Courbet Et L'italie Prolégomènes Pour L'histoire D'une Réception Critique, Visuelle Et Politique

Throughout his career, Gustave Courbet (1819-1877) publicly rejected Italian art as the source of the academicism his art was fighting against. More intimately, the artist showed a very different interest. The self-taught "pupil of nature" was trained by Italian works and his personal collection was entirely devoted to Italian art, contradicting his only claimed interest in Flemish and Spanish art. Courbet's ambivalence made it necessary to take a fresh look at his real relationship with Italy.

The fruit of extensive research and analysis carried out in Courbet's homeland and in Italy, this book unveils an unprecedented subject. It allows us to rethink the Italian sources of Courbet's works and to approach his reception by Italian artists in the nineteenth century, and offers an insight into the important critical fortune of the Master of Ornans in the first half of the twentieth century.