The Saut du Doubs

The Saut du Doubs is a waterfall where the river Doubs drops about 27 metres, a short way upstream from Ornans, the small town in eastern France where Courbet was born and grew up. He painted his home country again and again, its cliffs, springs and streams, usually in a heavy dark palette laid on with a knife rather than a brush. This spot is also a border: the falls mark the line between France and Switzerland. After the Paris Commune of 1871 Courbet was blamed for the toppling of a monument, imprisoned, and in 1873 he crossed into Switzerland, where he spent his last years and died in 1877. The canvas belongs to the fine-arts museum in Nice, and it has lately returned on loan to Ornans, within reach of the falls it shows.