Courbet Gustave

Courbet, Gustave, French painter, was born at Orleans in 1819, and studied law, but in 1839, on his arrival in Paris, devoted himself to art, in which he became the leader of the realistic school, which, throwing idealism aside, depicted nature as it really is. Totally illiterate, and an ardent revolutionist, he became in 1871 a member of the Commune. Among his best known works were L'Apresdinee a Ornans (1849), Les Baigneuses and La Mer Orageuse. He died in 1877.