689 --> 00:02:53.310 art school, the École des Beaux -Arts, and instead 00:02:53.310 --> 00:02:56.129 spent his time in the Louvre. Copying the masters 00:02:56.129 --> 00:02:59.310 directly, that seems key. It really is. He wasn't 00:02:59.310 --> 00:03:01.389 learning sterile techniques from plaster casts. 00:03:01.789 --> 00:03:04.530 He was looking hard at painters like the Spanish 00:03:04.530 --> 00:03:07.389 masters, Flemish painters, Rembrandt, Halls. 00:03:07.430 --> 00:03:10.340 Artists known for depicting real life. real people 00:03:10.340 --> 00:03:14.639 textures exactly masters of observation and studying 00:03:14.639 --> 00:03:17.300 them seems to have really cemented his idea that 00:03:17.300 --> 00:03:19.419 artists should paint the life around them the 00:03:19.419 --> 00:03:21.479 world they could actually see and touch you can 00:03:21.479 --> 00:03:23.360 sort of see that transition happening in his 00:03:23.360 --> 00:03:25.759 early works right some of those self -portraits 00:03:25.759 --> 00:03:28.360 are still quite romantic oh yeah like self -portrait 00:03:28.360 --> 00:03:32.199 with black dog or the desperate man very theatrical 00:03:32.199 --> 00:03:35.319 very emotionally charged he's playing a role 00:03:35.319 --> 00:03:39.370 but then after he travels especially to the Netherlands 00:03:39.370 --> 00:03:42.490 and Belgium in the mid -1840s. Right, around 00:03:42.490 --> 00:03:45.650 1846 -47. That's when he seems to fully commit 00:03:45.650 --> 00:03:48.689 to shedding those literary imagined themes and 00:03:48.689 --> 00:03:51.569 focusing purely on observed reality. He saw how 00:03:51.569 --> 00:03:53.990 Rembrandt and Halls painted their world. And 00:03:53.990 --> 00:03:56.330 then comes his first big break, right, 1849 at 00:03:56.330 --> 00:03:59.009 the Salon. Yes, after dinner at Ornan's. It's 00:03:59.009 --> 00:04:00.689 a picture of his friends just hanging out after 00:04:00.689 --> 00:04:03.229 a meal. Very undramatic, very real. And he wins 00:04:03.229 --> 00:04:05.349 a gold medal. And the state actually buys it. 00:04:05.449 --> 00:04:07.930 Which was huge! But the really crucial thing, 00:04:07.969 --> 00:04:10.810 the detail that unlocks so much for him was what 00:04:10.810 --> 00:04:13.830 that gold medal meant procedurally. Ah, this 00:04:13.830 --> 00:04:16.829 is that loophole, isn't it? Exactly. If you won 00:04:16.829 --> 00:04:19.310 a gold medal back then, your future submissions 00:04:19.310 --> 00:04:22.540 to the salon were exempt from the jury. you were 00:04:22.540 --> 00:04:26.019 automatically in. Wow. So no more rejection slips 00:04:26.019 --> 00:04:28.699 from the official gatekeepers. For a critical 00:04:28.699 --> 00:04:31.699 period, yes. He had this artistic carte blanche 00:04:31.699 --> 00:04:34.879 until they changed the rules in 1857. So for 00:04:34.879 --> 00:04:37.620 almost a decade. He could basically exhibit whatever 00:04:37.620 --> 00:04:40.399 he wanted, no matter how shocking or unconventional. 00:04:40.540 --> 00:04:43.300 And believe me, he used that freedom. He unleashed 00:04:43.300 --> 00:04:46.019 realism onto an art world that was just not ready. 00:04:46.430 --> 00:04:49.449 OK, so let's pin down what his realism actually 00:04:49.449 --> 00:04:52.430 was, because it wasn't just about accurate drawing, 00:04:52.550 --> 00:04:54.750 right? Not at all. The sources are clear. It 00:04:54.750 --> 00:04:58.370 wasn't the smooth, idealized perfection of neoclassicism, 00:04:58.470 --> 00:05:01.769 nor was it the heightened emotion and drama of 00:05:01.769 --> 00:05:04.689 romanticism. It was grittier. Definitely grittier, 00:05:04.709 --> 00:05:07.430 more physical. Technically, he often used paint 00:05:07.430 --> 00:05:10.569 really thickly, the impasto technique, sometimes 00:05:10.569 --> 00:05:12.430 applied with a palette knife, not just a brush. 00:05:12.550 --> 00:05:14.709 Giving it that rough texture. Yeah, a real sense 00:05:14.709 --> 00:05:17.629 of substance, of matter. It looked almost unfinished 00:05:17.629 --> 00:05:20.490 to eyes used to the polished surfaces of academic 00:05:20.490 --> 00:05:22.850 painting. He wanted to show the roughness of 00:05:22.850 --> 00:05:25.189 nature, the harshness of life, not smooth it 00:05:25.189 --> 00:05:27.790 over. And then there's the subject matter. That 00:05:27.790 --> 00:05:30.439 was just as radical. Absolutely. He completely 00:05:30.439 --> 00:05:33.500 ignored the official hierarchy of genres. You 00:05:33.500 --> 00:05:35.639 know, history painting, big scenes from the Bible, 00:05:35.819 --> 00:05:38.399 mythology, ancient history that was considered 00:05:38.399 --> 00:05:40.199 the highest form of art. Everything else was 00:05:40.199 --> 00:05:42.459 sort of second tier. Genre scenes, portraits, 00:05:42.860 --> 00:05:46.000 landscapes. Right. Courbet basically said, forget 00:05:46.000 --> 00:05:48.879 ancient history. An artist can only truly paint 00:05:48.879 --> 00:05:51.319 their own time. So he turns his attention to. 00:05:51.610 --> 00:05:53.870 To the people and places around him in Ornans 00:05:53.870 --> 00:05:56.910 and Paris. Peasants, laborers, the local middle 00:05:56.910 --> 00:06:00.149 class, landscapes, subjects the Academy considered 00:06:00.149 --> 00:06:03.610 vulgar or trivial. But by painting them, especially 00:06:03.610 --> 00:06:06.670 on a large scale, he was elevating them, wasn't 00:06:06.670 --> 00:06:09.220 he? Making a statement. Precisely. He treated 00:06:09.220 --> 00:06:11.860 ordinary people and ordinary life with the seriousness 00:06:11.860 --> 00:06:14.500 and monumentality previously reserved for gods 00:06:14.500 --> 00:06:17.540 and kings. That act alone was inherently political. 00:06:17.899 --> 00:06:20.660 Okay, so that brings us right to those monumental 00:06:20.660 --> 00:06:23.879 canvases that caused such an uproar, the ones 00:06:23.879 --> 00:06:26.379 that really announced his arrival. Let's start 00:06:26.379 --> 00:06:29.699 with the Stonebreakers from 1849. Yeah, often 00:06:29.699 --> 00:06:32.500 called the first of his truly great defining 00:06:32.500 --> 00:06:35.519 works. And the story behind it is pure Corbet. 00:06:35.959 --> 00:06:37.879 He just saw these guys on the road? Pretty much. 00:06:37.899 --> 00:06:41.160 He saw two men, one old, one young, doing this 00:06:41.160 --> 00:06:44.759 absolutely brutal back -breaking work, smashing 00:06:44.759 --> 00:06:47.980 rocks for road gravel near Ornans. He didn't 00:06:47.980 --> 00:06:49.879 idealize them at all. He brought them into the 00:06:49.879 --> 00:06:52.339 studio, right? Painted them as they were. Exactly. 00:06:52.360 --> 00:06:55.360 And he told his friends, Francis Way and Chamfleury, 00:06:55.439 --> 00:06:57.879 something like, it's rare to find such a complete 00:06:57.879 --> 00:07:00.579 picture of poverty, so I got the idea for a painting 00:07:00.579 --> 00:07:02.660 right then and there. The radical thing was, 00:07:02.899 --> 00:07:04.879 well, a couple of things, right? First, they're 00:07:04.879 --> 00:07:07.199 anonymous. Their faces are hidden or turned away. 00:07:07.459 --> 00:07:09.939 They aren't individuals so much as representatives 00:07:09.939 --> 00:07:12.939 of a class of exploited labor. And second, the 00:07:12.939 --> 00:07:15.860 size. The size. He painted these poor anonymous 00:07:15.860 --> 00:07:19.160 guys on a huge canvas, the kind of scale usually 00:07:19.160 --> 00:07:21.879 reserved for a major historical event or a religious 00:07:21.879 --> 00:07:25.040 scene. So he's saying this grinding poverty, 00:07:25.139 --> 00:07:28.220 this labor, is as significant as a battle or 00:07:28.220 --> 00:07:30.639 a coronation. That's the message. And people 00:07:30.639 --> 00:07:33.620 got it. Socialist thinkers like Puthon saw it 00:07:33.620 --> 00:07:35.939 immediately as this powerful image of peasant 00:07:35.939 --> 00:07:38.720 life, almost an icon. It's just devastating that 00:07:38.720 --> 00:07:41.959 the painting itself is gone. It really is. Destroyed 00:07:41.959 --> 00:07:44.540 in 1945 during the bombing of Dresden while it 00:07:44.540 --> 00:07:47.680 being moved for safety. A huge loss for art history. 00:07:47.920 --> 00:07:50.639 Its destruction kind of underscores how potent 00:07:50.639 --> 00:07:53.639 and sometimes dangerous politically charged art 00:07:53.639 --> 00:07:56.160 can be. If Stonebreakers was a shock, what about 00:07:56.160 --> 00:07:59.310 a burial at Ornans? That sounds like it landed 00:07:59.310 --> 00:08:02.050 like a bomb. Oh, it was an earthquake, 1849 to 00:08:02.050 --> 00:08:05.290 1850. And even bigger than Stonebreakers, we're 00:08:05.290 --> 00:08:08.910 talking 10 feet high by 22 feet wide. Massive. 00:08:08.910 --> 00:08:11.050 And the subject, just a funeral in his hometown. 00:08:11.350 --> 00:08:13.769 Exactly, the funeral of his own granduncle. But 00:08:13.769 --> 00:08:16.089 instead of hiring models or stylizing the scene, 00:08:16.230 --> 00:08:18.610 he used the actual townspeople of Ornans, dozens 00:08:18.610 --> 00:08:20.920 of them. Just lined up, looking. Well, looking 00:08:20.920 --> 00:08:22.839 like real people at a funeral, I guess. Pretty 00:08:22.839 --> 00:08:25.420 much. Some look bored, some look serious, some 00:08:25.420 --> 00:08:28.319 maybe a bit tipsy. There's no central focus, 00:08:28.399 --> 00:08:30.740 no dramatic outpouring of grief. It's just this 00:08:30.740 --> 00:08:33.779 slice of provincial life, warts and all. And 00:08:33.779 --> 00:08:35.820 the critics and the public. They were absolutely 00:08:35.820 --> 00:08:39.179 outraged, appalled. They expected grand tragedy, 00:08:39.419 --> 00:08:42.139 noble suffering, you know, the usual conventions 00:08:42.139 --> 00:08:44.519 of a historical painting, which is the scale 00:08:44.519 --> 00:08:47.250 he used. And Corbet gave them... Ornans? He gave 00:08:47.250 --> 00:08:50.549 them Ornans. Dark, somber landscape. No beautiful 00:08:50.549 --> 00:08:52.850 people, just ordinary folks. The composition 00:08:52.850 --> 00:08:54.990 itself is radical. There's a long horizontal 00:08:54.990 --> 00:08:57.549 line like a freeze. It refuses to create a hierarchy. 00:08:57.909 --> 00:09:01.460 Everyone's just sort of... Someone famously described 00:09:01.460 --> 00:09:04.039 it as being like an upstart in dirty boots crashing 00:09:04.039 --> 00:09:06.960 a genteel party. That captures the reaction perfectly. 00:09:07.200 --> 00:09:09.480 They hated the subject matter, the ugliness, 00:09:09.759 --> 00:09:12.360 the dark palette, the sheer audacity of putting 00:09:12.360 --> 00:09:15.000 this mundane event on such a heroic scale. But 00:09:15.000 --> 00:09:16.860 Corbain knew exactly what he was doing. He had 00:09:16.860 --> 00:09:19.240 that famous quote about it. Yes. He declared, 00:09:19.399 --> 00:09:22.399 point blank, burial at Ornans was in reality 00:09:22.399 --> 00:09:25.539 the burial of romanticism. Wow. Talk about throwing 00:09:25.539 --> 00:09:27.480 down the gauntlet. Absolutely. And it worked. 00:09:27.539 --> 00:09:30.899 He became instantly famous. Or notorious, depending 00:09:30.899 --> 00:09:33.059 on who you ask. People were calling him a genius, 00:09:33.139 --> 00:09:36.100 but also a terrible socialist, a savage. Right. 00:09:36.279 --> 00:09:38.659 And he leaned into that persona, didn't he? He 00:09:38.659 --> 00:09:41.840 cultivated this image of being an unschooled 00:09:41.840 --> 00:09:44.299 peasant, a man of the people. Even though he 00:09:44.299 --> 00:09:47.240 was clearly very intelligent, very ambitious, 00:09:47.600 --> 00:09:50.960 sources mentioned his reputation for unbridled 00:09:50.960 --> 00:09:54.049 vanity. It's a fascinating mix. This huge ego 00:09:54.049 --> 00:09:57.230 combined with this genuine radical sympathy for 00:09:57.230 --> 00:10:00.730 the common person. He explicitly linked his realism 00:10:00.730 --> 00:10:03.490 to anarchist politics. There's that quote from 00:10:03.490 --> 00:10:06.029 1850 to a friend. Yeah, where he says something 00:10:06.029 --> 00:10:08.149 like, in our so very civilized society, it is 00:10:08.149 --> 00:10:10.250 necessary for me to live the life of a savage. 00:10:10.429 --> 00:10:13.049 I must be free even of governments. I must address 00:10:13.049 --> 00:10:15.590 myself to the people directly. He saw himself 00:10:15.590 --> 00:10:18.090 as needing to operate completely outside the 00:10:18.090 --> 00:10:20.269 system. Which makes perfect sense of his next 00:10:20.269 --> 00:10:22.889 big move. arguably one of the most defiant acts 00:10:22.889 --> 00:10:26.429 in 19th century art history. The 1855 Exhibition 00:10:26.429 --> 00:10:29.549 Rebellion. Exactly. The setting is the huge Exposition 00:10:29.549 --> 00:10:34.070 Universelle in Paris, 1855, a massive state -sponsored 00:10:34.070 --> 00:10:37.330 World's Fair. Courbet submits his work. 14 paintings. 00:10:37.549 --> 00:10:40.610 But despite his gold medal status, the jury rejects 00:10:40.610 --> 00:10:42.909 three of his most important pieces, including 00:10:42.909 --> 00:10:46.570 Burial at Ornans and his massive new allegorical 00:10:46.570 --> 00:10:50.230 painting, The Artist's Studio. So the establishment... 00:10:50.700 --> 00:10:53.080 Even with his previous success, still drew a 00:10:53.080 --> 00:10:56.340 line. They did. And Corbet's response, basically, 00:10:56.360 --> 00:10:59.080 fine, I'll do it myself. He sets up his own show. 00:10:59.240 --> 00:11:02.080 Right next door to the official exposition. He 00:11:02.080 --> 00:11:04.899 builds his own temporary building, financed partly 00:11:04.899 --> 00:11:07.519 by himself, partly by his patron, Alfred Bruyas, 00:11:07.639 --> 00:11:11.460 and calls it, bold as brass, the pavilion of 00:11:11.460 --> 00:11:13.700 realism. Just thumbing his nose at the whole 00:11:13.700 --> 00:11:16.960 system. Completely. Inside, he shows 40 of his 00:11:16.960 --> 00:11:19.519 paintings, including the rejected ones, and he 00:11:19.519 --> 00:11:21.500 even writes his own manifesto for the catalog. 00:11:21.840 --> 00:11:24.039 That act alone is just huge. It's like the birth 00:11:24.039 --> 00:11:25.720 certificate of the independent art exhibition. 00:11:26.019 --> 00:11:28.159 It really is. It showed other artists, like the 00:11:28.159 --> 00:11:30.139 later Impressionists, that you could bypass the 00:11:30.139 --> 00:11:32.100 official salon system. You could take control 00:11:32.100 --> 00:11:34.399 of how your art was seen. And the centerpiece 00:11:34.399 --> 00:11:36.460 was that rejected painting, the artist's studio. 00:11:37.440 --> 00:11:40.399 Well, it's a lot to take in. It is. It's enormous, 00:11:40.500 --> 00:11:44.539 complex. He subtitled it, A Real Allegory Summing 00:11:44.539 --> 00:11:46.899 Up Seven Years of My Artistic and Moral Life. 00:11:47.100 --> 00:11:49.860 So it's deeply personal, but also a statement 00:11:49.860 --> 00:11:52.659 about his world. It's famously divided into two 00:11:52.659 --> 00:11:54.960 sides, right, with Courbet himself painting in 00:11:54.960 --> 00:11:56.860 the middle. That's the structure. In the center, 00:11:56.960 --> 00:11:59.340 you have Courbet painting a landscape with a 00:11:59.340 --> 00:12:01.480 nude model representing truth or nature looking 00:12:01.480 --> 00:12:04.700 on and a small boy admiring his work. Okay. And 00:12:04.700 --> 00:12:07.039 the two sides. On the right, he places his friends, 00:12:07.299 --> 00:12:09.879 his supporters, the people who get his art. Figures 00:12:09.879 --> 00:12:12.820 like the critic Chantlery, the poet Baudelaire, 00:12:12.919 --> 00:12:15.840 his patron Bruyas. They represent... you know, 00:12:15.860 --> 00:12:18.700 the intellectual and artistic allies. And on 00:12:18.700 --> 00:12:20.659 the left? That's what he called the other world 00:12:20.659 --> 00:12:23.799 of trivial life. It's a real mix. A priest, a 00:12:23.799 --> 00:12:26.480 prostitute, a grave digger, hunters, merchants, 00:12:26.840 --> 00:12:30.039 figures representing, as he put it, the exploited 00:12:30.039 --> 00:12:32.600 and the exploiters, the people who live off death, 00:12:32.860 --> 00:12:35.779 poverty and wealth side by side. And this is 00:12:35.779 --> 00:12:37.779 where that hidden political jab comes in. The 00:12:37.779 --> 00:12:41.539 one they found with x -rays. Ah, yes. That figure 00:12:41.539 --> 00:12:43.899 on the far left, the man with the hunting dogs, 00:12:44.080 --> 00:12:46.200 he seems to have been added later. And he's identified 00:12:46.200 --> 00:12:49.159 that? By the dogs, and especially by that distinctive 00:12:49.159 --> 00:12:52.000 twirled mustache. It's widely believed to be 00:12:52.000 --> 00:12:54.539 an allegorical representation of Emperor Napoleon 00:12:54.539 --> 00:12:58.679 III. Wow. So Courbet paints this grand allegory 00:12:58.679 --> 00:13:01.440 of his life, and he sticks the Emperor of France 00:13:01.440 --> 00:13:03.820 over on the side with the exploiters and the 00:13:03.820 --> 00:13:06.320 morally dubious characters. It's an incredibly 00:13:06.320 --> 00:13:10.269 bold, if subtle, critique. Basically suggesting 00:13:10.269 --> 00:13:13.049 Napoleon III's rule, his ownership of France, 00:13:13.190 --> 00:13:16.149 was illegitimate. It shows just how deeply his 00:13:16.149 --> 00:13:18.649 art and his anti -authoritarian politics were 00:13:18.649 --> 00:13:21.169 linked. And he doubled down with that manifesto 00:13:21.169 --> 00:13:23.269 he published for the pavilion. He did. He laid 00:13:23.269 --> 00:13:26.370 out his aim to translate the customs, the ideas, 00:13:26.649 --> 00:13:28.590 the appearance of my epoch, according to my own 00:13:28.590 --> 00:13:31.509 estimation, to be his own judge. He wanted to 00:13:31.509 --> 00:13:34.669 create living art. Yeah. Rejecting art for art's 00:13:34.669 --> 00:13:37.470 sake. Exactly. For Courbet, art had to be engaged 00:13:37.470 --> 00:13:39.820 with its time, with social... reality, with the 00:13:39.820 --> 00:13:42.279 individual's perception. It wasn't just about 00:13:42.279 --> 00:13:44.559 making pretty things. The pavilion itself wasn't 00:13:44.559 --> 00:13:47.320 a huge commercial success initially, but it absolutely 00:13:47.320 --> 00:13:50.059 cemented his status as a hero for the avant -garde. 00:13:50.360 --> 00:13:52.620 Manet, Whistler, they were paying attention. 00:13:52.860 --> 00:13:55.840 His reputation for scandal didn't exactly fade 00:13:55.840 --> 00:13:57.820 after that, did it? Though maybe the focus shifted 00:13:57.820 --> 00:14:00.700 a bit in the 1860s. Yeah, it seems like the main 00:14:00.700 --> 00:14:03.360 source of shock moved more towards representations 00:14:03.360 --> 00:14:06.919 of women and sexuality. He started painting nudes 00:14:06.919 --> 00:14:08.960 that really pushed boundaries. Another way to 00:14:08.960 --> 00:14:11.700 attack those academic ideals of beauty. Precisely. 00:14:11.700 --> 00:14:13.980 Take Young Ladies on the Banks of the Seine from 00:14:13.980 --> 00:14:17.480 1857. The scandal wasn't just that they were 00:14:17.480 --> 00:14:19.860 lounging by the river, maybe partially undressed. 00:14:19.879 --> 00:14:22.899 It was that they were clearly modern women. Possibly 00:14:22.899 --> 00:14:25.100 identifiable as prostitutes, right? That was 00:14:25.100 --> 00:14:27.200 the interpretation. And they're casually showing 00:14:27.200 --> 00:14:30.639 their undergarments. Critics were used to idealize 00:14:30.639 --> 00:14:33.779 timeless nymphs and landscapes. Courbet gave 00:14:33.779 --> 00:14:36.539 them contemporary women looking, frankly, bored 00:14:36.539 --> 00:14:39.700 or drowsy in their underwear. It felt vulgar, 00:14:39.700 --> 00:14:42.970 too real. And this leads to commissions for even 00:14:42.970 --> 00:14:45.629 more provocative work. Yes, particularly from 00:14:45.629 --> 00:14:48.350 Khalil Bey, this Ottoman diplomat who was a well 00:14:48.350 --> 00:14:50.929 -known collector of erotic art. Courbet clearly 00:14:50.929 --> 00:14:53.470 understood the market for controversy, but it 00:14:53.470 --> 00:14:55.990 also aligned with his desire to break taboos. 00:14:56.049 --> 00:14:58.789 Which resulted in some extremely famous and for 00:14:58.789 --> 00:15:01.789 a long time hidden paintings. Absolutely. Le 00:15:01.789 --> 00:15:06.230 Sommet or Sleep from 1866. Two women entwined 00:15:06.230 --> 00:15:09.379 intimately in bed. It was so explicit that when 00:15:09.379 --> 00:15:11.700 a dealer tried to show it just a few years later, 00:15:11.840 --> 00:15:15.320 in 1872, the police actually got involved. And 00:15:15.320 --> 00:15:17.799 then there's the most infamous one of all, l 00:15:17.799 --> 00:15:20.559 'origine du monde, the origin of the world. Also 00:15:20.559 --> 00:15:24.460 1866. Yeah. A close -up, starkly realistic depiction 00:15:24.460 --> 00:15:27.100 of female genitalia commissioned by Khalil Bey 00:15:27.100 --> 00:15:30.299 kept hidden in private collections and not publicly 00:15:30.299 --> 00:15:33.639 exhibited until, believe it or not, 1988. Almost 00:15:33.639 --> 00:15:36.659 125 years later. It shows just how shocking its 00:15:36.659 --> 00:15:39.340 directness, its sheer materiality was. And even 00:15:39.340 --> 00:15:42.039 here you see the realist principle. It's not 00:15:42.039 --> 00:15:44.659 a stylized Venus, not an idealized form. It's 00:15:44.659 --> 00:15:46.379 painted with that same attention to physical 00:15:46.379 --> 00:15:49.639 presence to the body as real matter. No romanticism. 00:15:49.610 --> 00:15:51.789 even in the erotic. He just never stopped poking 00:15:51.789 --> 00:15:53.350 the bear, did he? Right up to the end of the 00:15:53.350 --> 00:15:55.370 Second Empire. Never. The perfect example is 00:15:55.370 --> 00:15:57.909 in 1870. Napoleon III's regime is weakening, 00:15:57.929 --> 00:15:59.970 trying to win over liberals. So they nominate 00:15:59.970 --> 00:16:01.929 Courbet for the Legion of Honor, France's highest 00:16:01.929 --> 00:16:04.149 decoration. A huge official honor. And Courbet, 00:16:04.309 --> 00:16:06.830 he publicly, loudly refuses it. Of course he 00:16:06.830 --> 00:16:09.279 does. writes this open letter saying the state 00:16:09.279 --> 00:16:12.100 has no business honoring artists, that honor 00:16:12.100 --> 00:16:14.919 lies only in an artist's own work and principles. 00:16:15.259 --> 00:16:17.840 It completely enraged the government, but made 00:16:17.840 --> 00:16:20.820 him a massive hero to the opposition. Which perfectly 00:16:20.820 --> 00:16:23.259 sets the stage for his role in the upcoming political 00:16:23.259 --> 00:16:26.480 chaos. Absolutely. That refusal is like the prelude 00:16:26.480 --> 00:16:28.820 to his involvement in the Paris Commune. Okay, 00:16:28.860 --> 00:16:32.120 so section four, the Commune, Exile, and the 00:16:32.120 --> 00:16:34.840 Vendôme Column. This is where it gets really 00:16:34.840 --> 00:16:37.200 dramatic and ultimately tragic for Courbet. It 00:16:37.200 --> 00:16:40.259 really does. The context is the Franco -Prussian 00:16:40.259 --> 00:16:43.820 War in 1870. France suffers a humiliating defeat. 00:16:44.269 --> 00:16:46.730 the emperor is captured, and a new provisional 00:16:46.730 --> 00:16:48.610 government, the government of national defense, 00:16:48.929 --> 00:16:51.789 takes over. And Courbet, now this famous anti 00:16:51.789 --> 00:16:54.230 -establishment figure, weighs in. He does. In 00:16:54.230 --> 00:16:56.730 September 1870, he writes to the new government 00:16:56.730 --> 00:16:58.870 with a pretty radical proposal regarding the 00:16:58.870 --> 00:17:01.870 Vendôme column. That huge column in central Paris, 00:17:02.029 --> 00:17:04.900 covered in bronze release. celebrating napoleon 00:17:04.900 --> 00:17:07.579 the first victories the very one corbeil argued 00:17:07.579 --> 00:17:10.539 it was a monument to war and conquest symbols 00:17:10.539 --> 00:17:13.079 that a modern republic should reject he said 00:17:13.079 --> 00:17:16.359 it perpetuated outdated imperial ideas what if 00:17:16.359 --> 00:17:18.480 you want to do with it his initial idea was actually 00:17:18.480 --> 00:17:22.079 quite moderate in a way He suggested dismantling 00:17:22.079 --> 00:17:24.660 it carefully and moving it somewhere less prominent, 00:17:24.779 --> 00:17:27.519 like the Hotel des Invalides, the military museum 00:17:27.519 --> 00:17:30.700 and hospital, preserve it as history but remove 00:17:30.700 --> 00:17:33.460 its symbolic power. He also had a more utopian 00:17:33.460 --> 00:17:36.319 idea, didn't he? Yeah, this grand vision of melting 00:17:36.319 --> 00:17:39.519 down the bronze from the column along with captured 00:17:39.519 --> 00:17:42.980 German cannons to create a new monument topped 00:17:42.980 --> 00:17:45.700 with a Phrygian cap, the symbol of liberty dedicated 00:17:45.700 --> 00:17:48.519 to peace and the federation of French and German 00:17:48.519 --> 00:17:52.079 peoples. Very odd. Idealistic. But things didn't 00:17:52.079 --> 00:17:54.200 stay calm for long. Not at all. The siege of 00:17:54.200 --> 00:17:58.359 Paris, hardship, political tension. It all explodes 00:17:58.359 --> 00:18:01.259 in March 1871 when the national government tries 00:18:01.259 --> 00:18:03.720 to disarm the Paris National Guard. The government 00:18:03.720 --> 00:18:06.500 flees and a revolutionary city council, the Paris 00:18:06.500 --> 00:18:08.940 Commune, takes control of the city. And Courbet 00:18:08.940 --> 00:18:11.799 dives right in. Head first. He becomes a really 00:18:11.799 --> 00:18:13.579 active figure in the Commune's administration. 00:18:13.980 --> 00:18:16.000 He helps organize something called the Federation 00:18:16.000 --> 00:18:18.660 of Artists. Which includes some big names. Yeah, 00:18:18.720 --> 00:18:21.660 people like Daumier, Corot were members. Interestingly, 00:18:21.940 --> 00:18:24.759 Manet wasn't in Paris at the time, and their 00:18:24.759 --> 00:18:27.799 agenda for the arts was incredibly radical. What 00:18:27.799 --> 00:18:30.099 were they proposing? Basically dismantling the 00:18:30.099 --> 00:18:32.400 entire state -controlled art system he'd been 00:18:32.400 --> 00:18:34.559 fighting against his whole career. They wanted 00:18:34.559 --> 00:18:36.900 to abolish the École des Beaux -Arts, the French 00:18:36.900 --> 00:18:39.759 Academy in Rome, get rid of government interference 00:18:39.759 --> 00:18:42.299 in the salon, no more prizes, no more medals, 00:18:42.500 --> 00:18:44.980 a complete democratization of art institutions. 00:18:45.440 --> 00:18:47.740 Wow, putting his money where his mouth was. Absolutely. 00:18:47.789 --> 00:18:49.710 Absolutely. He gets elected as a delegate for 00:18:49.710 --> 00:18:52.690 his local district, the 6th arrondissement, and 00:18:52.690 --> 00:18:54.690 he's appointed delegate of fine arts for the 00:18:54.690 --> 00:18:57.109 commune. And the Vendôme column issue comes back 00:18:57.109 --> 00:19:00.089 up. It does. The commune government, much more 00:19:00.089 --> 00:19:02.150 radical than the one Courbet initially wrote 00:19:02.150 --> 00:19:05.049 to, passes a decree on April 12th ordering the 00:19:05.049 --> 00:19:07.589 column's demolition. Courbet, now in an official 00:19:07.589 --> 00:19:10.430 position, later follows up, requesting the demolition 00:19:10.430 --> 00:19:14.190 be carried out. And on May 16th, 1871... Down 00:19:14.190 --> 00:19:17.710 it comes. Pulled down in this huge symbolic public 00:19:17.710 --> 00:19:21.230 event, a massive up yours to the legacy of Napoleon 00:19:21.230 --> 00:19:24.029 and the empire. But Courbet, even within the 00:19:24.029 --> 00:19:27.230 commune, wasn't just a follower, was he? No, 00:19:27.250 --> 00:19:30.130 that's important. He remained his own man. The 00:19:30.130 --> 00:19:32.650 sources say he actually opposed some of the commune's 00:19:32.650 --> 00:19:35.349 more radical or authoritarian measures, like 00:19:35.349 --> 00:19:37.750 setting up a powerful committee of public safety, 00:19:37.829 --> 00:19:40.329 which echoed the reign of terror from the first 00:19:40.329 --> 00:19:44.009 revolution. And he protested an execution. Yes, 00:19:44.069 --> 00:19:46.569 the arrest and execution of his friend Gustave 00:19:46.569 --> 00:19:49.450 Chaudet, a socialist journalist. Courbet reportedly 00:19:49.450 --> 00:19:52.930 resigned his posts in protest. So even in revolution, 00:19:53.289 --> 00:19:55.829 he stuck to his principles about individual liberty. 00:19:56.130 --> 00:19:57.690 But that didn't matter when the Commune fell, 00:19:57.769 --> 00:20:00.269 did it? Not to the victorious French army, no. 00:20:00.609 --> 00:20:02.970 The Commune was brutally crushed in late May 00:20:02.970 --> 00:20:06.789 1871, bloody week. Thousands were killed or arrested. 00:20:07.289 --> 00:20:09.390 Courbet went into hiding. But they found him. 00:20:09.569 --> 00:20:13.000 Arrested him on June 7th. At his trial, he tried 00:20:13.000 --> 00:20:15.240 to downplay his role, arguing he'd only wanted 00:20:15.240 --> 00:20:17.579 the column moved, not destroyed, and that he'd 00:20:17.579 --> 00:20:19.619 join the commune to try and moderate it. Did 00:20:19.619 --> 00:20:22.079 they buy it? Not really. His signature was on 00:20:22.079 --> 00:20:24.799 documents related to the demolition. He was convicted, 00:20:25.099 --> 00:20:27.440 sentenced to six months in prison at Saint -Pelagie, 00:20:27.539 --> 00:20:30.259 and fined 500 francs. And even in prison, he 00:20:30.259 --> 00:20:32.460 painted. He did. They allowed him an easel and 00:20:32.460 --> 00:20:35.099 paints, but crucially, no models were allowed. 00:20:35.339 --> 00:20:38.099 Which led to? A really poignant series of still 00:20:38.099 --> 00:20:41.900 lifes. Flowers, fruit. And most famously, paintings 00:20:41.900 --> 00:20:45.339 of trout. Ah, the trout. Yes. These images of 00:20:45.339 --> 00:20:48.220 fish hooked, struggling, bleeding from the gills. 00:20:48.440 --> 00:20:51.420 They're widely seen as allegorical self -portraits. 00:20:51.519 --> 00:20:55.130 The artist trapped, wounded by the state. Powerful 00:20:55.130 --> 00:20:57.410 personal works born from confinement. Six months 00:20:57.410 --> 00:20:59.410 in prison. Yeah. But the real punishment came 00:20:59.410 --> 00:21:02.250 after he got out. Oh, yes. The financial blow 00:21:02.250 --> 00:21:05.789 was catastrophic. In 1873, the new conservative 00:21:05.789 --> 00:21:08.710 president, McMahon, decided the Von Noem column 00:21:08.710 --> 00:21:10.829 would be rebuilt. And Courbet had to pay for 00:21:10.829 --> 00:21:13.809 it. The entire cost. All of it. They slapped 00:21:13.809 --> 00:21:17.329 him with a bill for 323 ,000 francs, an absolutely 00:21:17.329 --> 00:21:19.890 astronomical, impossible sum. Just pure political 00:21:19.890 --> 00:21:22.670 revenge. Utterly vindictive. There was no way 00:21:22.670 --> 00:21:25.349 he could ever pay it. Facing financial ruin and 00:21:25.349 --> 00:21:27.690 likely more prison time if he defaulted, he did 00:21:27.690 --> 00:21:30.069 the only thing he could. He fled. Fled into self 00:21:30.069 --> 00:21:33.269 -imposed exile in Switzerland in 1873. He settled 00:21:33.269 --> 00:21:35.490 near Lake Geneva in La Tour de Pils. Spending 00:21:35.490 --> 00:21:37.690 his last years painting landscapes. Painting 00:21:37.690 --> 00:21:40.089 the Swiss landscapes, the Jura mountains, sometimes 00:21:40.089 --> 00:21:42.720 looking back towards France. But he was a broken 00:21:42.720 --> 00:21:45.559 man, hounded by debt collectors, apparently watched 00:21:45.559 --> 00:21:48.960 by spies. And then the final, almost unbelievable, 00:21:49.220 --> 00:21:52.019 twist. The French state finally worked out a 00:21:52.019 --> 00:21:55.000 repayment plan. He had to pay 10 ,000 francs 00:21:55.000 --> 00:21:57.700 a year for the next 33 years. And the first payment 00:21:57.700 --> 00:22:01.539 was due. January 1st, 1878. But Courbet died 00:22:01.539 --> 00:22:05.670 the day before. December 31st, 1877. Wow. From 00:22:05.670 --> 00:22:08.089 liver disease, made worse by heavy drinking. 00:22:08.329 --> 00:22:11.329 He literally escaped the first payment by hours. 00:22:11.609 --> 00:22:14.769 A life lived in defiance of institutions, ending 00:22:14.769 --> 00:22:17.589 by cheating the state one last time, albeit tragically. 00:22:17.710 --> 00:22:20.410 What an end. Just incredible. But his death certainly 00:22:20.410 --> 00:22:22.329 wasn't the end of his story or his influence. 00:22:22.529 --> 00:22:25.349 Let's talk about that legacy. Section 5. Absolutely. 00:22:25.509 --> 00:22:28.049 His impact was immediate and huge. Painters like 00:22:28.049 --> 00:22:31.049 Whistler, Cezanne admired him deeply. The Impressionists, 00:22:31.069 --> 00:22:33.289 especially Manet and Monet, owed him a massive 00:22:33.289 --> 00:22:36.029 debt. Monet even painted Courbet into his own 00:22:36.029 --> 00:22:38.009 version of Le Déjeuner sur l 'herbe. He kind 00:22:38.009 --> 00:22:39.809 of opened the door for painting modern life. 00:22:40.049 --> 00:22:42.990 He kicked it open. But maybe the most fascinating 00:22:42.990 --> 00:22:46.230 and less obvious line of influence jumps forward 00:22:46.230 --> 00:22:49.470 a bit. The connection to Cubism. That seems like 00:22:49.470 --> 00:22:54.400 a leap. From gritty realism. to fractured perspective. 00:22:54.799 --> 00:22:56.579 It does, but it's a really important insight. 00:22:56.980 --> 00:22:59.440 Key figures in the Cubist movement actually cited 00:22:59.440 --> 00:23:01.579 Courbet as foundational. Guillaume Apollinaire, 00:23:01.740 --> 00:23:04.339 the poet who is sort of the Cubist's spokesperson, 00:23:04.700 --> 00:23:07.059 flat out called Courbet the father of the new 00:23:07.059 --> 00:23:10.000 painters in 1913. And painters like Metzinger 00:23:10.000 --> 00:23:12.819 and Glazes saw him that way too, alongside Cezanne. 00:23:12.920 --> 00:23:15.299 Yes. So what's the connection? It wasn't about 00:23:15.299 --> 00:23:17.460 subject matter or visual style. It was about 00:23:17.460 --> 00:23:20.549 something more fundamental. Materialism. Materialism, 00:23:20.549 --> 00:23:23.069 how so? Critics argue that Courbet, more than 00:23:23.069 --> 00:23:26.529 maybe any painter before him, relentlessly emphasized 00:23:26.529 --> 00:23:28.630 the sheer physical presence of the things he 00:23:28.630 --> 00:23:31.269 painted. Their density, their weight, their texture. 00:23:31.569 --> 00:23:33.890 Ah, back to that thick paint. The palette knife. 00:23:34.210 --> 00:23:37.150 Making the paint itself feel like stuff. Like 00:23:37.150 --> 00:23:40.140 matter. Exactly. When you look at the stonebreakers, 00:23:40.160 --> 00:23:42.839 you feel the weight of those rocks. You feel 00:23:42.839 --> 00:23:45.380 the rough texture of the workers' clothes. When 00:23:45.380 --> 00:23:48.099 you look at Burial at Ornans, the ground feels 00:23:48.099 --> 00:23:52.099 solid, the bodies have mass. He refused to dematerialize 00:23:52.099 --> 00:23:54.779 the world through idealization. He made things 00:23:54.779 --> 00:23:57.890 feel subject to gravity. Beautifully put. He 00:23:57.890 --> 00:24:01.809 endowed ordinary common subjects with this undeniable 00:24:01.809 --> 00:24:04.890 physical weight and dignity through his technique. 00:24:05.170 --> 00:24:06.910 And how does that connect to the cubists? They 00:24:06.910 --> 00:24:08.589 were breaking things apart, weren't they? They 00:24:08.589 --> 00:24:10.490 were breaking down traditional perspective, yes, 00:24:10.670 --> 00:24:13.230 but they were also deeply concerned with conveying 00:24:13.230 --> 00:24:15.890 the solid three -dimensional reality of objects 00:24:15.890 --> 00:24:19.029 in space, reacting against the flatness or fleeting 00:24:19.029 --> 00:24:21.910 light of impressionism. They wanted to show an 00:24:21.910 --> 00:24:24.529 object's volume, its structure, its physical 00:24:24.529 --> 00:24:27.500 presence from multiple viewpoints. Cezanne gave 00:24:27.500 --> 00:24:30.059 them a visual language for structure. Courbet 00:24:30.059 --> 00:24:32.420 gave them the philosophical or aesthetic imperative, 00:24:32.720 --> 00:24:35.319 the insistence that the artwork must convey the 00:24:35.319 --> 00:24:37.740 fundamental materiality, the weight of reality. 00:24:37.960 --> 00:24:40.839 That uncompromising focus on physical presence 00:24:40.839 --> 00:24:43.099 was the groundwork. That's a really powerful 00:24:43.099 --> 00:24:45.599 connection. Before we wrap up, there's one more 00:24:45.599 --> 00:24:48.700 quite somber aspect of his legacy we need to 00:24:48.700 --> 00:24:51.380 touch on. Yes, the tragic afterlife of some of 00:24:51.380 --> 00:24:53.819 his works during the Nazi era. It's a grim irony, 00:24:54.079 --> 00:24:57.180 isn't it? The ultimate anti -authoritarian artist 00:24:57.180 --> 00:24:59.799 having his work looted by the Third Reich. It 00:24:59.799 --> 00:25:02.220 is. And it happened primarily because many of 00:25:02.220 --> 00:25:04.660 his important paintings had ended up in the collections 00:25:04.660 --> 00:25:07.339 of prominent Jewish families. Collectors who 00:25:07.339 --> 00:25:10.279 were targeted, persecuted, murdered, were forced 00:25:10.279 --> 00:25:12.579 to flee by the Nazis. The sources mention specific 00:25:12.579 --> 00:25:15.789 examples. La Falaise de Trette. owned by mark 00:25:15.789 --> 00:25:17.809 wolfson and his wife who were tragically murdered 00:25:17.809 --> 00:25:20.750 at auschwitz the painting eventually surfaced 00:25:20.750 --> 00:25:23.450 at the musee d 'orsay in paris but its history 00:25:23.450 --> 00:25:26.609 highlights the complex often painful path of 00:25:26.609 --> 00:25:28.930 restitution for looted art in the collection 00:25:28.930 --> 00:25:32.480 of baron moore lipo herzog in Hungary. A massive, 00:25:32.519 --> 00:25:34.759 incredible collection, including several crubets 00:25:34.759 --> 00:25:38.160 like Le Chateau de Blonnet. And yes, even Lorzín 00:25:38.160 --> 00:25:40.119 Dimón was part of Herzog's looted collection 00:25:40.119 --> 00:25:42.839 at one point. The fight to recover the Herzog 00:25:42.839 --> 00:25:44.900 collection continues to this day. One of the 00:25:44.900 --> 00:25:47.720 biggest Nazi looted art cases still unresolved. 00:25:47.839 --> 00:25:50.480 So the political weight, the connection to justice 00:25:50.480 --> 00:25:53.339 or injustice, it just continues to cling to his 00:25:53.339 --> 00:25:56.240 work. It really does. And restitution efforts 00:25:56.240 --> 00:26:00.200 are ongoing. Just last year, March 2023, Cambridge 00:26:00.200 --> 00:26:03.140 University returned a Courbet painting, the Ronde 00:26:03.140 --> 00:26:05.119 Authentine, to the heirs of a Jewish resistance 00:26:05.119 --> 00:26:07.559 member it had belonged to before being stolen 00:26:07.559 --> 00:26:09.839 during the Nazi occupation. It shows his art 00:26:09.839 --> 00:26:12.299 is still deeply entangled with social reality, 00:26:12.579 --> 00:26:15.680 with history, with justice. His legacy isn't 00:26:15.680 --> 00:26:18.099 just in a museum. It's still being contested 00:26:18.099 --> 00:26:20.859 and reclaimed in the real world. He forced art 00:26:20.859 --> 00:26:23.420 to confront reality. And in a way, reality keeps 00:26:23.420 --> 00:26:25.720 confronting his art. That really sums it up. 00:26:25.720 --> 00:26:29.559 What a life, what an impact. So Corbet, the innovator 00:26:29.559 --> 00:26:32.799 who basically invents realism, the political 00:26:32.799 --> 00:26:35.579 firebrand who takes on an emperor, the revolutionary 00:26:35.579 --> 00:26:38.259 artist who demanded that art look the world straight 00:26:38.259 --> 00:26:40.240 in the eye, flaws and all. And his own words 00:26:40.240 --> 00:26:42.500 probably say it best. That personal declaration 00:26:42.500 --> 00:26:57.890 he wanted remembered. It's just amazing. A man 00:26:57.890 --> 00:27:00.950 who truly seemed to risk everything, his reputation, 00:27:01.250 --> 00:27:05.170 his money, his freedom, his life, for that idea 00:27:05.170 --> 00:27:08.470 of liberty, both artistic and political. Which 00:27:08.470 --> 00:27:10.549 brings us to our final thought for you, the listener. 00:27:11.150 --> 00:27:13.509 We've talked about how Corbett's great innovation 00:27:13.509 --> 00:27:16.049 was giving this incredible sense of weight, of 00:27:16.049 --> 00:27:19.150 gravity, to the ordinary world, the stones, the 00:27:19.150 --> 00:27:21.569 bodies, the landscapes, making them physically 00:27:21.569 --> 00:27:25.339 present, undeniably real. So here's the question. 00:27:25.519 --> 00:27:28.140 What fundamental physical or social force today, 00:27:28.339 --> 00:27:31.539 something perhaps ignored, glossed over or deliberately 00:27:31.539 --> 00:27:34.480 avoided by mainstream culture, is waiting for 00:27:34.480 --> 00:27:36.880 a contemporary artist to give it that same kind 00:27:36.880 --> 00:27:39.279 of revolutionary weight and unavoidable presence? 00:27:39.519 --> 00:27:41.759 What needs to be made inescapably real for us 00:27:41.759 --> 00:27:44.519 now, the way Corbet made poverty or provincial 00:27:44.519 --> 00:27:47.200 funeral real for his time? Something to think 00:27:47.200 --> 00:27:49.000 about. Definitely something to think about. Thank 00:27:49.000 --> 00:27:50.579 you for joining us for this deep dive. Thank 00:27:50.579 --> 00:27:51.420 you. We'll see you next time.