1850 -1877 · Glades, undergrowth and water paths

The stream leads Courbet into the interior of the landscape: it crosses clearing, forest and rock, making the small water a guide more than a panorama.

In Gustave Courbet's streams, the horizon often disappears behind trees and slopes. The viewer no longer observes a vast landscape from a dominant point; it enters a humid undergrowth and follows water close to the ground. A stream in a clearing uses open light to make the current sparkle. The hidden stream, the Puits-Noir or the Bremen, on the contrary, tighten the space in dense vegetation. Courbet knows these places around Ornans, where the waters cut out the limestone relief. On the contrary, Courbet knows these places around Ornans, where the waters cut out the limestone relief. He paints branches, mud, moss and eddies with a thick touch that unites plant matter and pictorial matter. The appearance of a deer introduces a furtive presence, adapted to this protected area. The waterfalls sometimes give the stream a sudden verticality before it resumes its course. The motif thus makes it possible to study not the monumental origin of the river, but its daily route, its obstacles and the microclimates of the undergrowth. The "Ruisseaux de Gustave Courbet" selection notably compares A stream in a clearing and Cascade et creek. His reading favors drawing.

The Courbet stream does not offer a view: it offers a path, close to the ground, which the eye follows between moss, shadow and light.