Gustave Courbet: where to see him across these museums

Born in Ornans, in eastern France, Courbet rejected the idealised subjects of academic art in favour of unglamorous rural and working-class scenes, painted at a monumental size that scandalised critics used to seeing such treatment reserved for kings and saints. He was also a committed political radical.

In 1871 he joined the revolutionary Paris Commune and played a public role in tearing down the Vendôme Column, a monument to Napoleonic military glory. When the Commune fell, he was imprisoned for six months and later held personally liable for the column’s reconstruction — a debt of over 300,000 francs he could never hope to pay. Facing the seizure of his property, he fled to Switzerland in 1873 and died there, in La Tour-de-Peilz, in 1877.

Courbet paintings on display, museum by museum

Rooms and display status checked against each museum’s own collection database.

Listen to the commentary in the gallery

This list tells you where to look. In front of the actual painting, CulturAll adds the audio commentary: photograph the work or its label, listen, then ask your questions.