Who created "The Woman in the Waves"?

The Woman in the Waves was created by Gustave Courbet in 1868.

What medium is "The Woman in the Waves"?

The Woman in the Waves is Oil on canvas.

Is "The Woman in the Waves" in the public domain?

Yes, The Woman in the Waves is in the public domain and available for free download under CC0 license.

The Woman in the Waves

Gustave Courbet

1868

Medium

Oil on canvas

Dimensions

25 3/4 x 21 1/4 in. (65.4 x 54 cm)

Classification

Paintings

Department

European Paintings

Museum

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY

Credit

H. O. Havemeyer Collection, Bequest of Mrs. H. O. Havemeyer, 1929

Accession Number

29.100.62

Tags

Female Nudes

About this artwork

Gustave Courbet's provocative "The Woman in the Waves" exemplifies the artist's commitment to unidealized realism and his challenge to academic conventions. Painted in 1868, this work belongs to a series of female nudes Courbet created between 1864 and 1868, exploring the nude figure outside traditional mythological frameworks. The composition depicts a woman partially submerged in water, her arms raised in a pose that evokes Venus rising from the sea—but Courbet's approach is decidedly anti-cla...

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...

The Woman in the Waves

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