Gustave Courbet (1819-77) was one of the most innovative painters of the 19th century. As a sol-called realist, he insisted on painting only what can be seen in real space and time, rejecting the imaginary realms of mythology and ancient history that had been a staple of the Western tradition of painting since the Renaissance. Courbet hailed from the Franche-Comte, a region in eastern France not far from the Swiss border. When he was forced into exile after the fall of the short-lived uprising known as the Paris Commune (1871-72) for having supported the wrong side, he took refuge in Switzerland in the small village of La Tour-de-Peilz. The by-then-famous artist found himself hopelessly in debt to the French government to the tune of more than 300,000 francs for the restoration of the Vendome column, a public monument that had been dismantled by the "Communards" as a symbol of authoritarianism. To turn a quick profit, Courbet began to churn out paintings of his most popular landscape subjects, often with the liberal assistance of his studio.
Ever since, Courbet's late work has suffered from the problems of attribution. The late paintings vary widely in quality, depending upon the degree of the master's participation, as this sampling of paintings from local collections is intended to illustrate. It is now believed that some of the late paintings are collaborative works, painted in large part by his students, but often "finished" by Courbet. Many paintings purchased in America, where demand was strong at the turn of the 20th century, have since been reclassified as either fakes or the work of Courbet's closest imitators. The paintings exhibited here represent different facets of this attribution problem, which in some cases have remained unsolved to this day.
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