Courbet’s Most Controversial Paintings: Strange Eroticism, Socialism, and More

To those living in 19th-century France, Gustave Courbet’s pioneering career could be divided into a series of scandals. “Since 1848 M. Courbet has been privileged to amaze the crowd,” the critic Champfleury wrote in 1855. “Every year we expect new surprises and, until now, the painter has answered the expectations of his friends as he has those of his enemies.” In other words, Courbet’s paintings made people angry, and the public seemed to delight in being enr