1840 -1870 · Real body, workshop installation and break with the ideal

Courbet paints the nude as a present, heavy and situated body: pose, sheet, animal or interior replace the protective distance of academic allegory.

The nude in Gustave Courbet is part of an academic tradition that he knows but which he moves. Instead of systematically transforming the model into Venus, nymph or mythological figure, he insists on physical presence, pose and concrete space. The reclining naked woman occupies the bed or sheet with a sensitive weight; the body does not seem to float in an abstract ideal. The Woman with the Naked Chest tightens the framing and gives the gaze, the partially undone garment and the flesh a portrait tension. The Woman with the Naked Chest tightens the framing and gives the gaze, the partially undone clothing and the flesh a portrait tension. The Woman with the Naked Chest tightens the framing and gives the gaze, the partially undone clothing and the flesh a portrait tension. The Woman with the Naked Chest tightens the framing and gives the gaze, the partially undone clothing and the flesh a portrait tension. The Woman with the Naked Chest tightens the framing and gives the gaze, the partially undone clothing and the flesh a portrait tension. The Woman with the Naked Chest tightens the framing and gives the gaze, the partially undone clothing and the flesh a portrait tension the economy of the model and the masculine gaze of the 19th century, which must be considered without reducing the works to their sole provocation. Courbet scandalizes in particular because it removes the usual narrative justifications from the nude. His direct, dark and material painting gives the body a reality that resists the smooth finish of the Salons. The "Nudes de Gustave Courbet" selection notably compares Woman with Naked Chest and Naked Woman Lying Down. His reading favors color.

Courbet's nude does not ask the myth to authorize it: the pose, the weight and the material of the body are enough to occupy the painting.