Portrait of a Young Girl
1857
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
overall: 60.4 x 52.5 cm (23 3/4 x 20 11/16 in.) framed: 92.1 x 85.1 x 7 cm (36 1/4 x 33 1/2 x 2 3/4 in.)
Classification
Painting
Department
CF
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Chester Dale Collection
Accession Number
1963.10.112
Art Historical Context
Step into the world of Gustave Courbet, the pioneering French Realist, with his *Portrait of a Young Girl* from 1857. Painted in oil on canvas, this intimate work measures 60.4 x 52.5 cm, capturing a moment of youthful innocence amid the mid-19th-century artistic revolution. Courbet rejected the idealized fantasies of Romanticism, instead championing Realism—a movement he helped define by depicting ordinary people and everyday life with unflinching honesty. Created during a pivotal time when he was gaining notoriety for bold works like *The Stone Breakers*, this portrait exemplifies his commit...
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...