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The old man is Jean-Antoine Oudot, Courbet's grandfather on his mother's side, painted at Ornans around 1847. Oudot had been a republican since 1793, and he handed the boy a piece of advice Courbet repeated for the rest of his life, shout loud and walk straight.

He died in 1848, the year another revolution put a republic back in France. He is one of the figures identified in A Burial at Ornans, the enormous canvas of a village funeral Courbet painted in 1849 and 1850, so he stands among the mourners there although he was already in the ground.

The portrait passed through private hands after Courbet's estate was dispersed and came back to Ornans in 1976, given to the museum in his birthplace by the association of his friends.