Die große Brücke

By 1864 Courbet was the loud, combative star of French Realism, famous for confronting the public with plain peasants and unidealised nudes. Landscapes like this one were the quieter, steadier side of his trade, the pictures that actually sold and paid his bills. He returned constantly to the countryside of his native Franche-Comte in eastern France, and this broad green river valley, crossed by an old bridge, belongs to that vein of his work. Courbet often built such scenes with a palette knife as much as a brush, loading the paint on in thick, earthy slabs.