The Fishing Boat
1865
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
25 1/2 x 32 in. (64.8 x 81.3 cm)
Classification
Paintings
Department
European Paintings
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Mary Goldenberg, 1899
Accession Number
99.11.3
Tags
Art Historical Context
**The Fishing Boat**, painted by Gustave Courbet in1865, captures the raw power of the sea through the lens of a humble fishing vessel. Courbet, a leading figure in the Realism movement, rejected the idealized landscapes of Romanticism in favor of direct, unvarnished depictions of everyday life and nature. This oil on canvas, measuring 25½ × 32 inches, reflects his fascination with coastal scenes during the 1860s, a period when he frequently visited Normandy's shores. Donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1899, it now graces the European Paintings department, inviting visitors to ponder...
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...