Прудон и его дети

Courbet painted this in 1865, the year his friend died. Pierre-Joseph Proudhon was the radical thinker who wrote that property is theft and is often called the father of anarchism, and his ideas had helped the young Courbet decide what his own art was for. Knowing Proudhon was failing, Courbet studied him for a portrait; the philosopher died that January, so the finished picture is partly from memory. He set Proudhon not on a platform but on the front step in shirtsleeves, his two small daughters reading and playing beside him. When it first showed at the Salon, Proudhon's pregnant widow sat in a chair on the right. Courbet later painted her out at her own request, leaving only a sewing basket and folded linen on the empty seat.