Landscape with Large Trees

c. 1870

Gustave Courbet

(French, 1819–1877)

Culture

France, 19th century

Medium

black chalk with stumping on brown wove paper

Support

Brown wove paper (discolored)

Measurements

Sheet: 38.1 x 52.4 cm (15 x 20 5/8 in.)

Credit Line

Dudley P. Allen Fund 1976.18

Catalogue raisonné

Fernier 48; Güdel 54

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Location

Not on view

Did You Know?

The slightly blurred appearance of this drawing recalls a similar effect common in early landscape photography.

Description

The relatively few drawings that Gustave Courbet produced include the group of landscapes to which this example belongs. Rather than referencing a specific place, it combines a wide range of source material—tourist destinations the artist visited in Switzerland, his home in the Franche-Comté region, and paintings by Claude Lorrain and other historical landscapists. Courbet began by applying a hazy middletone in charcoal before adding detail with a darker, sharpened stick. Although surely appealing to collectors of the time, such works also had ideological significance, presenting an untouched terrain that suggested independence and freedom.