MUSEUM OF WESTERN ART, Courbet Gypsy

The French artist Gustave Courbet was one of the finest painters of the 19th century, with a particularly significant influence on the culture of his time. He was the leading figure of Realism, and indeed the painter who first coined the term to describe the movement.

Courbet was born in 1819 and died in 1877. He inspired not only painters, such as Édouard Manet and Cézanne, but also writers, poets and dramatists. He was the first to portray reality, without concealing anything, in landscapes, portraits, scenes of historical events and nudes, and many of his subjects were poor and ordinary people, whom he painted to highlight the conditions they lived in.

The aim of Courbet’s works was achieved thanks to the spontaneity of the subjects and the actions depicted, as you can clearly see in the painting entitled Gypsy in Reflection, dated 1869, when Courbet was already a well-known artist.

If you look at the downward expression of the young gypsy, and the way she is distractedly touching her hair, you can easily see she is not posing for the portrait; it rather looks as if the painter were spying on her. Also noticeable is the sensuality of her almost-bare breasts....