Jean Désiré Gustave Courbet was a French painter who led the Realist movement in 19th-century French painting. Committed to painting only what he could see, he rejected academic convention and the Romanticism of the previous generation of visual artists. His independence set an example that was important to later artists, such as the Impressionists and the Cubists. Courbet occupies an important place in 19th-century French painting as an innovator and as an artist willing to make bold social statements through his work. Courbet's paintings of the late 1840s and early 1850s brought him his first recognition. They challenged convention by depicting unidealized peasants and workers, often on a grand scale traditionally reserved for paintings of religious or historical subjects. Courbet's subsequent paintings were mostly of a less overtly political character: landscapes, seascapes, hunting scenes, nudes and still lifes. He was imprisoned for six months in 1871 for his involvement with the Paris Commune, and lived in exile in Switzerland from 1873 until his death. "The foremost painter in the realist style, Courbet was so caught up in experiencing life on this earth--real life--that he lost himself in it Gustave Courbet video. Handsome, wealthy, and acclaimed in his youth, he ended up old, poor, and notorious in later life Gustave Courbet film. As a worn-out recluse, he churned out painting after painting for the money Gustave Courbet review. In Gustave Courbet, French filmmaker Romain Goupil gets at the heart of this legendary artist and uncovers what drove him to pursue the controversial style known as realism. Also included are two shorts, The Origin of the World and A Dead Man's Place, which explore the style and meanings behind two of Courbet's best-known paintings." http://www.cduniverse.com/productinfo.asp?pid=7580358 undefined

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