La Grotte de la Loue
1864
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
overall: 98.4 x 130.4 cm (38 3/4 x 51 5/16 in.) framed: 126.4 x 155.3 cm (49 3/4 x 61 1/8 in.)
Classification
Painting
Department
CF
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of Charles L. Lindemann
Accession Number
1957.6.1
Art Historical Context
Step into the dramatic depths of Gustave Courbet *La Grotte de lae* (1864), an oil on canvas masterpiece measuring nearly 98 x 130 cm, now gracing the National Gallery of thanks to the generous gift of Charles L. Lindemann. Painted during the height of Courbet's career, this work captures the mysterious grotto at the source of the Loue River in France's Jura Mountains—Courbet's beloved homeland in Franche-Comté. As a leading figure of Realism, Courbet rejected the idealized fantasies of Romanticism, instead embracing raw, unvarnished nature with bold honesty. Courbet's signature loose, impast...
About the Artist
Gustave Courbet · 1819–1877
Jean Désiré Gustave Courbet (1819-1877) was a French painter who revolutionized 19th-century art as the founding figure of the Realism movement. Born in Ornans, a small town in the Doubs region of France, Courbet came from a prosperous farming family with anti-monarchical roots—his maternal grandfather had participated in the French Revolution. This background shaped his lifelong commitment to dep...