The Black Rocks at Trouville
1865/1866
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
overall: 50 × 61 cm (19 11/16 × 24 in.) framed: 70.8 × 81.28 × 6.35 cm (27 7/8 × 32 × 2 1/2 in.)
Classification
Painting
Department
CF
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Chester Dale Fund
Accession Number
2011.51.1
Art Historical Context
### The Black Rocks at Trouville Step into the rugged embrace of the Normandy coast with Gustave Courbet's *The Black Rocks at Trou* (1865/1866), a captivating oil on canvas that exemplifies the artist's mastery of Realism. Painted during Courbet's stay in the fashionable seaside town of Trouville, work captures the dramatic interplay of jagged black rocks against crashing waves, reflecting mid-19th-century France's growing fascination with unvarnished nature. As a leader of the Realist movement, Courbet rejected Romantic idealization, instead portraying the raw power of the sea with earthy t...
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...