A Wounded Man

Künstler*in Gustave Courbet (1819 Ornans bei Besançon – 1877 La Tour-de-Peilz)

Object typePainting
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions
79,5 × 99,5 cm
SignatureSign. links unten: G. Courbet.
Inventory number2376
Locations Derzeit nicht ausgestellt
The term “Realism” goes back to the French painter Gustave Courbet. During the Paris World’s Fair of 1855, he showed a series of paintings under this moniker, which introduced a new, sober, and unadorned mode of representation. This painting is a reiteration of a work he originally painted in 1844 and revised in 1854, which is now at the Musée d'Orsay in Paris. It is a self-portrait of the artist. In the original version, the figure of a woman is nestled against his shoulder. After Courbet was abandoned by his partner in 1854, he painted over the woman and added the sword. A bloody wound now marks him as an injured dueler.