Bonjour Monsieur Courbet
“Bonjour Monsieur Courbet”, says Alfred Bruyas when he meets his friend, Gustave Courbet, walking through the countryside with his painter’s equipment on his backpack. Accompanied by Calas, his employee, and a dog, Bruyas removes his hat to respectfully greet him and, with such gesture, shocks the nineteenth-century bourgeoisie. This is Courbet’s Realism, which in 1855 contributed to the origin of the movement that marked a revolution in art.
A disciple of nature, the artist’s realism provoked a rupture with the academic tradition of spectacular paintings, full of colors and drama. What was previously painted by “respectable” artists, is now portrayed by someone who rejects conventions and finds the object of his art in his own understanding of the world.
Engaged with the truth and, above all, unable to betray his principles, Courbet goes against a modernist narrative and chooses to decipher people by walking the arduous paths of the countryside.
Courbet’s poetic attitude is all about understanding modernity through the importance of artistic awareness. Even today, when observed carefully, his work invites us for a reflection on idealism and existence.
Your own truth is your mission in life
Courbet represented the truth of the world as he saw it. However, this was only possible because he made painting his life’s mission. Existing was the main source of inspiration for his work. After all, his truth was only his, so it was not transferable.
In existentialist terms, to become real and exist there is only the path of truth and, in accordance with the concepts of Gestalt-therapy, it is worth mentioning its guideline:
“I do my thing and you do your thing.
I am not in this world to live up to your expectations,
And you are not in this world to live up to mine.
You are you, and I am I,
and if by chance we find each other, it’s beautiful.
If not, it can’t be helped.”
(Fritz Perls, “Gestalt Therapy Verbatim”, 1969)
The horror of life x the ecstasy of life
His contemporary, Charles Baudelaire, along with his modern poetry and realistic idealism, thought boredom was the horror of life. Courbet, otherwise, believed it to be hypocrisy.
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In deciphering the banalities of humanity, the artist rejected the comforts of modern life to reiterate, in this way, that realistic art occurs by the means of a life lived through its fullest, by walking, and by experiencing it (the prefix “ex”, from Latin, means “out”).
Is abstraction an experience?
The starting point of modern artists’ work was to make their experience universal, thus proposing a reflection generated by a feeling. If the reflection did not occur, then it would be futility; or an abstraction.
It is, therefore, of great importance the analysis of the current artistic manifestations via games or electronic music, to name a few. Such productions that promote immersion and interactivity may represent a new way of experiencing life. So, is abstraction now to be considered an experience?
It is known that humans are social beings, however, the formats and environments of interaction have been changing so that physical presence is no longer essential. Would *the meeting have a new level of significance in the post-pandemic world?
A different place
For people who fled the principles established for the “normal” functioning of society, there was a place: madness. In this way, we return to the concept of abstraction. That is, by removing these individuals from social life, there would be nothing to worry about. After all, what we do not see does not exist.
It was to be expected, therefore, that artists like Courbet would flirt with the risk of being pushed out of society. Or, perhaps, put in the place of unreason.
What we can infer from this work by Courbet, finally, concerns the merging of feeling and thinking, thus inciting us to an intense reflection on the roles we play and their effects on society.
Further information
- *The work entitled “Bonjour Monsieur Courbet” is also known as “The Meeting”, which can be contemplated with its 129 x 149 cm at Musée Fabre, in Montpellier, southern France;
- Alfred Bruyas was a banker, friend, and patron of Courbet — that only being viable due to his sensitivity and understanding of art. In “Bonjour Monsieur Courbet” the rich man takes his hat off to the artist’s moral wealth;
- Courbet detested dogs and, for this reason, he portrayed them as belonging to the bourgeoisie;
- Courbet had great admiration for Charles Baudelaire, having his portrait done by 1847 (Museum of Montpellier);
- Le Réalisme was the name given to his individual exhibition, in a Paris shack, which would contribute to the origins of the realistic movement;
- Napoleon III tried to bring Courbet into his circle of friends (a way of silencing critics), but he was respectfully rejected, once the artist was fully aware of his true intentions.
