Gustave Courbet

Sale: Hôtel Drouot, Salle 8, March 19, 1962
M^e Fr. Thullier
Jacques Dubourg
Sale: Hôtel Georges V, June 17, 1976
Ader, Picard et Tajan
Private Collection
Jacques Dubourg et André Pacitti
Private Collection, Paris
Wildenstein, New York
Mitsukoshi Department Store, Tokyo (acquired from the above)
Acquired from the above by the present owner in December 1988

Robert Fernier, La vie et l'Oeuvre de Gustave Courbet, catalogue raisonné, Lausanne and Paris, 1977, vol. II, p. 230, no. 1037, illustrated p. 231

The following condition report was kindly provided by Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc.: This painting is in extremely good condition. The canvas has been lined and the paint layer is stable. Because of Courbet's technique with a palette knife, the texture is quite subdued and should not be considered compromised by the lining. The painting may be under-cleaned, but this allows for an attractive patina to the surface. It is not necessarily recommended that the work be further cleaned. There are no restorations to speak of. In the lower left, the signature and date are visible and appear to be original. In the lower right there is a glimmer of a signature, which seems to have been painted over by the artist in favor of the inscription on the left. Both of these signatures seem to be original and it seems that the artist himself changed the position. However, the experts should be consulted on these signatures.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

Although painted during Courbet's Swiss exile, this landscape is most likely a souvenir of Ornans.  He had painted a similar scene in 1872, his final year in France (see RF 831). The inclusion of the mill, most likely le Moulin de Bonnevaux, and especially the craggy rock formations identify the terrain as that of Courbet's native Franche-Comté.  This scene would have been created from memory. Ornans had been Courbet's home, his refuge and the subject of his most well-known landscape paintings; remembering and painting its hills, forests, cliffs and streams most likely provided a kind of solace at the end of his life.