Gustave Courbet

Knoedler & Co., New York

Robert Fernier, La vie et l'oeuvre de Gustave Courbet, Catalogue Raisonné, vol. II, Lausanne and Paris, 1977, p. 222, no. 1015, illustrated p. 223

The following condition report was kindly provided by Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc.: This painting is in very good condition. The canvas is lined, well and sensitively. The texture of the paint is still visible yet Courbet’s technique with a palette knife is very often flattened, intestinally by the artist, as it is here. The paint layer appears to be clean. The retouches are not particularly accurate and are visible in the sky in the upper right addressing a small scratch, and another in the upper center by the tree trunks. There is also some unevenness to the old varnish in the sky which is causing a slight milky bloom to the surface. There are no retouches elsewhere except possibly to diminish some of the lightest color of Courbet’s ground color, which is showing through in the snow in the foreground. Overall the condition is very good and this picture clearly exhibits the Master’s technique without showing any condition issues.
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This winter landscape was painted during Courbet's Swiss exile at La Tour de Peilz.  The subject of a faggot gatherer walking in the snow is reminiscent of Courbet's large-scale depiction of a similar scene painted in 1866 and set in Ornans (see RF 550).